References

This is an effort to collect all the references in Spore in one place:

Achievements

 * 1) Village Folks is a reference to Village People.
 * 2) 42 is the answer on the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything in the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (what the question is wasn't known.)
 * 3) Quietus Star - "Quietus" is from the Latin phrase At rest, and is often interpreted as "death". This roughly translates to "Death Star", a probable reference to the Star Wars-inspired superweapon, which annihilated planets before they could retaliate.
 * 4) General Custer - George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and Indian Wars. During the Indian Wars, Custer and 225 soldiers in his command were ambushed and killed in a battle against the Native Americans.
 * 5) Oh the Humanity! is a reference to the American meme, originating from Herbert Morrison's account of the Hindenburg disaster.
 * 6) Conclusion: when you launch ICBM, you will hear a "yeehaw" in the background. this loud voice is a reference to Major "King" Kong's "bomb ride" in Dr Strangelove. plus, ICBM stands for "Intercontinental Ballistic missile"
 * 7) Alter Ego and Alter Ego's Alter Ego is a reference to Superman. In the pic of "Alter Ego" you see representations of Superman and Clark Kent.  In the pic of "Alter Ego's Alter Ego" you see representations of Superman and Evil Superman (indicated by the evil grin and the "hair curl" turned the opposite direction.)

Civilization stage

 * 1) When you "invade" a village in Civilization stage, you will get a vehicle, money, or they will ruin your vehicle (This will happen if that tribe is destined to become a city). this is a reference to what can be done in Sid Meier's Civilization 4.
 * 2) If you finish Civilization stage through a Diplomatic takeover by allied with all other nations. A dialogue will pop up and say "We've won! Let's band together, so the world can live as one." and the response will say "I'd hope someday you'd join us." This is a reference to John Lennon's song Imagine.
 * 3) The name of the Gadget Bomb is a reference to the name of the first atom bomb ever detonated, the Gadget.
 * 4) When you make contact with another city, you have the option to say "Our people admire your wide tracts of land." This is a reference to a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Space stage

 * 1) The Crop Circles tool is a reference to how some people believe that crop circles are made by UFOs.
 * 2) The Monolith is a reference to the film (and novel) "2001: A Space Odyssey", where the Monolith TMA-0 promoted some apes to intelligence. [[Image:Monolith has landed.JPG|thumb|a monolith]]
 * 3) In the ending cutscene, when you visit the Galactic Core, you travel through a long, wormhole-like tunnel of light. This is another reference to 2001, when Dave Bowman entered the stargate created by TMA-2 (another monolith orbiting Jupiter).
 * 4) The planet coloring tool "Seas of Green" could be a reference to the Beatles song The Yellow Submarine, where at one point they say "The skies of blue and seas of green".
 * 5) The Zealot archetype refers to a Jewish sect, which intended to expel the Roman Empire from Israel. Besides, Zealots also exist in the famous strategy game Starcraft.
 * 6) When you complete a mission, the Empire may say "Why don't you make like an aldrin and buzz off?" in reference to Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon.
 * 7) Sometimes in trade view you can hear M.U.L.E. theme song.
 * 8) The Anti-Matter Missile and Anti-Matter Bomb are based on the real-world antimatter, which is a sort of "polar opposite" to matter. When matter and antimatter come into contact with each other, they will instantly destroy each other, releasing a proportionately enormous amount of energy in the process. This attributes to the huge destructive power of the Anti-Matter weapons in Spore.
 * 9) Steve's spaceship looks like the spaceship in SimCity 2000, another Maxis-work.[[Image:steve.png|thumb|right|Steve's spaceship]]
 * 10) The SETI-tool is based on the SETI-project. SETI stands for Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence
 * 11) The Spore Galaxy looks remarkably similiar to the 'God' galaxy seen in Futurama.
 * 12) The Staff of Life, also known as "The Genesis Device", has the same properties as the original Genesis Device from the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
 * 13) Just before you accept the mission to change to a Bard Empire, a line in the message says "But most importance is happiness… That, and surprises… And also cake(!).", This is a possible reference to Portal, made by Valve Corporation.

Grox

 * 1) When the Grox declare war on you, their message declaring war to you finishes with the words "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!", a reference to the Daleks from the Doctor Who series.
 * 2) The Grox are believed to be based largely on The Borg from the Star Trek series, in fact their name in the coding (and original name) is groB, which is Borg backwards. And occasionally, when they declare war, they will speak the famous Borg qoute "Resistance is futile".
 * 3) Although unlikely the name of the Grox may also have been inspired by the word "grok" in the book "Stranger in a Strange Land"
 * 4) The number of the planets the Grox control is 2400. Backwards, this number is 0042 (42). This could possibly mean that the Grox are the antithesis to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
 * 5) 9994 is the only statement that is not spoken by Steve that is spoken in English. It is said by the Grox often when you click on “Diplomacy” after you contact them. 9994 is probably a reference to the Grox’s robotic-like personality. However, because using binary code would be too obvious and less catchy (0001 doesn’t flow as well as 9994) they used the less popular programming language, HEX. When translated from HEX code to text, 9994 is the trademark symbol. This is probably a reference to the fact that, being in every game, the Grox are a trademark of Spore.

Earth
Here is a list of what happening if you mix with Earth's atmosphere.


 * 1) More atmosphere: Earth is flooded. A reference to Global Warming.
 * 2) Less atmosphere, colder/hotter (still T1) = Earth turns from green to brown. A reference to the pollution of Earth.

In the game, Earth is a T1 planet, with perfect temperature, but much atmosphere. When it is T3, it turns from green to red.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
There are several references of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Spore, these include:


 * 1) When you receive the Staff of Life you are allowed to use it 42 times, according to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything
 * 2) The Book of Science No. 5 Quotes: "Was it prophets and mystics who gave us electricity, antibiotics, modern signatation, aerospace science, and digital timepieces?" the term, digital timepieces is a reference to a quote at the beginning of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy that goes: "Whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still thought that digital watches were a pretty neat idea.'

Spore in General
Certain references in spore hint that the humans came into space to find no life at all, therefore they left Earth (which is why there is nothing except for trees on Earth) and went on to become a higher state of mind. They also believed that the Galaxy should be populated. Therefore, they made a large number of creatures to populate it. This makes sense because you are a human creating a species when you play Spore. Steve is able to give you the staff of life because he is a human who developed a way to populate the universe.