References

This is an effort to collect all the references in Spore in one place:

Achievements[]

Village Folks is a reference to Village People. The creatures on the icon for this achievement are depicted to resemble the letters "YMCA", one of the Village People's well-known hits.
42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Quietus Star - "Quietus" is from the Latin phrase "at rest" and is often interpreted as "death". This roughly translates to "Death Star", a probable reference to the Star Wars-inspired super-weapon, which annihilated planets before they could retaliate.
General Custer - George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and Indian Wars. During the Indian Wars, Custer and 225 soldiers in his command were ambushed and killed in a battle against the Native Americans.
Oh the Humanity! is a reference to the American meme, originating from Herbert Morrison's account of the Hindenburg disaster.
Conclusion: When you launch ICBM, you will hear a "yee haw" in the background. This is a reference to Major "King" Kong's "bomb ride" in Dr Strangelove.
Alter Ego and Alter Ego's Alter Ego is a reference to Superman. In the pic of "Alter Ego" you see representations of Superman and Clark Kent. In the pic of "Alter Ego's Alter Ego" you see representations of Superman and Evil Superman (or "Bizarro") (indicated by the evil grin and the "hair curl" turned the opposite direction.)
My Precious is a possible reference to Gollumn's line from The Lord of the Rings.
Red Shirt is a reference to redshirts, who played minor roles and died often, from the 1966 Star Trek series.
Shakespeare and Moliere are based on famous story writers.
Adamantium Civilization is a reference to the fictional metal Adamantium.
Social Butterfly is a reference to the idiom of the same name.
Cerberus was a monster in Greek mythology. It was a dog with 3 heads, hence the achievement's requirements.

Cell Stage[]

The Ducky and Chomper cells may be a reference to The Land Before Time.
The Pokey cell may be a possible reference to the enemy in the Super Mario series.
The Shyster and Spiked Shyster are a reference to characters in the 1933 movie, "More Like the Shysters, More Like the Broos".

Creature stage[]

The cinematic at the end of the creature stage depicts the player's creature smashing a stick in a shot-by-shot reenactment of the ape in 2001: A Space Odyssey, although after being tossed into the air, the stick falls back down, hitting the creature.
When cocoons hatch, green steam comes out of them, similar to in the 1984 film, Gremlins.

Civilization stage[]

When you "invade" a village in Civilization stage, you will get a vehicle, money, or they will ruin your vehicle (This will happen if that tribe is destined to become a city). This is similar to the mechanic in the Sid Meier's Civilization series.
If you finish Civilization stage through a Diplomatic takeover by allied with all other nations. A dialogue will pop up and say "We've won! Let's band together, so the world can live as one." and the response will say "I'd hope someday you'd join us." This is a reference to John Lennon's song Imagine.
The name of the Gadget Bomb is a reference to the name of the first atom bomb ever detonated, the Gadget.
When you make contact with another city, you have the option to say "Our people admire your wide tracts of land." This is a reference to a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Spice geysers at the beginning of the civ stage game give 1000/min. But, as the game goes on the efficiency will drop. This may be a reference to humans depleting Earth's natural resources. Alternatively it could be a reference to RTS cliché where by when a player constructs a resources structure it starts off very efficient at producing resource but as the game goes on they lose efficiency.
When you hover over certain economic cities, you may hear the song Wiseguys from The Urbz: Sims in the City.
When you roll over certain military cites, you may hear the song Gritty City from SimCity 4.

Space stage[]

