ok. here is the actual weapons entry itself. To modify the beam for cool effects, simply change the firewait value to a smaller (or greater) number. This will either increase or decrease the number of beams a small amount. Increasing the +life (note: NOT lifetime) to 5 seconds will give you an effect as seen in the first screenie

$Name: Spatzi Space Shotgun
$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap: laserglow01
@Laser Color: 250, 30, 30
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.60
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.60
$Mass: 4.0
$Velocity: 7000.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait: 0.0025 ;; in seconds
$Damage: 5
$Armor Factor: 1.0
$Shield Factor: 1.0
$Subsystem Factor: 1.0
$Lifetime: 0.250 ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed: 0.30 ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size: 0.0 ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 124 ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd: 88 ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
+Weapon Range: 1500 ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags: ("Big Ship" "beam")
$Icon: icongun05
$Anim: LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion: ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius: 10.0
$BeamInfo:
+Type: 3 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
+Life: 1.10 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
+Warmup: 5000 ;; warmup time in ms
+Warmdown: 10000 ;; warmdown time in ms
+Radius: 10.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
+PCount: 12 ;; particles spewed every interval
+PRadius: 1.2 ;; particle radius
+PAngle: 65.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
+PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
;; +Miss Factor: 3.4 3.0 2.5 2.25 2.0 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
+Miss Factor: 10.0 8.0 6.0 5.0 2.5 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
+BeamSound: 179 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
+WarmupSound: 182 ;; associated warmup sound
+WarmdownSound: 189 ;; associated warmdown sound
+Muzzleglow: thrusterglow01 ;; muzzle glow bitmap
+Shots: 1 ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
+ShrinkFactor: 0.0 ;; what
+ShrinkPct: 0.0 ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 6.2 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-white ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 2.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 6.1 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green2 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 160 160 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 60 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 1.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 6.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-gold1 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 0 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 0 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 0.0 ;; hehe