Shaky Grounds - List of trivia and easter eggs (SPOILERS, don't read if you haven't played the episode yet): ================================================================================================================================================================================== PART 1: APOCOLLAPSE ======================================================================================================================================================================================= -In the intro, one of the collapsing buildings has a sign saying "Apocalypse, starring Duke Nukem" (running gag throughout the episode) -The name of the city, Emmerichville, is a nod to (in)famous director Roland Emmerich. Seemed appropiate, since some scenes in this map are based on disaster movies. Also, Emmerich is an actual place in Germany (it isn't a major city though). -The name of the shopping mall, "Doeniezomall", is a Dutch play on words. It sounds like 'doe niet zo mal', which means "don't be so silly". Incidentally, this part is based on an actual Dutch shopping mall called 'Middenwaard'. -The licence plate on the vehicle in front of the mall reads "X64-2", a reference to Alien Planet X64-2 (which appears in my brother's maps, AMC TC and The Imperium) -The square in front of the mall is named after Duke Nukem, has a statue of him and a sign saying "25 years" This episode was released 25 years after the original game. -There's a dog called Boomer in one of the destroyed houses. It's a play on a common trope in disaster movies: the dog always survives, no matter how many people perish. And Boomer is the name of the dog in Independence day. (of course in DN3D you can defy the trope by shooting the dog, but.. why would you kill poor Boomer? You monster! ;) ) -The gas Station is named after mapper Gambini. It lives is one of his highest ranking maps, referenced in the gas price (99/100 on MSDN) -The viewscreen message from the aliens has several little references. "Good news everyone" and "doomsday device" are nods to Futurama The last sentence is a quote from X-men: Apocalypse The name of the alien leader, Froyd Eenakee, is an anagram (more on that later). There's an abundance of easter eggs and jokes inside the shopping mall: -A liquor store called "murphy's law" being hit by murphy's law -Inside the book store, there's a book from Duke Nukem called "Why I'm still great" (for those who don't know: he published a book called "Why I'm so great" in Duke Nukem 2) -Closed down stores and empty spaces with a sign saying "for rent - damn you internet" are there, because reality bites sometimes :) -The poster of Daisy Nukem is a parody of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, and genderswaps in movies in general -Femme Fashion Shop: abbrevated as FFS -The Global Travels agency has a poster for a vacation at the Weissensee. Years later, my brother released a map called Weissensee so this created an unintentional easter egg (Weissensee is an existing lake in Austria). The Oostrumverse is real! -In the same room there's a sign saying "get to the choppah!" which should be self-explanatory :) -Van Gaals bakery is a parody of famous soccer coach Louis van Gaal. During his time at Manchester United, he would occasionally use really weird sentences. That's because he was translating Dutch sayings directly into English! "That is another cook" is one of the many quotes, also he liked to piss off Journalists by responding with "that's a stupid question" -The bank has a sign saying "trust us, we're too big to fail", a jab at the banking crisis (which feels like an eternity ago now) - "Boomer will live" graffiti on the wall: another reference to Boomer and an internet meme from the Nostalgia Critic. Sidenote: this map was made 5 years ago, before the "ok boomer" or the "boomer shooter". -Cool square sounds like a joke I made up, but it's an actual square in my old hometown. Including the culture center called "Cool" ========================================================================================================================================== PART 2: TALES OF TRAGEDY ============================================================================================================================================ - In the cafe, there's a sign saying "Cool cafe live presents: Tea Rex". The Cool center is based on a real place and my band Tea Rex has played there on multiple occasions. You'll see references like this throughout the episode. Funnily enough, we were mostly doing acoustic shows when this map was made, so that's why there's an acoustic guitar on stage instead of an electric one. - In the front hall of the theatre, there are 2 posters. 1 called "Drunk shakespeare" and another called "Battlelord galactica". They both have a pun underneath their title. Of course "2 beer or not 2 beer" makes fun of a famous Shakespeare quote. - Battlelord Galactica is "now playing". Throughout the back stage area of the theatre, there are little references to this (a box with a battlelord suit, certain sprites and props etc.) - The viewscreen backstage telling you your mission nearly breaks the 4th wall (almost saying "plot convenience" before hastily correcting it to "our satellites") (trivia: I was planning to make a side-plot with an EDF hacker named 'Jeff' trying to plant a computer virus into the alien mainframe, which would have been a blatant reference to Independence day. However the aliens would notice this in time and Froyd would mock at the player with some variant on "what do you think this is? The 90's?" This was ultimately scrapped, as I couldn't fit it in and it didn't add much to the overall story) On the top floor, there are more posters: - A face of a pig cop with the words ham-let next to it (another shakespeare pun) - A close up on dukes sunglasses, accompanied with the quote "you killed my father, big mistake!". This both references shakespeare, the movie "Last action hero" and foreshadows the plot of the map. - A poster dedicated to Yondu, a character from "Guardians of the galaxy" - The coffee machine on the top floor actually "works". If you press use, Duke will say "aahh! Much better!" - A very hidden/obscure joke: the way the numbering of the rooms work. There's always 2 numbers followed by 2 letters. The '3' indicates you're on the 3th floor, then it's followed by a .1 or a .2 depending on where in the building