Pistol
The Pistol is the weapon Commander Keen uses in Keen 3. It shoots purple energy bolts, and will kill enemies. This gun can be found almost everywhere in Vorticon VI, though the Vorticons there do not actually use it. There are also ammo packs that can be found lying around, which amount to 1 shot each.
This gun does not have an official name. The "pistol" name is the way it is refered to in the game's infobox. However, the Vorticon HyperPistol is also refered as "pistol" in Keen 2, so this could be just a general classification. This pistol may be a slimmed-down version of the HyperPistol from the previous game. In the following Keen episode, Keen Dreams, it is mentioned that Keen still has a HyperPistol, which could actually be a Pistol from Keen 3. It may also be that Keen dumped the later-acquired Pistol and prefered to keep the HyperPistol instead.
This Pistol has been usually called "Vorticon Rail-Gun", as it was named this way in several Keen fan sites. However, the origin of this unofficial name is not known. In reality, a railgun is a type of Magnetic Accelerator Gun (MAG) that utilizes an electromagnetic force to propel an electrically conductive (i.e usually metal) projectile that is initially part of the current path. Sometimes they also use a movable armature connecting the rails. The current flowing through the rails sets up a magnetic field between them and through the projectile perpendicularly to the current in it. This results in the rails and the projectile pushing each other and in the acceleration of the projectile along the rails.
There are Fixed Pistols throughout the game that Keen cannot pick up. These are hazards that shoot laser-beams at him.
The Pistol is replaced by the Neural Stunner in later games.
See also List of Keen 3 items.