[List] In-Jokes, Third-Party References, etc.

Discussion in 'Dungeons of Dredmor General' started by LonePaladin, Sep 22, 2011.

  1. Derakon

    Derakon Member

    Corpus Burst, the corpse explosion spell, generates purple clouds of miasma -- just like in Dwarf Fortress when corpses rot.
     
  2. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    Lessee -- just going over the skill trees:

    -----------
    Ragnar (Ragnar's Meteor) is an old-school Norse badass from a bunch of old poetry.

    Tortoise Maneuver may or may not be a reference to Kingdom of Loathing's defensive Fighter class, the Turtle Tamer.

    Thaumites aren't a direct reference to anything I can find, but they certainly seem to be a reference to a magical (Thaum= magical, as in Thaumaturge) nanite. The spell certainly acts like the Nanite Swarm of various sci-fi games/stories

    Chthon (of the Mark) is an Elder God from Marvel Comics.

    Skatha (of the Root) is a Celtic battle goddess, and Belimawr (of the Hand) is a Welsh hero of olde. (Odd how they got mixed up with the Vikings.)

    Et Tu...is obvious.

    Yuggoth (of Fungal Mastery) is a reference to a series of poems from H.P. Lovecraft called "Fungi from Yuggoth"

    Rhabdomatic Hacking is a reference to Rhabdomancy, the formal name of using a dowsing rod to find crap.

    That's all I have time for right now.
     
  3. NefariousKoel

    NefariousKoel Member

    The Tortoise Maneuver is a reference to the old Roman legion "Testudo" (or tortoise) maneuver, where all but the front row would raise their shields overhead and lock them together. Generally used when advancing under fire (in this case sometimes literal fire) from enemy soldiers on walls to protect from missiles.

    I didn't see much reference to it in gaming until Rome Total War, as it's a formation option for some Roman troops. ;)
     
  4. GrossorMD

    GrossorMD Member

    I'm almost profficient that this dredmor theme music track is directly inspired by Doom, but for the life of me I can't find the Doom soundtrack that inspired it, even though I recognized it in my first Dredmor game.
     
  5. One of the kid (I think it's Stan) has a Mad Max poster with exactly this image on it in his room. It's seen in many occasions during the series.
     
  6. Vykk Draygo

    Vykk Draygo Member

    Ah, ok. That makes sense then. Thanks for explaining it! :)
     
  7. Dimitri

    Dimitri Member

    The description of the gold ingot reads something about a lavian expatriate. This is a reference to Goldfinger (of James Bond fame), whose first name is Auric ("gold").
     
  8. Dimitri

    Dimitri Member

  9. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    psst...already got those. :p
     
  10. klaymen_sk

    klaymen_sk Member

    Reviving this thread because of a random finding:

    Swords' 2nd skill is a reference to Johannes Liechtenauer, German fencing master.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtenauer

    Also Bolt of mass destruction's description "you are become death, destroyer of dungeons" is a reference to J.R.Oppenheimer, who was one of the developers of the atomic bomb.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer

    After the first test in New Mexico he said "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" which is a quote from a part of an Indic epic, Mahabharata.
     
  11. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    It's not! It's inspired by a remix of one of the Legend of Zelda tracks that I found online at some point, and sent to Matthew and said "hey, we should have an acoustic track like this." I think it's this one:

    http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00082/

    One of these days I must actually get Matthew in here to talk about the soundtrack process; we did a lot of back and forth on it trying to come up with tunes we liked, and listening to things for inspiration. (We're busy in the same process for Odin right now.) For the most part, none of the soundtrack is deliberate pastiche of anything, despite what people think; one of the tunes in Dredmor is a fairly direct lift of an incidental piece of music from the first season of the revived Doctor Who, where Christopher Eccleston is busy lamenting being stuck in a dungeon ("In Cardiff!") and Charles Dickens runs around a house desperately turning on all the gas in the building.
     
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  12. Okay, let's see how many I can contribute off the top:

    Bolt Classic and New Bolt are references to when Coca-Cola was messing around with its formula.

