Easter egg (media)
An Easter egg is a message, image, or feature hidden in software, a video game, a film, or another — usually electronic — medium. The term used in this manner was coined around 1979 by Steve Wright, the then-Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, to describe a hidden message in the
The earliest known video game Easter egg is in the 1973 video game Moonlander, in which the player tries to land a Lunar module on the Moon; if the player opts to fly the module horizontally through several of the game's screens, they encounter a McDonald's restaurant, and if they land next to it, the astronaut will visit it instead of standing next to the ship. The earliest known Easter egg in software in general is one placed in the "make" command for PDP-6/PDP-10 computers sometime in October 1967–October 1968, wherein if the user attempts to create a file named "love" by typing "make love", the program responds "not war?" before proceeding.[2][3]
Origin
The use of the term "
In video games
While Robinett's message in
Since Adventure, there has been a long history of video game developers placing Easter eggs in their games.[16]: 19 Most Easter eggs are intentional—an attempt to communicate with the player or a way of getting even with management for a perceived slight. Easter eggs in video games take a variety of forms, from purely ornamental screens to aesthetic enhancements that change some element of the game during play. The Easter egg included in the original Age of Empires (1997) is an example of the latter; catapult projectiles are changed from stones to cows.[16]: 19
More elaborate Easter eggs include
Other Easter eggs originated unintentionally. The
Technical issues may also create unintentional Easter eggs.
In computing
Software
In
In the
Some versions of the DEC OpenVMS operating system have concealed exit status codes, including a reference to the Monty Python Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook skit; "exit %xb70
" returns the message "%SYSTEM-W-FISH, my hovercraft is full of eels" while "exit %x34b4
" returns a reference to an early Internet meme: "%SYSTEM-F-GAMEOVER, All your base are belong to us".[22]
Easter eggs in the 1997 version of Microsoft Office include a hidden flight simulator in Microsoft Excel and a pinball game in Microsoft Word.[23][24] Since 2002, Microsoft does not allow any hidden or undocumented code as part of its trustworthy computing initiative.[25]
The
apt-get moo
are typed into the shell.[26][27][28]An Easter egg is found on all Microsoft Windows operating systems before
The Google search engine famously contains many Easter eggs, given to the user in response to certain search queries.[32]
Steve Jobs banned Easter eggs from Apple products upon his return to the company.[33]
The first Easter egg to appear after his death is in a 2012 update to the Mac App Store for OS X Mountain Lion, in which downloaded apps are temporarily timestamped as "24 January 1984", the date of the sales launch of the original Macintosh.[33]
The Python programming language and its ecosystem of libraries include various Easter eggs.[34]
Firmware
While computer-related Easter eggs are often found in installed software, occasionally they exist in the firmware of certain devices. On some home and early personal computers the ROM contains Easter eggs, including lists of the developers' names, political exhortations, snatches of music, or images of the entire development team.
The
Other notable examples include some errant 1993
Several
In the second and third hardware revision of the
One of Hewlett-Packard's electronic pocket calculators, the HP-45 (introduced in 1973), has a built-in undocumented stopwatch.[47]
Hardware
The
Many integrated circuit (chip) designers have included hidden graphics elements termed chip art, including images, phrases, developer initials, logos, and more. This artwork, like the rest of the chip, is reproduced in each copy by lithography and etching. These are visible only when the chip package is opened and examined under magnification.[52] The 1984 CVAX microchip implementation of the MicroVAX CPU contains in its etchings the Russian phrase in the Cyrillic alphabet "VAX: When you care enough to steal the very best",[53] placed there because, "knowing that some CVAXs would end up in the USSR, the team wanted the Russians to know that we were thinking of them".[52]
Another notable example is the pro controller for the Nintendo Switch, on the controller's motherboard, if a player holds down on the right stick and looks closely into the transparent plastic surrounding its socket while shining a light on it, there is a hidden message that reads "THX2ALLGAMEFANS!". The message was discovered by Japanese Twitter user Geo Stream on March 4, 2017, one day after the Switch's launch.
