Inside jokes and obscure references
By
Aghast,
Posted on: 2005-02-04 17:31 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Roland goes back farther than The Gunslinger. hehe.
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Yes it does, but as you already named the initial Dark Tower book where Roland appears, (The Gunslinger) and the fact that he's a gunslinger boss...
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Worth noting that Stephen King has in a foreword stated that Childe Roland was one of his inspirations to write The Gunslinger. 
Now King, he is a REAL master of references, after reading the Dark Tower series you realize how interconnected most of his books really are (read em all).
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Roland goes back farther than The Gunslinger. hehe.
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Yes it does, but as you already named the initial Dark Tower book where Roland appears, (The Gunslinger) and the fact that he's a gunslinger boss...
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Worth noting that Stephen King has in a foreword stated that Childe Roland was one of his inspirations to write The Gunslinger.
Now King, he is a REAL master of references, after reading the Dark Tower series you realize how interconnected most of his books really are (read em all).
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Actually yes, Childe Roland is THE inspiration for the Gunslinger, but trust me, Browning's hero does NOT carry a pair of his father's six-shooters.
Nor does the French epic hero from the song of Roland, who instead carries a sword named Durandal.
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And ya know, the architecture in Brickstown always reminded me of Blade Runner, I don't know why, something about the Zig I think.
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Well, if you're going to talk architecture... has anyone else noticed that some of the buildings look suspiciously like computers or computer components? I'm thinking of the building that looks like it has vertical floppy drives and of the stores that look like they have an HVAC unit that looks like a giant computer chip on the top. Seemed very Tron or ReBoot! to me.
And there is a continuity error in Dark Astoria. It has recent billboards and cars, yet supposedly became DA many years ago. It's just a resources thing, of course, but it would be cool if the place reflected the era in which it was lost. (And they could re-use the tileset for a time-travel story arc.)
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
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if the nautical works of Tim Curry is the link, he also voiced Captain Hook for Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates (very late 80 when fox was still trying to get off the ground). Moderately okay cartoon, but Curry was as amazing as he ever is.. almost as good as in Clue!
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Aye, Mr. Smee, I forgot Cap'n Hook! 
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Hide Park (Skyway City)
My take on it is this:
Hide Park => Hyde Park (in London) => Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde => a man who mutates into something else after ingesting a chemical formula => kind of similar to what's happening to The Lost, yes?
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There are also Hide Parks in Cincinnati and Chicago.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Good work so far, you all. We used to have many good threads like this during beta, too bad they're gone.
Name references:
There's a prisoner boss called Johnny-23, which was Danny Trejo's role in Con Air.
A Carnie boss called "The Artist Formerly Known As Claire".
There's a Malta Zeus boss called "A Titan Called Joe" and a Freak tank called "Tanker Joe", I'm sure there's a reference.
Keep it up, reading this rocks!
Poison � Sabbath
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Not to mention playing Long John Silver in 'Muppet Treasure Island'!
When I saw 'Curry Cove', that went through my head immediately.
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It appears there's a lot of Tim Curry fans reading this thread!! 
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One of my personal faves:
Roland- Named Malta boss. Gunslinger. For those of you literary-deprived souls out there, Roland is the main character in Stephen King's opus work The Dark Tower
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Whoa, there, Chief. Those unfamiliar with the work of stephen king can be referred to accurately as deprived of contact with literature?
Personally, I can assure you that my lack of contact with King is due to my deliberate and careful immersion in the work of writers who are not King.
He has enough readers, he doesn't need me.
I still think Peregrine Island needs a Maria Dock. (5 geek points to whoever gets that one.)
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The Gruff- Of the three billy goats.
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Thanks. I was drawing a blank on that one. 
Completely forgot about Billy Goat Gruff even though I loved that story as a little kid.
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"Whos that stomping over my bridge?" roared the troll, resting his chin on his hands.
"Billy Goat Gruff," said the third goat in a deep voice. "Im going up to the mountain to eat the lush spring grass."
"Oh no youre not," said the troll as he clambered up on to the bridge. "Im going to eat you for breakfast!"
"Thats what you think," said the biggest Billy Goat Gruff. Then he lowered his horns, galloped along the bridge and butted the ugly troll. Up, up, up went the troll into the air... then down, down, down into the rushing river below. He disappeared below the swirling waters, and was drowned.
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The Dark Blade
"I've felt your mouse on me before, you perv...." - Troy Hickman
Paragon Wiki
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One of my personal faves:
Roland- Named Malta boss. Gunslinger. For those of you literary-deprived souls out there, Roland is the main character in Stephen King's opus work The Dark Tower
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Whoa, there, Chief. Those unfamiliar with the work of stephen king can be referred to accurately as deprived of contact with literature?
Personally, I can assure you that my lack of contact with King is due to my deliberate and careful immersion in the work of writers who are not King.
