30 Incredibly Great References in Fallout 4

We already made our list of 20 Incredibly Great References in Fallout 3, and now it's time to bring you our favorite ones from Fallout 4!

There are about 60 cultural references discovered in Fallout 4 so far. Since we can't cover all of them, we're bringing you the incredibly great ones, like references to great movie franchises, America's history, games, and much more. This article is two pages long, with about 15 Fallout 4 cultural references on each page.

Game References

Donkey Kong
The game Red Menace is a reference to the 1981 Nintendo game Donkey Kong.

Commodore 64
The boot-up screen of the Pip-Boy 3000 Mark IV has 64kb of RAM and 38911 bytes free.

Missile Command
The game Atomic Command is a reference to the 1980 Atari game Missile Command.

Grand Theft Auto
In the South Boston Police Department, there is an entry on the evidence terminal pertaining to a suspect named Nicole Connelly, who is accused of the crime of grand theft auto. Her name is shortened to "NiCo" in the evidence log entries. Niko Bellic is the name of the protagonist in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.


The Elder Scrolls: Arena

A telephone pole just east of Sanctuary outside the Robotics Disposal Ground reads TES 01 PPL 364946. In March of 1994, TES1 was released.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Sweet Rolls can be found throughout the game. And perhaps most notably, one can be found in East Boston Police Station on the desk of a detective. A play on the situation given for character creation in Morrowind.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The cover of one Taboo Tattoos magazine has the iron helmet from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The iron helmet is an armor piece from the game that was made famous by being featured heavily in the marketing of the game as being the chosen headgear of the "Dragonborn".

Crippling a Raider's leg may cause them to groan about a "bullet in the knee." The specificity and wording of "the knee" instead of "my knee" make it similar to the often-repeated Skyrim town guard dialogue "I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee..."

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Blade Runner
In the middle of the Diamond City, there is a robot Takahashi, who sells noodles, and the only line he speaks is "Nani ni shimasho ka?", which means "What should we order?". This is the very same phrase (including imperfect grammar) as said by the noodle seller in the "Noodle Bar" scene of the Blade Runner movie.

On the southwest corner of the Mass Fusion containment shed rooftop is the body of a man in a random outfit lying supine in front of a kneeling, deactivated Synth. The setup alludes to the 'Tears in rain' scene at the end of the film.
The SAFE test is an allusion to Blade Runner's Voight-Kampff test, meant to discern whether someone is a human or replicant.
The art for the Achievement Hunter/Hunted invokes Deckard being stalked by a vault boy.

Star Wars
The title of the fourth U.S. Covert Operations Manual is called "Not the Soldiers You're Looking For" which refers to the Jedi mind trick Obi-Wan uses on Stormtroopers during A New Hope.


My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Arlen Glass's Office, in the Wilson Atomatoys Corporation Building, contains two terminals which hold references to the Television show. 3 consecutive logs make nods to three Episodes: "The Last Roundup", "Too Many Pinkie Pies" and "Lesson Zero."

A second terminal mentions Arlen's surprise at a lack of interest in the line of toys in comparison to how it used to be, wondering if he should instead start creating a boy-centric line of collectible, limited edition variants. This could be referencing the primarily male fanbase that cropped up over the show, and the subsequent increase of collectible's licensed to others by Hasbro, whose main reason for rebooting the show, was to sell toys.

Another entry mentions Arlen's ideas; Some notable ones include Different color coats and Identifying marks to distinguish between multiple types as well as a line of Pegasi and Unicorn variants. Also mentioned is the possibility of crystal-coated variants, which could be in reference to the Crystal Ponies of the show, and their real-world toy counterparts.

Cheers
The Bar from the 1980's American Sitcom Cheers is by the Boston Commons as Prost bar. Inside is riddled with references to the series, which was set in Boston. The word "prost", after which the in-game bar is named, is german for "cheers".

The Walking Dead
Inside Union's Hope Cathedral there is a hostile ghoul by the name Father Gabe wearing preacher vestments fighting several feral ghouls. This is a reference to the character Father Gabriel from The Walking Dead who survives the zombie apocalypse by hiding inside his church until the main characters find and rescue him.

A tractor can be found crashed into a fence, with a ghoul lying at the front end of the tractor, near a dead settler who's trapped under it. This is a reference to a scene from the first episode of the first season of Telltale Games's The Walking Dead.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The beginning of the quest Kid in a Fridge is a reference to a scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, where Indiana Jones survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator.