Comics
American comic book artists are known to include hidden messages in their art:[54]
- In a reprint of classic Captain America comics, a production artist drew a penis on Bucky Barnes.[55]
- In 2000, Universe X: Spidey #1 insulting his previous boss, Marvel Editor in Chief Bob Harras, following Harras' termination from Marvel Comics. On Page 28, panel 3, the spines of books on a bookshelf in the background read, "HARRAS HA HA, HE'S GONE, GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH HE WAS A NASTY S.O.B." The message was spotted after the book was printed but before it went on sale; the copies that were printed for consumers were destroyed. However, 4,000 preview copies were distributed to retailers as part of a "First Look" deal, and these are today considered rare collectors' items. Milgrom was "apparently fired and allegedly (and quietly) re-hired several weeks later".[55][56][57]
- Ethan Van Sciver hid the word "sex" in the background of nearly every page of New X-Men #118 (November 2001).[55][58] Van Sciver subsequently stated that he hid the word throughout the book because he was annoyed with Marvel at the time for reasons he cannot remember, and thought it would be fun to engage in some mischief with his work.[citation needed]
- Indonesian artist
Video
Home media
Easter eggs are found on films,
Broadcast media
Unlike DVDs and computer games, broadcast radio and television programs contain no executable code. Easter eggs may still appear in the content itself, such as a
More recent broadcast media, where viewers have access to high-resolution digital copies or streaming services, may include further Easter eggs that can only be found by freezing the show at certain points. In the anthology series Black Mirror, the producers have included Easter eggs that reference past episodes, or tie into future episodes, as a means of loosely tying together all episodes into a single Black Mirror universe.[70] The Netflix series Stranger Things had a real-world Easter Egg where a pizza delivery van featured in the show's fourth season had the phone number (805) 45-PIZZA shown on its side. If that number, which translated to 805-457-4992 was dialed, it led to a special message from Argyle, the fictional restaurant's delivery driver.[71]
Security concerns
Security author Michel E. Kabay discussed security concerns of Easter eggs in 2000, saying that, while software quality assurance requires that all code be tested, it is not known whether Easter eggs are. He said that, as they tend to be held as programming secrets from the rest of the product testing process, a "
In 2006,
Netscape Navigator contributor Jamie Zawinski stated in an interview in 1998 that harmless Easter eggs impose a negligible burden on shipped software, and serve the important purpose of helping productivity by keeping programmers happy.[75]
Contemporary works about Easter eggs
Easter eggs have become more widely known to the general public and are referenced in contemporary artworks.
- In the Doctor Who episode "Blink", the existence of video Easter eggs across seventeen DVDs leads to solving the protagonists' dilemma.[76]
- In Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One and its film adaptation, the protagonists are competing with others to find various Easter eggs within a large virtual reality environment. The final challenge includes identifying and reaching the Easter egg from the Atari Adventure game.[77]
See also
- Acrostic – Text formed from parts of another text
- Hacking of consumer electronics
- Hidden track – Music not detectable by casual listeners
- Konami Code – a secret code, originally from the game Contra, that has gained widespread adoption as an Easter egg
- List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products
- List of filmmaker's signatures
- List of Google Easter eggs
- List of Easter eggs in Tesla products
- Magic string – Input which activates otherwise hidden functionality
- Rickrolling – Internet prank and meme
- The Book of Mozilla
- Undocumented feature – Unintended or undocumented operation or feature
- Al Hirschfeld § Nina
References
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- ^ a b Willaert, Kate (23 May 2021). "Make Love Not War: Talking With The Creator Of The First Software Easter Egg". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
- ^ Yarwood, Jack (27 March 2016). "Easter Eggs: The Hidden Secrets of Videogames". Paste. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ Fatsquatch (20 May 2003). "Of Dragons and Easter Eggs: A Chat With Warren Robinett". The Jaded Gamer. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ ISBN 9780313379369.
- ^ "Play Atari Adventure". IGN. Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Baker, Chris (13 March 2015). "How One Man Invented the Console Adventure Game". WIRED. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- OCLC 58919795.
- ^ "Letter to Atari" (PDF). 2600 Connections. 4 August 1980. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ^ Pogue, David (8 August 2019). "The Secret History of 'Easter Eggs'". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- ^ Willaert, Kate (4 April 2021). "Ready Player One Was Wrong: The First Easter Eggs In Video Games". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
- ^ Jerz, Dennis G. (2007). "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original "Adventure" in Code and in Kentucky". Digital Humanities Quarterly. 1 (2). The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Machkovech, Sam (22 March 2017). "The arcade world's first Easter egg discovered after fraught journey". Ars Technica. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
- ^ a b Fries, Ed (24 March 2017). "The Hunt For The First Arcade Game Easter Egg". Kotaku. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ^ ISBN 9780262033657.
- ^ ISBN 9781584503545. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- ^ "Optical Information Systems Update/library & Information Center Applications". CD-ROM World. 9 (1–5). Meckler Publishing. February 1994. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
The best Easter egg of all is the entire Maniac Mansion game, which appears on a computer in Doctor Fred's mansion. Users can play the original game in its entirety.
