There are many easter eggs in Spore and they range from easily noticeable to a rare find.
"Steve" as seen in the 1990's Sim City 2000, an older Maxis work.
Creature Creator[]
- If you spin the galaxy very fast, Will Wright's head will appear. This can be incredibly startling for players who don't know about it.
Main Game[]
- Like in the Creature Creator, if you spin the Galaxy really fast a few pictures of the Maxis team appear, and if you press CTRL+SHIFT a new cluster of pictures emerge from the Galaxy. To do this easter egg easily, use dual monitors on a computer. You can "pull" the galaxy from one side and keep pulling all the way to the other side of the monitor. However, you can still do this on a small single monitor setup.
- In the Civilization Stage when you are a military nation and you use ICBM when you have 6 or more cities, you can hear a "YEEEEHAAAA!!!" in the background. It's a reference to the film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
- Players can find the Sol system, leading many to believe that the Spore Galaxy is the Milky Way.
- In the Civilization Stage you can hear an air raid siren when attacking a city.
- In the Civilization Stage you can hear the SimCity 4 theme "Gritty City".
- Steve is the same UFO from the SimCity 2000 box art.
- Spice is an important resource in both Spore and the sci-fi novel, Dune.
- If you look carefully at a Happiness Booster, the letters IPPETAD are on the bottom of the tool. This is a parody of Family Guy's Blue Harvest, from 'Darth' Al Harrington's "Intergalactic Proton Powered Electrical Tentacle Advertising Droids" scene.
- When presenting gifts in the Civilization Stage, the recipient may respond with "Why, I've always counted on the kindness of strangers." This is a reference to a line said by the character Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.
- The Monolith tool, which raises a creature on a planet to the next technology level, is a reference to the monolith of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- At the conclusion of the Creature Stage, a cut-scene depicts the players creature picking up a stick and striking the ground with it, as the music from the similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey plays.
- Will Wright's head sometimes appears in the creatures' speech bubbles in the Tribal Stage, Civilization Stage and Space Stage.
Creatures discussing a sock monkey, The Sims, and swearing.
- Sometimes a plumb-bob will appear in the creatures' speech bubbles in the Tribal Stage, Civilization Stage, and Space Stages. This is a reference to The Sims, another series of games invented by Will Wright.
- There may be a picture of the Spore Galaxy or a planet in a creature's speech bubble.
- Another possible speech bubble that pops up occasionally is one with exclamation points and little symbols in it, reminiscent of cartoon swearing. This sometimes pops up in the Creature Stage as well, over the head of one of your pack mates or a summoned creature. It will also appear if you throw something at them.
- When trading with an empire, the theme song from M.U.L.E. can sometimes be heard in the background. An identical song called "M.U.L.E." is in the song library for use in adventures.
Atari 800 XL - M.U.L.E. intro
- Simply typing the $ symbol in the editors will create a Sporebuck symbol.
- The Sporebuck § symbol also resembles the Simoleon from The Sims and SimCity series.
- Players can chase citizens around with buildings in the city editor.
- After a military attack in Civilization Stage or Space Stage you can see fires being stopped by hand-pumped fire carts used by the citizens, this is how buildings improve their health in these stages. Fire carts can be used as decorations in GA, but not used. Occasionally buildings can be randomly seen with fire coming out of the door, again being stopped with the fire brigade.
- In the Creature Stage, if you click on your creature while holding an object, it will knock its head with the object.
- In the Civilization Stage, if the player uses Black Cloud on a city, many Tamaranian Hoppers will appear, which will upset the citizens.
- In the Civilization Stage, once the player captures all but three or so of the cities and you are unfriendly with your allies, when the last nation(s) give themselves up, sometimes they will say "Let's band together, so the world can live as one", and your only response is "I'd hoped someday you'd join us." A reference to John Lennon's song "Imagine".
- In the Creature Stage, the player can occasionally hear a coo strikingly similar to that of the Mourning Dove or Tribble.