Sons of Anarchy
Head to the BADTFL regional office, which is slightly North West of Bunker Hill. Make the way down to the basement, and there is a Terminal (novice). Hack into the terminal or use Nick Valentine and look for "Prisoner 4CA8712". One will notice that all the features of the prisoner are strikingly similar but the name Opie Hurst is a combination between Opie Winston and his portrayer Ryan Hurst.

Other Cultural References

The American Revolution
The standard Minuteman weapon is a Laser musket, just as the Musket was during the revolutionary war. John Hancock shares his name with one of the first men to sign the Declaration of Independence. The quest The Battle of Bunker Hill is also named after one of the opening battles of the American Revolution.

King Arthur
The Prydwen shares its name with King Arthur's ship from the Welsh poems 'Preiddeu Annwfn' and 'Culhwch ac Olwen.'

Bad Fonts
One of Codsworth's jokes "Comic Sans, Arial and Papyrus walk into a bar..." is a reference to commonly misused, and overused fonts.

The Cask of Amontillado
When the Sole Survivor finds General McGann's body in The Castle Tunnels, he is lying next to wine crate containing some bottles of "Amontillado" wine. Opposite him is a skeleton behind a half-built brick wall. These are references to Edgar Allan Poe's famous story The Cask of Amontillado. In addition, if the player "inspects" the object in their inventory, the name "Montressor" is on the bottle. Montressor was one of the main characters in The Cask of Amontillado. The name "P. Edgar" in smaller print on the bottom of the label is another reference to Edgar Allen Poe. On a side note, Poe was inspired to write the story during his time serving at Fort Independence, also known as The Castle.

Underground Railroad
The Railroad is an allusion to the Underground Railroad, which was known for moving escaped slaves across the United States using a series of safe houses, and stations.

Todd Howard
Fo4 Todd Howard as Napoleon
Several paintings found throughout the game feature the likeness of Bethesda employees, most notably Todd Howard in the place of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Wizard of Oz
Tin Man, a protectron found at Easy City Downs, is a reference to The Wizard of Oz.

Rockville, Maryland
The Weapon 'Rockville Slugger' is named after the city of Rockville, the current location of Bethesda Game Studios.

Thank you Fallout, for reminding us on those many of the weirdest and greatest references throughout Fallout 4. For more cultural references in Fallout 4 visit the Fallout Wiki, which was the source of this article. How many of cultural references in Fallout 4 have you noticed so far and which are your favorite?

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20 Incredibly Great References in Fallout 3

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There are about 120 cultural references in Fallout 3. Since we can't cover all of them, we're bringing you the incredibly great ones, like references to great post-apocalyptic movie titles like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog. This article is two pages long, with 10 references on each.

 1. A Boy And His Dog

To me, A Boy and His Dog inspired Fallout on many levels, including Fallout 3. Dogmeat, the vaults, the blending of 1950s America with futuristic horror, and the glowing ones. They are all allude to Harlan Ellison's book A Boy and His Dog which got the film adaptation later on, A Boy and His Dog (1975 film). Also, In Oasis, the man encased in a tree calls the tree "Herbert" because he thinks it's funny and it annoys the tree. In A Boy and His Dog the dog Blood, often calls his boy, Vic,"Albert". Blood finds this funny, while Vic is annoyed by it.

 2. Mad Max

The Mad Max movies, starring Mel Gibson as a post-apocalyptic warrior, are also a pervasive influence on the Fallout series. The design of the leather armor in all four Fallout games is based on Mel Gibson's armor in the Mad Max series, particularly the single-sleeved armor in The Road Warrior. A picture of the main character walking beside Dogmeat that is featured on the back of the packaging and in every ending is an homage to the image of Max walking beside his dog from The Road Warrior. Fallout 3's Dogmeat is a Blue Heeler, the same breed as Max's dog in The Road Warrior.

One of the Little Lamplight children uses the word humongous incorrectly, saying "humungus." Though it appears incorrect, it is actually a reference to Lord Humungus, the leader of the antagonizing gang in The Road Warrior. Upon meeting Harkness one of his replies might be "Oh yeah? And I'm a fairy princess." this is a reference to an utterance made by Mad Max when he talks to MasterBlaster in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The raiders' style of dressing is similar to that of the various raider and biker gangs in the Mad Max films. Medical braces are similar to those that Max wears on his left leg in the films. The arena in The Pitt resembles the Thunderdome.