Monolith1 — A monolith as seen on a planet

The Crop Circles tool is a reference to how some people believe that crop circles are made by UFOs.
The Monolith is a reference to "2001: A Space Odyssey", where the Monolith TMA-0 promoted some apes to intelligence.
In the ending cut-scene, when you visit the Galactic Core, you travel through a long wormhole. The tunnel looks a lot like the time stream from Doctor Who.
The Zealot archetype refers to zealots - originally a Jewish sect, which intended to expel the Roman Empire from Israel, but now used to refer to religious extremists of any affiliation. Zealots are also a protoss foot soldier in the famous strategy game Starcraft. If you are a Zealot, other Zealots will only like you for a couple of minutes until they will forget about it. This can be a reference to religions worrying about each other's differences that they will treat each other like normal non-believers.
When doing a mission for a Shaman Empire, they sometimes mention that they need a new planet for "telephone sanitizers", a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
When you complete a mission, the empire may say "Why don't you make like an Aldrin and buzz off?" in reference to Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon.
Sometimes in trade view you can hear the M.U.L.E. theme song.
The Loyalty Booster colony tool is based off the head of The Daleks as seen in the Doctor Who series.
The Anti-Matter Missile and Anti-Matter Bomb are based on the real-world antimatter, which is a sort of "polar opposite" to matter. When matter and antimatter come into contact with each other, they will instantly destroy each other, releasing a proportionately enormous amount of energy in the process. This attributes to the huge destructive power of the Anti-Matter weapons in Spore.
Steve's spaceship looks like the spaceship on the cover of SimCity 2000, another Maxis-work.

Steve.
The SETI-tool is based on the SETI-project. SETI stands for Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
The Spore Galaxy looks remarkably similar to the 'God' galaxy seen in Futurama.
The Staff of Life, also known as "The Genesis Device", has the same properties as the original Genesis Device from the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Just before you accept the mission to change to a Bard Empire, a line in the message says "But most importance is happiness... That, and surprises... And also cake!", This is a possible reference to Portal, made by Valve Corporation, where the player is constantly reminded they are awarded cake at the end of the test.
After completing a mission for some empires, they will say, "May the Spore be with you". This is a reference to the Star Wars quote "May the Force be with you".
Upon first contact with alien life, a reference to a real equation called Drake's Equation is mentioned.
The Summon mini-U power is a reference to Mini-me in Austin Powers.
The Planet Buster is quite possibly a reference to a weapon of the same name from Insomniac Games' Ratchet & Clank. (A weapon that would have destroyed, you guessed it, a planet.)
1. The Planet Buster may also be a reference to the old popular 4X RTS game, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in which there was a weapon called a "Planet Buster"; Will Wright's love of science fiction settings would support this.
The Galactic Core in-game may be a reference to the Galactic Core as mentioned in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
The interstellar view looks similar to Master of Orion 3.
The Knights could be a reference to the Jedi Knights from Star Wars. Both are almost extinct in their galaxies and the Knights follow the Philosophy of the Force (despite fighting for peace and not for personal gain, unlike the Warriors), while the Jedi harness the power of the Force. The meaning of Force in Spore and Star Wars isn't the same though.
The Planet Buster descriptions says: "Destroys an entire planet. Feared by all. BIG BADDA BOOM". The phrase "BIG BADDA BOOM" is from the 1997 sci-fi film, The Fifth Element.
When a player travels through a black hole, including the Galactic Core, the cutscenes that play resemble the effects used in the Stargate franchise whenever a person travels through an open portal

Grox[]

When the Grox declare war on you, their message declaring war to you may finish with the words "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!", a reference to the Dalek from the Doctor Who series.
The Grox are believed to be based largely on The Borg from the Star Trek series, in fact their name in the coding (and original name) is Grob, which is Borg backwards. The cybernetic implants on the Grox resemble Borg implants (including one eye replaced with a red light). And occasionally, when they declare war, they will speak the famous Borg quote "Resistance is futile".
The number of the planets the Grox control is 2400. Backwards, this number is 0042 (42). This could possibly mean that the Grox are the antithesis to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
9994 is the only statement that is not spoken by Steve that is spoken in that is similar to English. It is said by the Grox often when you click on “Diplomacy” after you contact them. 9994 is probably a reference to the Grox’s robotic-like personality. However, because using binary code would be too obvious and less catchy (0001 doesn’t flow as well as 9994) they used the less popular programming language, HEX. When translated from HEX code to text, 9994 is the trademark symbol. This is probably a reference to the fact that the Grox are a trademark of Spore.
When you defeat the Grox, you will get the Badge Out Of Heck badge, a reference of the album Bat Out Of Hell by Meat Loaf.
When you ally with the Grox you receive the Dance with the Devil badge, which says "You've allied with the Grox. Are we on the dark side now?". This is likely a reference to the dark side of the Force from Star Wars.

Earth[]

Here is a list of what happens if you mess with Earth's atmosphere.

