Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) the machines of Wells' novel. The fighting machines walk upon legs (four legs instead of three) and carry a weapon above their head on a neck, resembling the Martian heat-ray from George Pal's 1953 film adaptation. Fighting machine (The War of the Worlds) The Fighting Machine (also known as "Tripod") is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H.G. Wells' 1898 classic science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds". It is a fast-moving, three-legged walker, reported to be 100 feet tall, with multiple whip-like tentacles used for grasping, and two lethal weapons: the heat-ray and a
Flying machine (The War of the Worlds) machines are also featured in both the computer game and the PlayStation game "Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds". In the games the flying machines are equipped with one Heat-Ray and light armor, but in turn, are highly maneuverable and extremely fast. A common tactic in the PC game involves the mass production of these units in order to rush an entrenched human sector. In "Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds", the Martians only have a single flying machine with them, and it is described as being shaped like a traditional flying saucer. In the postscript, when the Martians