you are. The 2 letters are random, but of course the room with all the babes in it (secret area) just so happens to have "DD" as its 2 letters. - The bus stops on the other side of the chasm both show a sign saying 'Apocolypse starring Duke Nukem' - Just like the last map, there's a statue of Duke in the middle of the square (although this one isn't name after him) Re-establishing the fact that he's still seen as the hero who saved the earth from alien invasion(s). - There's an establishment called "Dukin' donuts". Which is, of course, a parody of "Dunkin' donuts". - The coffee shop makes fun of hipsters. Glutenfree cake, drink your coffee before it gets cool etc. - The 2.5 D printer is an in-joke for fans of old FPS-games. Since games like Doom and DN3D are seen by some as "not true 3D" (using sprites and all kinds of illusions to suggest fully 3D environments), they're often called 2.5 D instead. So a 3D printer would really be a 2.5 D printer in this world :-) - In the smaller alley next to the hipster coffee shop, there's an elaborate easter egg based on the "It" movies/novel It mimicks a famous scene from the story, with Pennywise the clown luring a little kid towards the sewers from a storm drain. I added a lot of detail here: the text "we all float" on the wall, a severed limb floating in the water (in the story, the kid gets his arm bitten off). And when you come close, 2 red eyes appeared, while you hear a roar and kids saying "come on in!" - Tec-tonic bar is another play on words. - The landmark museum being completely destroyed is a riff on another disaster movie trope: the famous landmarks always get destroyed first! - And apparently, supa 2 is a landmark as well (a true landmark of duke3d mapping!) - In the final viewscreen, Froyd Eenakee borrows a famous quote from Dr. Claw (the nemesis of inspector Gadget). ========================================================================================================================================================================================= PART 3: EPICENTER ========================================================================================================================================================================================= -The cheese market at the square was foreshadowed all the way in map 1, where you can see it mentioned on the city map. (incidentally, the church and the square are based on a real place in Alkmaar, which does have an annual cheese market) -Behind the blue keycard building, there's a text among the grafity on one of the walls saying 'RIP Daisy'. This can reference both the pet rabbit from Doomguy or the dog from John Wick. Heck, it can even reference Daisy Nukem from the first level! Whatever works for you ;) -Like a lot of people Duke isn't a fan of pineapple pizza, as he will say 'No way I'm eating that shit' when approaching the pineapple pizza restaurant -The Pop-eye music store is an actual store in Alkmaar, so that's not a pun I made up. Inside there are several riffs on existing artists. The 'major Tom' poster is a reference to David Bowie and his song 'A space oddity'. 'Rammschwein' is a play on German metal band Rammstein ('schwein' is German for 'pig'). The battles is of course a reference to The beatles, here pictured with 4 battlelords recreating the famous Abbey Road cover (here dubbed 'Abby roar'). Then there's a thin liztroop representing 'thin lizzy'. And of course there's another reference to my own band Tea Rex. We've actually played in-store shows at the real Pop-eye music store. -One of the secrets will show you a statue of Chtulhu, including an altar, a sacrificed cult member and a direct quote from the book on the wall. I was reading a lot of H.P. Lovecraft when creating this underground section. -Another secret will show you a room full of stockpiled food and toilet paper, the only reference to the corona pandemic you'll find in the entire episode. Also, the guy says stockpiling was 'super easy, barely an inconvenience' which is a catchphrase from the youtube series Pitch Meetings. -In the blue keycard bar, you'll see a poster from the 'beer brewing babes' advertising their IPA beers in a rather risque way :p -There's another Duke statue in the middle of the square, but this time it gets taken down by the aliens and it disappears into an abbyss after your grab the red keycard. This is a bit of foreshadowing, things are about to go horribly wrong soon... -Behind the red keycard, there's a poster making fun of Disney star wars. Can't blame me for going after low hanging fruit! ;) 'The search for more money' was supposed to be the sequel to Spaceballs. -Froyd Eenakee keeps quoting from pop culture, now he tells you to 'go, and die in what way seems best to you'. Which is a quote from Denethor from Lord of the Rings. -Another sign saying 'Apocolypse starring Duke Nukem' pops up near the end, at the 'Inception' scene. And yes, that scene was inspired by Inception (there's even a quote for those whole like to DNclip their way into unreachable scenery) ========================================================================================================================================================================================= PART 4: DEEPER UNDERGROUND ======================================================================================================================================================================================== -The name of the map comes from a Jamiroquai song, and the soundtrack briefly quotes it halfway through (the first measure of the riff gets played twice in a row) -Incidentally, the soundtrack almost solely consists of descending chords and movements, just like how the map itself is basically one long descent. -The kompleks is based on an existing venue, and actually follows the real building very closely, including the office and the entire backstage area. -At the back of the main hall, you'll see 2 custom signs on the wall. One references the artist Danger Mouse (in this case it's literally a dangerous mouse) and the other references the final map of the red series. The first hint that both series are connected in some way. -You can see a broken guitar in one of the corners of the concert hall, if you look closely you'll see human blood stains on stage and alien footprints moving from the stage to the broken guitar. Looks like a liztroop snagged the guitar, tried