The raider blastmaster helmet resembles the helmet worn by Blaster, the "muscle" of Bartertown in Beyond Thunderdome. The scoped .44 magnum/Blackhawk resembles the gun used by the Lord Humungus in The Road Warrior, which was a scoped Smith & Wesson Model 29. The outfit worn by Mayor Macready of Little Lamplight is identical to the costume worn by Jedediah the pilot's son in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome - a pith helmet, goggles, and a jacket one size too big. The image for the perk Pitt Fighter depicts Vault Boy wearing armor identical to Blaster's armor in the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

There is a random encounter with a character named Mel, who wears a leather jacket and sports a sawed-off shotgun. High Perception grants the information that the shotgun is unloaded. In The Road Warrior, Max threatens the Gyrocaptain with his shotgun, even though it wasn't loaded. The outfits worn by slaves in The Pitt resemble those worn by the slaves in Beyond Thunderdome.

 3. The Road

A 2006 novel by Cormac McCarthy. This post-apocalyptic story also influenced Bethesda Softworks (as mentioned by Todd Howard in interview) in their work on Fallout 3. The most overt references to the book are the hunters who peddle "strange meat" (human flesh) and the cannibals in the town of Andale.

 4. Dracula

Just above the entrance, you can see a damaged traffic sign that should read "CAREFUL," but on which the 'C' and 'L' have faded away to display "AREFU". Arefu is a "real life" small village in Romania, most well known for its proximity to the former castle of Vlad III, the prince of Wallachia, who is also known as "Dracula" and "Vlad the Impaler." And the quest "Blood Ties" only confirms that reference. Lucy West, the woman who kicks off the Blood Ties quest, is a reference to Lucy Westenra, Mina Murray's friend in Bram Stoker's Dracula. They both have connections to vampires, and they were the first victims of a chain of unfortunate events that affect their loved ones.

 5. Interplay

The monument is located in Chevy Chase, just outside the Tenleytown / Friendship station. There's a small square with a monument that is a reference to Interplay. The bronze Earth with a circling rocket appeared prominently when launching Fallout 1 and 2. Chevy Chase is also a real-life neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

 6. Black Isle Studios

Inside the Museum of Technology, a plaque describes the fate of the USS Ebon Atoll, a missile destroyer that was torpedoed by a US submarine, USS Interference, off the coast of Alaska. "Ebon" is short for "Ebony", a word for black, and "atoll" is another word for island, or isle. The fate of the boat is also similar to Black Isle's, having been "torpedoed" by their parent company, Interplay. Also, in the Point Lookout add-on, the loading screens and several terminals mention Isla Negra Holdings, the company that built the Pilgrim's Landing boardwalk. "Isla Negra" is Spanish for Black Isle.

 7. The Bible

The Lone Wanderer's birth date, 7/13/2258, is a Biblical reference to Micah 7:13, which reads: "And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants, on account of the fruit of their deeds." This aptly describes the whole Fallout series.

 8. American Civil War

Hannibal Hamlin was the name of Abraham Lincolns's first vice president, a staunch abolitionist. Leroy Walker is named after LeRoy Pope Walker, the first Confederate States Secretary of War who issued the orders for the firing on Fort Sumter, which began the American Civil War. Bill Seward is named after William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State from 1861-69. Caleb Smith is named after Caleb B. Smith, Lincoln's Secretary of Interior from 1861-62. Simone Cameron is named after Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Secretary of War from 1861-62.

 9. Beneath the Planet of the Apes

In Megaton, the undetonated atomic bomb and the Children of Atom are a reference to the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes (a 1970 American science fiction film directed by Ted Post and written by Paul Dehn), in which a cult worships an intact nuclear ICBM (An intercontinental ballistic missile).

 10. Star Trek (original)

During the first fade-to-white in the opening character creation, The Overseer says, "Dammit! We need a doctor, not a scientist", a reference to lines in the original Star Trek in which Leonard McCoy says to Captain Kirk, "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a [profession that isn't medical]". Dr. Preston in Rivet City will say "I'm a doctor, not a dealer!" when asked about purchasing chems.

The Adventures of Captain Cosmos takes its inspiration from Star Trek. Captain Cosmos is known to have aired at 8:00 P.M. on Thursdays (the timeslot that Star Trek filled during its first two seasons in the real world). In the Mothership Zeta add-on, the Lone Wanderer and Sally (who is a fan of Captain Cosmos) take a diverse crew into ship-to-ship combat against another alien mothership.

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