More atmosphere: Earth is flooded. A reference to Global Warming.
Less atmosphere: Earth turns from green to brown. A reference to the pollution of Earth.

In the game, Earth is a T1 planet, with perfect temperature, but not much atmosphere. When it is T3, it turns from green to red. The fact that Earth is T1 may mean that Earth is not the best planet for life, contrary to the Rare Earth theory.

When Earth is frozen, it looks like it does in "The Day After Tomorrow."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[]

There are several references of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Spore, these include:

When you receive the Staff of Life you are allowed to use it 42 times. According to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything.
The Book of Science No. 5 Quotes: "Was it prophets and mystics who gave us electricity, antibiotics, modern signalization, aerospace science, and digital timepieces?" the term, digital timepieces is a reference to a quote at the beginning of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy that goes: "Whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still thought that digital watches were a pretty neat idea.'
In the Sporepedia, there is a spaceship called Shark that looks like a shark. This may be a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as there was a whale floating around in space.

Drake's Equation[]

Drake's Equation is a real-world mathematical equation that also probably exists in Spore that describes how the planets that orbit around stars may support possibly space-faring life. Also in the game, "Drake's Equation was right!" is a reference to this equation.

Drake's Equation in Real Life[]

Carl_Sagan_Explains_The_Drake_Equation — Carl Sagan Explains The Drake Equation

The Drake's Equation (also sometimes called the "Green Bank equation") is a famous result in the fields of exobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

This equation was first devised by Dr. Frank Drake in 1960, in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way with which we might come into contact. The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors that determine the number of such extraterrestrial civilizations.

Therefore it can also be used in the Spore Galaxy to create empires, depending on each factor except the civilization destroying itself.

Editors[]

Adventure Editor[]

The music track "Pump-U-Up" is from The Sims 1 Expansion Pack Superstar.
Another music track present is the theme song from M.U.L.E.
Also the music track "Fresh Powder" is from SSX3.
The audio effect "Evil Whispers" is from the same audio source Blizzard used for the spirit healer, and has added Simlish in place of what some people believe to be subliminal messages.
The Vaudeville music has the same notes as one of the songs in a Zeridah movie short (made March 20 2007).

Vehicle Editors[]

There is a vehicle body available called "More Cowbell." This is a reference to the "Saturday Night Live" sketch featuring Christopher Walken in which he delivers the line, "I'll tell you, fellas, it was sounding great...but I could've used a little more cowbell," and various other lines including the phrase "more cowbell."
There is a body available called the "Star Deployer." This is a reference to Star Destroyers, massive battleships used by The Empire in Star Wars. The part also resembles the main body of a Star Destroyer.
There is a body available called the "Kessel Runner." This might be a reference to Star Wars Episode 4, where Han mentions his ship made the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs.
There is a body available called the "Flying Toaster". This is a reference to the once-popular screensaver of flying toasters.
There is a cockpit called the "Glass Elevator", which is a reference to the movie Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
There is a part named "Goes to Eleven" which is a reference to the movie This Is Spinal Tap.

Captain Editor[]

Hypnomelder (Shaman part) and it's power could be a reference to Yuri from Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge, or a reference to Star Trek. (Vulcans)

Other Games[]

GDC 2005 demo[]

The main planet featured in the demo was called Tamaran, possibly named after the homeworld of Starfire from the Teen Titans.

Creepy and Cute[]

The robot dance looks exactly like a Triceratops dance in Ferbasaurus Rex.
The ballet in Creepy and Cute is similar to the ballet in "More Like the Shysters, More Like the Broos".

Spore Hero[]

Zarkhator's ability to summon up crystals at will is similar to Spacegodzilla.
Zarkhator's name may be a reference to an old game Zark Hater.
When the creatures are hypnotized by the red meteors, it's a reference to a 1910 movie called "Three Chances or get Trapped".
Mordok, Zinglid, Smurlop, and Smooshmish were a reference to a 1954 movie called "For the Wild, or Wipe out Yourself".

Spore Hero Arena[]

Yeedo has scythe-like claws, similar to Gigan.

Spore Creatures[]

Meepers may be a reference to a Saza disease, "meepers" which means "measles".
The Oogies look similar to Doggy Hotel's little creatures that look like armor-plated worms.