The authors put a lot of secondary details in the game: noticing them is not necessary to proceed but they enrich the story, if caught. Here are the ones that I missed or that I didn’t understand.
I realized only later that the name of the coroner (Mort E. Shun) sounds like “mortician”.
I noticed the carved initials “G&E” in the elevator and it was clear to me that it was a reference to someone famous but since I’m dumb I didn’t realize that they were Guybrush and Elaine.
I finished both playthroughs (hard and casual) completely missing an object: Delores’s chinchilla.
I didn’t notice immediately that if you observe the hotel from the outside, the lit windows change (but not while you observe them. You have to change character and do something, then selecting again the character who is observing the hotel).
I saw the clock in the bank and I should have immediately remembered (from something I saw in the official blog) that I could open it.
I realized the similarities between the end of Blazing Saddles (cited in the game) and Thimbleweed Park only after I approached the ending of the game.
And you? Which secondary details did you miss, at first?
On the names front, you also have Bailiwick as an attorney and Willie T.Wino as a bum. The two agents have the same initials and Delores implies low res to me but that might be nothing.
From that list, 4 and 5 are new to me(what is in the clock in the bank, then?).
On first playthrough I missed most of the wireframe rooms including the Edna cameo, because I went to the factory immediatly. I didn´t free Wily and I didn´t give the poopsie to Chuck the Plant.
Except that the only thing my attention has been drawn to only recently is the pun with the “Fan Service”.
Razor from Maniac Mansion was based on Gary Winnick´s then redheaded girlfriend whose name was Ray…redhead named Ray, huh?
The first time I heard the name Rickie Lee, I thought of musician Rickie Lee Jones. Don´t know if that was intentional or not.
When you look at “silent spock” the dialogue is “I think this cosplayer is ahead of our time” which might be a reference to the passing of Leonard Nimoy (ie Spock being “silent”/dead now).
Still not sure Chuck did the guys a favour with the whole shutting down Pillowtron3000 thingie. Aside from the many vagaries of the entire ending, such as the characters following Chuck’s instructions with barely a thought (perhaps some political and philosophical commentary there), when the players pick up their items of destiny ominous sounding guitar chords are played. Maybe someone with a better experience of '80s films – especially crime/murder neo-noir stuff – could enlighten us on if these ominous guitar chords are some sort of codified idiom in the genre. I suspect it might be, and one that signals that one has been conned or duped.
It took ages for me to realise why Ransome lost the lookalike contest. It’s not just because the residents of Thimbleweed Park are idiots/crazy; it’s because he’s still under the effects of Madame Morena’s curse! The prizes for both first and second place would have set him free, so the curse intervened and ensured he couldn’t come any higher than third.
It took me some time to realize that the “strong signals” mentioned early in the game are referring to the player starting and playing the game (I know, slow thinker). But when I realized that, it was quite a blaze.
I can’t think of a specific situation, but I think at some point I realized that every character that was walking outside in a costume was talking about the “strong signals”. As if they want to protect themselfes from these signals .
This also fits to the ending of the game.
When you discover the chainsaw, Ray or Reyes say: “Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice…”.
This is not the usual saying (“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”), but a variation from it.
Exactly, and even more, $1138 is the due amount in Zak McKracken for his phone bill, the reference is for THX sound as you pointed out.
P.S.: did you find the phone bill?
Actually, the THX certification was years after the movie THX 1138 and is infact named after that. Also THX is not sound only, but for everything related to cimenas and home theaters. I think there are a lot of misconceptions due to one of their early trailers was titled “THX sound system”, which can be even confused for a manufacturer of sound systems.
A pity, there is no such certification program for PA’s in pubs and dance halls, which are also awful sometimes.
Which game elements made you conclude that?