    Syzygy is an actual term for an astronomical alignment, thought to be astrologically significant.

    And then an -awful- lot of the achievements are references, of course.

    It's dangerous to go alone! Make this - Zelda
    Master using it and you can have this achievement - Zelda
    Here's Johnny - The Shining
    I am not left handed - The Princess Bride
    Turtle Power! - TMNT
    It's Alive! - arguably a reference to every Frankenstein movie, ever (Young Frankenstein deserves special mention here)
    Steal This Achievement - a reference to "Steal This Book"
    Brew Fame (etc) - Harry Potter book 1, Snape
    Sallah, I said no camels - Indiana Jones
    I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
    Respect mah man authoritah - South Park
    Not the bees! - The Wicker Man
    Taste the rainbow - Skittles commercials (do they still do this bit?)

    ... i think I'll stop there for now.
     
  13. Ruigi

    Ruigi Will Mod for Digglebucks

    damn i knew it!

    one of the tracks remind me of diablo.

    http://zath.bandcamp.com/track/chilled
     
  14. FaxCelestis

    FaxCelestis Will Mod for Digglebucks

    Self-sealing stem bolts are a DS9 reference. Mad props for that.
     
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  15. dbaumgart

    dbaumgart Art Director Staff Member

    Oh man, it's so worth it when I get to see people actually take note of these things.
     
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  16. King Yoshi

    King Yoshi Member

    There's at least a few references to the The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. The most obvious one being the "Pangalactic Gargle Blaster" item.

    There are a ton of neat references in the enemy taunts.

    "Your mother is a radish" and "your father was a quivering side of man-beef" is refrencing Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
    "one more adventurer and i can finally retire" is based on an old trope in which old cops that die in movies are always "two days away from retirement"
    "do you feel lucky, punk" is a Dirty Harry refrence
    "it's a trap!" is from Star Wars. rather obvious.
    So is "i have a bad feeling about this"
    "from hell's heart, i stab at thee" is from Moby Dick
    "to the slaughter" I believe is a Doctor Who refrence
    "honk if you love dredmor" is based on common bumper stickers
    "we have ways of making you talk" isn't a specific refrence to anything, but is a rather common movie line (used before torture)
    "killing me won't bring back your honey!" is from The Wicker Man
    "FUS RO DAH!" is from Elder Scrolls: Skyrim of course
    "spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace" is from Portal 2
    "his name is robert paulson" is from Fight Club
     
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  17. FaxCelestis

    FaxCelestis Will Mod for Digglebucks

    I'm surprised "Script of Farstation 9" isn't a tome, honestly. :p
     
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  18. King Yoshi

    King Yoshi Member

    Alot random text that happens when you're walking around uneventfully comes from either older rougelikes (such as Nethack) or Dwarf Fortress.

    From Older Rougelikes:
    "You hear the sound of gurgling pipes." (originally used to alert the user a sink was on the floor)
    "you hear the chimes of a cash register" (a shop is on the floor)
    "You feel a sudden, overpowering sense of regret." (a pet died)
    "Suddenly you feel like you've forgotten something very important. What was it?" (reminding you about quests in older rougelikes)

    References to Dwarf Fortress:
    "You hear haunting moos."
    "The hollow call of undead mandrills echo through the dungeon."

    Other:
    "You have insufficient Vespene gas. Mine more Vespene gas." is an obvious Starcraft refrence
    "You can't cut back on funding! You will regret this!" is quoted directly from the Director of Transportation in Sim City
    "Plebs are needed" is from the "Ceaser" games


    all I got for now
     
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  19. dbaumgart

    dbaumgart Art Director Staff Member

    I'll come out and say I'm not especially a player of old roguelikes at all and I intended no reference with these lines.

    The first is to give players a bit of existential dread, like, this is an unpleasant feeling with no explanation and there is no joke. By contrast it should give everything else a bit more meaning and humour, change the tone of the game a bit and all that.
    The second one is just to mess with you.
     
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