Well . . . you get a LOT of modern references b/c authors thought it was funny in the 80s and they were so likely to be noticed by a minor game. Then came the internet where everything can be linked . . . and all those references were getting nuked after the HG debacle. So the Fighting Urukhai drove their DS into a astroids, Rhonda Snord medically retired as a cripple so no more Takin' Care of Business, Dr Banzai's crew b/c the New Avalon Cavaliers or something and mostly died retaking New Avalon at the end of the FCCW as the last reference, even the GDL/ELH were supposedly wiped b/c of their relation to authors who had left the stable at the time . . . all part of the Great Easter Egg Purge (were they scrambled?) which is funny b/c despite the attempts by editors to clamp down, some things slipped through much to groans (editors)/chuckles (audience).
I mean seriously, a section of a trippy rumor book called 'Through the Looking Glass' and a POV character voice is named Alice? The phrase has meaning because the book!
To answer your question . . . some did, or instance Rhonda Snord referenced earlier is a huge fan of classical music by such composers like Bachman Turner Overdrive, I think she makes a Elvis reference too. Plenty of pre-90s cultural stuff, but not much after since that is when history diverges . . . though we DO get a few philosophical and fictional writers referenced. Usually such stuff is done as a indirect reference, they lump names like Bach, Beethoven, Elvis, and *made up reference* or list authors like Shakespeare, Shelly, Dickens, Steinbeck, Tolkien, and *made up reference* will be used to discuss the sophisticated/educated nature of a character while doing a bit of universe building. We occasionally do get a few quotes from fictional sources after the history split.
