Influences and references

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The Star Control 1 manual mentions "Inspired by the Works of Fiction of: Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, Andre Norton, David Brin, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Vance, Alan Dean Foster, Keith Laumer, A.E. Van Vogt, E.E. "Doc" Smith, Joe Halderman, Dan Simmons, Fred Saberhagen and 100 worthy others."

The Orz and the disappearance of the Androsynth were influenced by H. P. Lovecraft's writings. (XXX: need more exact references).

The Ilwrath were named after a friend of the creators (XXX: both?) named McIlwraith.

The name Melnorme is a reference to jazz singer Mel Tormé.

When the Spathi Safe Ones ask the player for the ultra-secret Spathi Cypher, one of the incorrect options is "Wagh-nagl Fthagn", which spelled a little bit differently ("Wagh-nagl Fhtagn") is a used in ??? (XXX: something Cthulhu related). One of the other options, "Gort, merenga!" comes from the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

The Syreen are based on the Sirens from classical mythology. They were sea nymphs who would use enchanting song to lure ships onto the cliffs.

Mosquito Mange? (http://moshkow.perm.ru/win/STRUGACKIE/engl_picnic.txt ?)

The Mycon is taken from the Greek prefix "myc-" or "myco-", which means Fungus.

Ship Captains

Numerous ship captain names are actually references.

Androsynth

• 1040-EZ is a common tax return form in the United States.
• 976-KILL is probably meant as an American phone number. It may also refer to the movie 976-EVIL. The "976" prefix is reserved for pay services.
• AK-47 is the famous Avtomat Kalashnikova assault rifle
• BHS-79 (just a wild guess here- is this the initials of one of the high schools they attended, and their graduation date?)
• BIM-XT is an anagram for the IBM XT personal computer from the early 1980s
• BOOJI-1
• CRC-16 is a 16 bits "Cyclic redundancy check (an error-detecting checksum).
• DORN-3
• DOS-1.0 is a reference to one or all of the various early disk operating systems (PC-DOS, MS-DOS, Apple DOS, etc).
• HAL-2001 is a reference to the HAL 9000 computer from Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey
• JOR-15
• KORB-7B
• ME-262 is a reference to the Messerschmitt Me-262, the first operational jet powered aircraft.
• NECRO-99 may be a reference to the robot NECRON-99 from the movie Wizards. It might also be a reference to another Star Control captain name, Death 999.
• SR-71 is a reference to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, an advanced reconnaissance aircraft.
• XR4-TI was a car model manufactured by the short-lived Merkur brand.

Human

• Adama is the captain of the Battlestar Galactica in the television series by the same name.
• Belt
• Buck refers to Buck Rogers, a character who appeared in popular Sci-fi serials in the late 30's, as well as a later television series.
• Decker
• Ender is a reference to the main character of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender's Game.
• Graeme
• Halleck is a reference to Gurney Halleck of the Dune series.
• Kirk is a reference to James T. Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 B in the original series of Star Trek.
• Pike is a reference to Christopher Pike, captained of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 B in the pilot episode of Star Trek.
• Pirx
• Solo is a reference to Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars episode 4 through 6.
• Spiff is a reference to Spaceman Spiff, the fantasy identity of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes
• Trent
• Tuf
• VanRijn
• Wu

Ship Designs

• The Earthling Cruiser seems to be inspired by the Federation Starships from Star Trek.
• The Syreen Penetrator is shaped after the V-2 rocket, and a dildo.