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.
• DOS-1.0 is, of course, a reference to the MS-DOS operating system.

Human:

• Halleck is a reference to Gurney Halleck of the Dune series.
• Kirk is, of course, a reference to everyone's favorite starship captain James T. Kirk.
• Ender is a refernece to the main character of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender's Game.
• 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.
• Pike is a reference to Christoper Pike, who captained the Starship Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek.