Didja Notice?

During the introduction of the game, a voice on Rivers' radio tells him to get under a nearby derelict bus for protection, saying, "Listen to me if you want to live!" This is a play on the oft-used dialog in the Terminator series, "Come with me if you want to live!"

The story opens in the Southern California city of Pasadena.

Following the voice's guidance, Rivers walks past the dilapidated Joe's Liquor. This is a fictitious business in Pasadena.

As with most video games of this type, the same models of wrecked vehicles are seen throughout the gameplay (van, school bus, pick-up truck, etc.).

Numerous boxes and crates with the Civil Defense emblem of the U.S. are seen in various rooms throughout the game.

This game introduces robotic Spider Scouts for Skynet. They are a couple of feet in diameter and have electric pincers.

The Terminators in the game carry R95 or V96 plasma rifles. They are very similar to the model traditionally seen in the Terminator series, the Westinghouse M-25 Phased Plasma Pulse Rifle.

    A sign for Big Jeff's is seen in the nearby ruins when Rivers and his new friends stop to repair the bus and treat the injured Mark. Big Jeff's is the restaurant Sarah Connor worked at in The Terminator. When Rivers enters the ruins of the restaurant, he sees a check with the waitress name of "Nancy" on it. Nancy was one of the other waitresses with Sarah there.

    The check has the slogan printed on it, "The home of the Big Bun Burger".

A tractor-trailer parked next to the warehouse Rivers raids is from Cryoco. This is the same company whose truck was involved in a crash near the end of Judgment Day that spilled out the liquid nitrogen that temporarily froze the T-1000.

A large sign for Golden Tobacco is seen above the warehouse. Although there are a number of small companies operating around the world with this name, the one seen here is probably meant to be fictitious.

When Rivers finds the remains of a South Division resistance base in the warehouse, the words KEEP CALM can be seen painted on a wall. This is probably a reference to the British government propaganda poster of WWII produced by the British Ministry of Information, "Keep Calm and Carry On." The poster was never displayed publicly during the war and was largely unknown until 2000. Since then, it has become an internet meme and pop icon.

The semi-truck that crashes through the wall of the old factory has Vortex tires. This is a fictitious company.

In many instances throughout the game, the player can see that some broken window panes have the same exact shapes of glass fragments within them, an artifact of the game engine.

Rivers suggests to young Patrick the name of Max for his German Shepherd puppy. This was also the name of John Connor's boyhood German Shepherd at his foster home with Todd and Janelle Voight in Judgment Day.

Ryan remarks that he had a brother named Tucker before Judgment Day. They were at an outdoor music festival when Judgment Day happened. He says the band Captured! by Robots was playing on stage at the time. This is a real world band based in California.

Some graffiti on the exterior of a building reads "THE RESISTANCE ARE THE REAL ENEMY".

Silverfish are seen for the first time in this game. They were previously mentioned in the novelization of Judgment Day and in "Suicide Mission" and "Dead Men Walking". Silverfish are walking, centipede-like bombs.

At one point in the game, Rivers goes through an old store and there are signs inside listing sale prices like 5,49. It's odd that a store in the United States would have signs using a comma as a decimal separator, as the U.S. uses a dot. Possibly, it was a store specializing in merchandise from a particular foreign country. (The game was developed in Poland which uses the decimal comma, which is likely the real reason for the presence of the comma.)

Rivers discovers the dead body of a Resistance member held captive by Skynet in the old university hospital. The man appears to bear the likeness of Robert Patrick, the actor who portrayed the T-1000 in Judgment Day. It seems likely this Resistance member was the basis for the look of the T-1000 prototype.

With the Pacific Division of the Resistance wiped out, Commander Baron takes Rivers into her unit, Tech-Com. This is the unit Kyle Reese stated he was a member of in The Terminator, run by John Connor.

Baron gives her Resistance serial number as DN38217.

A map of Southern California is displayed on an easel in Commander Baron's office. There are three areas circled in red on the map. The biggest circle appears to be downtown Los Angeles itself. To the right (east) of that, an area that appears to correspond to the city of West Covina on Interstate 10 is circled. The third circle below them appears to be around, roughly, the city of Gardena, next to Interstate 110.

Baron tells Rivers that the Resistance intercepted Skynet communications that indicated John Connor was number one on its hit list, Baron herself is number two, and Rivers is number three. Later, it turns out that Rivers was actually number two, not three and Baron was a bit jealous of the fact.

Ryan remarks that when he and his brother listened to the radio after the bombings of Judgment Day, a list of cities hit was cited and it took a couple of minutes just to get through the A's.

A note left by Colin that Rivers finds indicates that the machines have been collecting human teeth. This must be for building realistic, human-looking T-800 infiltrators.

A derelict tow truck for Road Ranger Trucking is seen in the ruins of Pasadena. There are a number of businesses in the world with that name, but the one seen here is probably meant to be fictitious.

Rivers encounters T-808s. These Terminators utilize flame-throwers built onto them. The fuel tanks on their backs are particularly vulnerable to weapons fire. This game is the first appearance of this model.

Rivers encounters T-47 Hunter-Killer walkers. This game is the first appearance of this model.

Rivers' Resistance serial number DN46890. 

Ryan tells Rivers a story of a time a T-400 found his and Tucker's camp because he (Ryan) was playing his guitar. The T-400 model Terminator was an early primitive version of a Terminator first seen in Dawn of Fate. The model was mentioned Terminator Hunt, Cold War and Trial by Fire. Ryan remarks that it didn't even look scary. (Image from gamer.ru)

Baron remarks that no one asks her personal questions since Perry died. Kyle Reese mentioned that he served under Perry in Tech-Com in The Terminator. In Dawn of Fate, his full name is given as Major General Justin Perry and he survives to see Kyle Reese sent back in time to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor after the Resistance had defeated Skynet. Here in our current story, he apparently died some time back.

While searching for Dr. Alvin Scott, Rivers and his team pass the ruins of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.

During the search for Alvin, another Cryoco truck is seen.

Rivers passes what appear to be Union Pacific railcars.

Rivers finds a supply item in an old refrigerator that appears to be a Grounding brand. This is a fictitious company.

The infiltrator Terminator that hunts Rivers and his cohorts is a T-850 sent back in time by Skynet. A T-850 model is also in Rise of the Machines.

Baron has a skull design on her tank top shirt.

Rivers goes to the Hollywood Hills to look for the long-lost Dr. Mack. This is an actual neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Hollywood Hills are also seen in Future Shock.

Erin asks Rivers to check for a possible message from her lost husband Peter at their old house near the Griffith Park tennis courts.

While searching through Mack's mansion hideout, Rivers finds a copy of Type magazine featuring an article about art created by a computer program called Ines, including "Colors of the Abstract" on display at the Los Angeles Modern Art Museum. Ines is said to have been created by Gale Wisher. Though there is a real world magazine called Type (https://typemag.squarespace.com/), it is about fonts, so I don't think it is meant to be the one referred to here. Ines and the Los Angeles Modern Art Museum are fictitious. The name "Gale Wisher" is a nod to Gale Anne Hurd and William Wisher, co-writers (along with James Cameron) of The Terminator.

Some plastic crates with the brand name Svzkien on them are seen in the mansion. This appears to be an entirely fictitious brand (and word!)

One license plate is seen throughout the game on many different vehicles! California 1VK3925.

Near the mansion, Rivers stumbles across Le Pain Bakery. This may be a reference to the Le Pain Quotidien global chain of French organic bakeries. There are a number of them in the L.A. area, but none very close to Griffith Park.

After hacking Skynet's latest plasma rifle to make it possible for the Resistance to use, Dr. Mack says, "Easy money." This is the same phrase young John Connor used after hacking into a bank ATM in Judgment Day.

The scene here of John Connor walking through the underground tunnels, to emerge and scan the battlefield with his binoculars was inspired by a similar scene at the beginning of Judgment Day. It's not exactly the same, so it might be considered an alternate timeline version of that scene.

The Resistance captures and hacks an HK tank to use in the final assault against Skynet.

The Stranger turns out to be Rivers himself, come back from the future to correct mistakes he made and ensure the Resistance victory against Skynet.

The Resistance defeats Skynet, but not before the machine intelligence sends three Terminators back in time: a T-800 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (as seen in The Terminator), a T-1000 prototype to 1995 to kill John Connor (as seen in Judgment Day), and a T-850 a few weeks back to kill Jacob Rivers. In this game, these events take place in 2028 instead of in 2029 as described in The Terminator.