- In the Adventure Editor on Spore Galactic Adventures if you set a creature's setting and move your mouse over the peaceful button for a while a message saying "Your creature is a super hippie" will pop up.
- In the Space Stage, if you take a sentient being from a tribe or city and beam them down somewhere else, the creature will make a fire and wait there if you don't disturb them.
- The Staff of Life has 42 uses, a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- The Loyalty Booster in the Space Stage resembles the head of a Dalek from Doctor Who.
- One of the Maxis-made military aircrafts, called the "Mace Combat", resembles an F-15 fighter jet. This, along with the name, is a possible reference to the Ace Combat series which features the F-15 as its mascot/cover art/title screens in most of the games.
- Another two Maxis-made air vehicles, "The Enforcer" and "The Amphibos" are references to vehicles from another franchise: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The former resembles a Trade Federation Battle Droid on a Stap, while the latter resembles a Trade Federation AAT (despite the latter being a tank and not an air vehicle in the movie).
- There is a total of 626 Maxis-made "wild" creatures, a reference to the 626 experiments from the Lilo and Stitch Franchise.
- In the Vehicle Creator, there's a part named the Kessel Runner – a reference to the hyperspace route named Kessel Run in the Star Wars series.
- Also in the Vehicle Editor, there is a part named the Event Horizon – an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. In layman's terms, it is defined as the "point of no return", a place where gravity is so extreme it warps space and time itself, and not even light can escape its ferocious pull. This is usually associated with a black hole.
- You can find a Grox spaceship in the Creature and Tribal stages.
- Sometimes, when having conquered almost all of the only opposing nation's cities in Civilization Stage, they will contact you with a message saying "It is time to fight no more forever". This is a reference to the surrender of Chief Joseph in the 1800s to American forces rounding up Native Americans.
Llamas[]
Llama-themed moai heads.
In many Maxis games, Llamas are used are used as a joke and easter egg.
Some sort of llama shrine.
- Sometimes empires will assign players a mission to retrieve llama artifacts.
- Some planets have Moai-style statues resembling llamas.
- Upon entering the Galactic Core, llamas can be seen surrounding the wormhole tunnels.
- Al Packa is based on an alpaca, an animal related to the llama.
- In Spore Galactic Adventures, one of the objects available for the player to put in the adventure is a llama statue. Also, one of the Maxis-made missions' objective is to recover a giant golden llama statue from a temple.
This is likely a reference to the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In the introduction to this movie, it mentions many different types of llamas, especially Mexican Whooping Llamas. Most Maxis games have other allusions to this movie as well; if you look at some of the Sim City zoos, they always include llamas, African swallows, evil rabbits, and other things related to Monty Python.
Other[]
- A creature version of some of the statue artifacts appear on the cover image of Spore.
- In the Adventure Creator, one of the stained-glass window effects you can use features a Plumbob.
- In Spore Galactic Adventures, there is a usable song called "Pump-U-Up", which is actually a completely unedited soundtrack from The Sims: Superstar called "Studio Town".
- At the end of an adventure, you can sometimes hear the music from the "Jiffy Lube" advertisement in the real world.
- In The Sims 2, your sims can play an old version of Spore on a computer or game console.
- In The Sims 3, your sim can paint a painting of a Spore creature.
- In the Galactic Adventures expansion pack, a Spoffit can be found, usually hidden, in nearly every Maxis adventure.
- There is a creature called Tripod Neuvo which resembles a Willosaur.
- In SimCity 5, the giant lizard monster that destroys buildings and eats garbage is a Spore creature, made mostly from the Creepy and Cute parts.
- In SimCity 5, the logo of the game can be seen in the news bar at the top of the screen.
- The trip through the galactic core is strikingly similar to the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where they travel through the monolith.
Spore Hero Easter Eggs[]
Main article: Spore Hero#Easter Eggs