He has enough readers, he doesn't need me.
[/ QUOTE ]Shush you. It's not meant that seriously. No need to get huffy over small things. Honestly though, even if you hate his horror works, I suggest giving the Tower books a try. VERY different feel from anything else he writes.
This is by far one of the best posts I've seen in a long time. I wish I had more time to do research like this. Thanks!
wow, I remember that game... kinda repetetive, sometimes frustrating, but nonetheless fun and addictive... hmmm... that sounds like another game I know...
Dear NCsoft, if you go through with this shutdown you've guaranteed you'll not see another dime from me on any project you put out, ever.
http://xx-starhammer-xx.deviantart.com/
What I love about the "Guns Ammo" shop in KR is it's located directly across the street from a bar...
...bad city planning, perhaps?
Just FYI, I asked a developer about who Bettis was. They said that it was originally suppose to be Bendis, and wasn't sure why it was changed when it went live.
Oh, and here is a picture of the real Royal Overlook http://www.lightrainproductions.com/CapeRoyal1.htm
Wait until the 40's and Nemesis missions.
My favorite were the "Automatons" who look like normal office workers.
"Where's my TPS reports?"
"Who parked in my employee of the month parking spot?"
"That's my stapler!"
I literally could not fight mobs for the laughter.
I am not gonna read the entire thread,but if this has not been mentioned, the Hutchinson one in Founders is referring to Anne Hutchinson, a woman who was chased out of colonial Mass because she was essentially doing what a woman should not be doing(thinking, having opinions) in colonial times. She was exiled to Rhode Island, the same location as Paragon City.
Mostly for the west coast folks:
Cooke's Electronics is a fairly blatant reference to Fry's Electronics.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
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The Abyss Towers - Enki, chief god of the Sumerians, was the Lord of the Abyss. We'll just keep to ourselves what else he was lord of.
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At my workplace, all the servers are named after various gods of mythology. I conside one of my finer moments convincing networking that 'Enki' was a good name for our new server.
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hide
n.
An old English measure of land, usually the amount held adequate for one free family and its dependents.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hide
Another Hide Park can be found in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. That park is named so because it is actually the size of a hide.
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And this actually reminds me, that Dido, when she founded Carthage, was given a space to build her domain no larger than that which could be bound by an ox (?) hide? So she sliced the hide into thin strips and laid them around a hilltop, upon which was built Carthage. not sure if that has any relevence.
Bosses/Villains:
Maestro: The "deaf composer" is clearly a reference to Beethoven. Except he's an evil, vampiric, Beethoven.
There's a Warrior LT. named Pythagoras (if you don't know who that is then I'll just have to say that K^2+K^2=H^2)
More specific locations:
"Eleusis" was the site of the Eleusian mysteries (who we don't know much about, them being mysterious) a cultish greek thing, devoted to I think, Demeter.
"Men strunt �r strunt och snus �r snus
om ock i gyllne dosor.
Och rosor i ett sprucket krus
�r st�ndigt alltid rosor."
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Actually the protector of Crete was Talus, not Talos. And he wasn't a minotaur...he was a bronze giant.
Talos was the nephew of Daedalus, who showed even more talent for invention than his uncle. Before he was ten he'd invented the saw, the compass and one or two others I don't recall. Daedalus killed him out of jealousy. In some versions of the myth he ended up at the Minoan court because he was fleeing punishment for this crime; in others he doesn't kill Talos until after Icarus is dead.
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Daedalus did make the labyrinth of course, and the Minotaur
was kept there. I gotta wonder if PC's Talos' arch-nemesis was
named Daedalus.
....hmmm
Is there any direct reference to the Minotaur in game?
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Well, there's a HUGE statue in Talos... 
And the badge found there is called "Minotaur" too.
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Bosses/Villains:
Maestro: The "deaf composer" is clearly a reference to Beethoven. Except he's an evil, vampiric, Beethoven.
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Yeah...Beehtoven wasn't vampiric at all.
Dark Astoria - aka Zombie Central...
How can you possibly enter Romero Heights without chuckling?
Romero Heights = George Romero - producer of the Living Dead movies
Raimi Plaza = Sam Raimi, producer of the Army of Darkness?
Dido - BritPop singer, album "No Angel" ?
Moth Cemetery = Mothman, Unexplained America? Or Moth Diaries, a book dealing with "obsession and death" perhaps?
Toffet Terrace - Helsing Letters, seeks The Tophet, a mysterious organization...
STRIGA Isle
Striga - a pretty pink plant that's parasitic. Home to the Vampyrs...
Perez Park - Gaimon from Wizard of Earthsea?
Maybe have time for more later... But I like the references. The first time I saw the Cryptic sign (In Skyway or Talos) I almost fell out of my chair. Games with humor - fun!