Game Show Island takes place in a robotic version of the future. Here is a description from Poptropica.
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Welcome to a future where robots rule. Building computers to compete on TV game shows seemed like a funny idea - until the machines wanted more. Now, after years of robotic dominance, Poptropica needs a savior. Are you clever enough to beat the robots at their own games, and restore the dignity of all Poptropicans?
The nickel that you earn from the Club Nouveau Riche owner reads "In Holmes We Trust", which is based off of the American nickel reading "In God We Trust"
The pool table in Club Nouveau Riche is made by Cubeball Dynamics Inc., named after the ball used in pool.
All of the cities where the game shows are held, sans Miami, are the largest cities of their countries.
In Miami there's a helicopter made by Roflcopter Inc., named after the internet meme ROFLcopter.
The binary on the bell tower in Buenos Aires translates to "in holmes we trus", with some trailing digits that begin the binary number for "t".
The robot host of Game Show Island's sneak peak game, Money Ladder, appears twice during the island. The first time he can be seen on the televisions located in each of the cities. The second time he can be seen in the Robots Only area of Club Nouveau Riche.
Holmes is a reference to Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. However, the actual machine may be inspired by Watson, the IBM computer that claimed victory on the real world gameshow, Jeopardy. This is because Watson is also the name of Sherlock Holmes' partner.
The Inventor mentioned a uPad, a parody of the iPad.
All of the game shows are inspired by real game shows:
Brainiacs Game Show | Buenos Aires | Club Nouveau Riche | Factory Interior | Factory Exterior | Holmes' Lair | Instanbul | Kerplunk Game Show | Main Street | Miami | Moscow | Mr. Yoshi's Game Show | Museum | Scaredy Pants Game Show | Spin For Riches Game Show | Tokyo