One that just popped up today -
In a mission I was just given by a contact in Founders Falls, I'm supposed to go talk to a "Mr. ZikZak".
This is a reference to the 1986 cyberpunk series "Max Headroom". The ZikZak Corporation was the main sponser of Network 23, where the main character Edison Carter worked. It was their new subliminal advertising technology "blipverts" that was the main plot point and mystery of the pilot film and episode.
The name of the head of the corporation ZikZak was a further pun/play on words in reference to the title character.
In the pilot episode, Edison Carter is making a getaway while his "operator", hacker Theora Jones, and a corporate hacker named Bryce are helping and hindering him by turns, trying to raise or lower a traffic barrier that blocks his escape. Theora locks it finally in the "up" or safe position, but Bryce has the last laugh, as he flips up a ground based barrier that makes the motorcycle crash and Edison to fly off the front handlebars and impact with the upper barrier.
When the corporate president and the young hacker try to figure out what Edison found out, they (imperfectly) copy his mind into the computer system, thus inadvertantly creating the famous A.I. "Max Headroom", which amusingly, was the last thing Edison saw before he hit the barrior, and the first thing Max stutters as they bring him to life in the system.
All of which is a roundabout way of explaining to those who have never seen the series why it is such an amusing thing to find out later in the series that the head of the powerful Japanese Zaibatsu corporation ZikZak, is one mister "Ped Xing". Which is a common abbreviation for "pedestrian crossing" in the west.
Anyway, the Devs are obviously having WAY too much fun with all the references. I too caught the "Oscillator Overthruster" and fell over laughing at it. As well as caught the comic book refs in Perez Park and the horror film refs in Dark Astoria. The game is fun enough on its own, but all the little "throwaway" humor really adds to the verisimilitude. I can't get enough of it!