to play some chords and smashed it out of frustration when it didn't work! (my head canon is that Froyd Eenakee commanded his troops to learn how to play guitar so they can entertain him by playing Gojira riffs, this is why The Kompleks is kept intact). Also, the guitar is modelled after my own fender stratocaster :) -The rehearsal room has another metion of Tea Rex. It's modelled after our actual rehearsal space, that's also why there are so many beer bottles! ;) In the same room there are posters of Gojira and Ghost, 2 of our favorite metal bands. -The dressing room has a sign saying 'no brown M&M's allowed'. This is based on a famous anecdote, where an artist actually demanded that all brown M&M's needed to be removed. Only the Kompleks didn't do a very good job, as several brown M&M's can be seen lying on the floor. -In Froyd Eenakee's message to the upper floors, he mentions how the shoggoths will complete the terraforming process. This is another reference to H.P. Lovecraft and the Chtulhu mythos. Shoggoths make an actual appearance in the story 'At the mountains of madness' and get mentioned throughout the mythos. Google if you dare. Incidentally, you'll see some strange things at the bottom of the slime lake. Strange lights and eyes in the distance. These may or may not be the shoggoths ;) -In the same message, he mentions that he likes the Kompleks so it can stay. Originally he also said that his liztroops needed to take guitar lessons, but that was a bit too silly so it was scrapped. -The viewscreen with the 'rebel' liztroops ends with a lament where he longs for a simpler time, when they simply stole some chicks and lived. Obviously a reference to the original game, as well as a wink to the audience who may also long for simpler times and less apocalyptic imagery. -The same trooper mentions that 'Froyd Eenakee' isn't a real name, which hopefully will get people to guess that it's an anagram. This also sets up the twist in map 5. ========================================================================================================================================================================================= PART 5: FINAL RUMBLE ======================================================================================================================================================================================== -The name of the first trooper is 'Dedmiit'. Gee, I wonder what will happen with him! -In the first big room, there's a cross-like shape in the middle that turns into an inverted cross once the floor has lowered. This section is very much inspired by Doom, so this is a little nod to that game (as well as the famous sequence in 'Death row') -The elaborate trap Froyd Eenakee sets up with the 'escape pod' is very much inspired by James Bond villains like Blofeld. In fact, that's also why Froyd constantly refers to you as 'Mr. Nukem'. -Froyd Eenakee makes a final reveal just before the big battle, telling you that you foiled his plans at the Lonely Mountain Complex. This is the name of the abandoned research facility in Red 5, connecting both series. As it was, the red series left a couple of threads unresolved, including the identity of 'Invader'. Now we find out that 'Invader' and 'Froyd Eenakee' were the same person all along, the son of the original Cycloid Emperor who's sworn revenge on humanity. This connection was suggested on a forum by user Ninety-six, and it was too good not to include. -Another anagram makes an appearance here. Tsum D'Bhi (the enforcer who killed Dedmiit and lost track of the blue keycard) stands for 'Dumb shit' -One of the screens in the throne room shows Duke being targeted and executed with blood splattering out of his head. Another sign that Froyd really hates Duke! ============================================================================================================================================================================================== AND FINALLY: THE STORY OF FROYD EENAKEE ================================================================================================================================================================================================ Froyd Eenakee was a character that started out as a typical villain, just created for the inevitable boss fight at the end. During the series, he really grew into the role of the antagonist, with his own personality and backstory. He even has a connection with my previous map series, Red. I'll be honest and say this wasn't always the plan, but looking back it's just a perfect fit. So here's the story of our antoganist. The first we hear of him is before the events of the red series, when he calls himself 'Invader' and taunts the EDF forces while a mysterious alien fleet is orbiting Mars. In the end this was all an elaborate plan to lure Duke and the main EDF forces out of LA so a secret alien army could quickly swoop in and take over the city. The goal here was simple, finish what his late father started so the name of the cycloids would be honored once again. At the end of Red5, Duke manages to foil this plan and the alien army gets blown up before they get the change to move out. 'Invader' disappears back in the shadows and his fleet vanishes into outer space. But that was not the end... Since then, 'Invader' started analyzing the human race and Duke Nukem in particular more closely, while biding his time. It's then when he finds out that Duke was personally responsibly for his father's death. During these years, he starts developping an obsessive hatred for Duke Nukem. The man who killed his father AND foiled his great plans. This is when he takes on a new nickname: Froyd Eenakee. It's an anagram of 'One eyed Freak', named after the taunt Duke flung at the cycloid emperor. Under this new name, he quickly gathers enough support to launch a new attack on earth. During the years, Froyd started hatching his new plans. This time, it would be a plan of pure revenge. The human race, and especially Duke, needed to be completely eradicated. This is where the doomsday device comes in, a powerful machine to create massive earthquakes. To make sure EDF didn't notice these plans too soon, the target was shifted to Europe. Here the aliens could build on their new plans, underground and in secret. Until the time was ready to lure Duke Nukem to Emmerichville. The rest plays out in the episode itself.