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

I thought all those little messages in the Combat Log were there to mess with you. Like taunting you with Cash Register sounds when you haven't found any of the Shops on the current floor and YOUR INVENTORY IS FULL.

 

Did someone already mention this?
Amber: Nature finds a way - Jurassic Park

Ah, noticed another one:
Staff of Moravic: They say that the power of the wizard Moravic doubles every year... - Moore's law

 

Please get off of TVTropes, Nicholas, we want the next update before 2015.

 

Ah, my bad, I suppose I was trying a bit too hard to find references in things, then.

 

Another one:
(text on player portrait) It's-a me, [playername] - Super Mario 64

 

Aw, no one's mentioned the skill "Love will teleport us apart"? It's a reference to Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart. I laughed so hard when I loaded up RotDG for the first time and saw that. The Cure is another obvious one. Though my post-punk elitist strain is itchin' with 2 classic bands being referenced in the same line as My Chemical Romance *twitch*

 

The fact that every single tooltip in this entire game - near as I can tell - pays homage to or is a shout-out to something is pretty amazing when you stop and think about it. What is that - three hundred in-jokes? More?

I say to that.

 

• Werediggle of London is a joke of the song Werewolf of London and the picture is a joke off of Clockwork Orange.
• Dr. Diggle and Mr. Hyde is a joke of off Dr jekyll and Mr hyde. It kinda funny because Mr. Hyde is the evil one implying that character is the evil and the Diggle form is the civil one.
• Level 5 Vegan is a joke of Scott Pilgrim in which one of the evil boyfriends is a level 5 vegan giving him super powers.
• The Black dot comes from treasure island in which giving someone the black dot meant they were marked for death.

Edit for more.
Achievement related

• Team... Jacob? Is a twilight in which fans of the series pick which character they like more the vampire or the werewolf.
• Soylent Green is.... soy actually. This comes the movie "Soylent Green" in which in a overpopulated world the government rounds up protesters and old folks and turns them into food to feed the poor. Its most famous quote is " It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people."
• Playing for both teams is a term used to describe bi sexual people.
• An eagle in every liver is a joke of the fate of Prometheus who when he gave fire to the mortal was punished by being tied to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver. However he is immortal so every day his liver comes back and so would the bird. Eventually Hercules would come by and kill the eagle and set him free in return for information.
• I'm not left handed is joke about TV-tropes. Basically the tropes claims that the bad guys has been fighting with his/her left hand the whole fight and right when the hero is about to win the bad guy claims "I'm not left handed" and starts using his/her right handed and the fight gets much harder.

 

(Spoilers from DoD AND Dwarf Fortress abound!)

It may be a coincidence, but I've now noticed a large part of the main dungeon (first 10 floors) is structured eerily similar to what you would expect in a Dwarf Fortress.

The game starts in some generic dungeon levels, much like how you would expect a typical fort to be built, the basic work areas for a fort (1st floor), a floor for burials (2nd floor), areas designed around knowledge and crafting (floor 5)

When you get to floor 6, it's full of water and fungi, highly reminiscent of a cavern you typically encounter underground

ignoring the Ice Level, floor 8 is a mine, deep down within the dungeons. Must have been rather valuable stuff to build a mine down that far.

But then you get to Floor 9! You've dug too deep! The Fire Level holds more Demons then any other floor, which is very fitting to the floor's theme, but also reminds me greatly of good ol Hidden Fun Stuff. Hmm.

To be honest, I've not actually made it as far as Floor 10 or lower yet (on my farthest run currently), so I don't know if the similarities stop with Floor 9, but what I've seen so far seems like enough evidence to at least theorize on the possibility the floors are structured as a shout out to the Dwarves.



Aside from that, Floor 3 is a Doom Level, that's obvious enough. I suppose that's worth mentioning in the post too, though.


EDIT:
From the main site:
"The expansion to Dredmor awaits you!
And it’s a very nice dungeon you have here, it’d be a shame if anything happened to it."
This is a refrence to a Minecraft meme, I just noticed.

 

That's the Plump Helmet itself, a hat!

But yeah, most of this was already covered in the start of the topic, so I didn't bother mentioning it again

 

I can't believe I haven't seen this yet, but:

There is a particular wall sprite that has some mold or mildew growing on it. If you mouse over it, it says 'The pungent stench of mildew emanates from the wet dungeon walls." This is, of course, a reference to the Dead Alewives Watchtower D&D sketch.

 

Steel Reinforced Boots (if I remember correctly) - These boots were made for crushing and that's just what they'll do - a Nancy Sinatra song.

 

Hey, are the Undead Aethernauts, and their ilk a reference to the Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who?
They look a lot like the unfortunate people who were eaten by them.
Vashta Nerada are called the Piranha of the air, Microscopic, and hungry as all get out.

 

Aether Oddity references A Space Oddity by David Bowie, both by their name (oddity) and their flavor text (ground control really lost this one).

Edit: for those confused, it's that song that starts with "Ground Control to Major Tom". That should ring a bell.

 

Geez, you guys are gonna be here forever. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen a reference I recognise and crack a smile at it, but damned if I can remember any of them.

 

Hmm. I think they're based on the Vashta Nerada as a whole, and the Aether Oddity is based on that song.
After all, he is a skeleton in a suit, and that's the victims of the Vashta Nerada are as well.

 

I'll know for sure that the artifact system loves DF when I find something that is menacing with spikes.