Engineering wizard builds astonishing rotating Halo rocket launcher that plays the theme

Where to start with this one. Okay: all other videogame weapon builders can give up. This guy's done it, cracked the case so to speak, and made probably the most unbelievable game-inspired item I've ever seen. This is Halo's SPNKR (geddit) rocket launcher somehow constructed as a real and working 'weapon', with rotating barrels like in the game. And it plays the Halo theme.

Jairus of All is the online handle of the engineering genius behind this, and it's definitely in-keeping with the theme of his channel. He works on ambitious build projects that "utilize hazardous materials and tools that carry a risk of fire, explosion, poisoning, blunt trauma, electrocution, major lacerations, evisceration, or any number of other dangers."

I also love him for the phrase "Please practice model rocketry responsibly" which appears at the start of the above video, in which he explains the process of building this thing and shows it off against some targets. However, if you just want a clip of someone dressed up as Master Chief firing this thing into a lake from the back of a Mongoose... et voila!

Yep, that's the most videogame-ass thing I've ever seen happen in the real world. I wonder if anyone was just out walking near the lake that day when a SPNKR-toting Master Chief suddenly barrelled round the path on a mongoose.

Jarius says he's wanted to build this thing "for over 15 years," although the build is based on the weapon's design in the most recent Halo game, Infinite. This guy just likes rockets a lot, basically, "so naturally I find the coolest weapons in videogames to be the rocket launchers, of which the top of my list is the one from Halo."

This is not the first-ever attempt to build the SPNKR: heck, it's not even the first capable of firing something, though it is the first capable of firing actual high-powered rockets. It goes above-and-beyond anything we've seen before in its attention-to-detail, incorporating elements of the weapon like the clamshell reloading animation, the barrel rotation for the second shot, the idle barrel animations when the weapon re-indexes itself, and even sticking as closely to the stated in-game dimensions of the thing as possible (though apparently "the bore diameter is way off").

This was clearly a passion project, and it shows. Note also that Jarius's video is very much a highlight reel of the whole build process, and if you're a rocket aficionado you'll find a bunch of other, longer videos on his channel showcasing the painstaking work that went into this.

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."