- ^ Stanton, Rich (9 April 2021). "Cheat code to play 4K Timesplitters 2 in Homefront: The Revolution revealed after 5 years". PC Gamer. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Garmon, Jay (5 March 2007). "Geek Trivia: The cheat goes on". TechRepublic. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
- ^ Orland, Kyle (4 October 2017). "How hitting a game cartridge unlocks gaming's weirdest Easter egg". Ars Technica. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
- ^ "OpenVMS Undocumented Features". PARSEC Group. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ Anonymous (19 July 1999). "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 97 Flight to Credits". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^ Arima, Kevin (20 July 2009). "Word (Microsoft) Easter Egg - Pinball in Word 97". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^ a b Osterman, Larry (21 October 2005). "Why no Easter Eggs?". Larry Osterman's WebLog. Microsoft Docs. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ISBN 9781593272579. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- ^ "apt-private/private-moo.cc". main - APT Developers / apt - GitLab. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ "cmdline/apt-get.cc". main - APT Developers / apt - GitLab. 28 October 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Hoye, David (13 March 2003). "'Easter egg' hunts can turn up surprises". Newsbank. The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved 4 November 2017.(subscription required)
- ^ "How to run Screensaver as Wallpaper in Windows 11/10". The Windows Club. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ Gaskell, John (19 July 1999). "Excel Easter Egg - Excel 95 Hall of Tortured Souls". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 30 April 2009.
- ^ Sherman, Chris (9 October 2018). "Updated: The big list of Google Easter eggs". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ a b Diaz, Jesus (26 July 2012). "The Easter Eggs Are Back in OS X—And This One Is Insanely Great". Gizmodo. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "OrkoHunter/python-easter-eggs: Curated list of all the easter eggs and hidden jokes in Python". GitHub. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
- ^ "Happy Birthday Description". F-Secure Labs. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
- ^ Kendig, Brian (1994). "Macintosh/Newton Easter Egg List". Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ hudson (21 August 2012). "Ghosts in the ROM". NYC Resistor. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ^ Tirosh, Udi (22 August 2012). "Photographs Of Apple Team Found In 25 Years Old Macintosh SE". DIY Photography. Archived from the original on 26 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "The World of 68' Micros". 5 (6). FARNA Systems. May 1998: 5. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
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: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ kcbhiw (24 July 2001). "HP 54600B Oscilloscope Easter Egg - Tetris Within Oscilloscope". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ TonyK (24 April 2002). "HP 54622D Easter Egg - HP Asteroids". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
- ^ Pavel (8 April 2000). "Tektronix 1751 Digital Video Osciloscope / Vectorscope Easter Egg - Fishes Swimming on Screen". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Paul, Matthias R. (24 December 2010). "Zusätzliche Funktionen für die Minolta Dynax 9 - Kleine Bescherung: Und es geht doch - 9Ti-Funktionen für Dynax 9" [Extra functions for the Dynax 9 - a little Christmas present: Against all odds, it works: 9Ti functions on the Dynax 9]. Mi-Fo (in German). Archived from the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2014. (NB. Description of an undocumented activation procedure to enable the extra functions of the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9Ti limited edition model on all standard black Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9 bodies equipped with second and third PCB revision, including all bodies with SSM/ADI upgrade.)
- ^ "Belated Christmas gift for Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9". Dyxum. 28 December 2010. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- ^ "Upgrade des fonctionnalités du D9 en D9Ti gratuite" [Upgrade of the functions of the D9 and D9Ti free]. AlphaDxD (in French). 5 January 2011. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- ^ Paul, Matthias R. (25 June 2006). "Maxxum 9 Update?". Shutterbug. Archived from the original on 27 October 2006.
[…] the SSM/ADI upgrade does not incorporate upgrading a black body to 9Ti specs, functions-wise. That is, the extra custom functions (except for 20-4) still do not normally exist on black bodies after the upgrade. Of course, 9Ti bodies do not lose their extra functions during the upgrade. […] Die-hard Minolta fans of the "black beauty" may feel free to contact […] if their camera body is either SSM/ADI upgraded already or shows the above mentioned improved behaviour. I may have some extra sweets for you... […]
(NB. Not related to the undocumented button sequence revealed in the 2010 post but giving general background on the subtle differences of the camera variants and already hinting on a more elaborate internal configuration file manipulation hack to switch camera profiles.) - ^ Miller, Paul E. (June 1976). "How To Use The HP-45 Calculator As a Stopwatch Or Elapsed-time Indicator". Popular Electronics.
- ISBN 9781933370163.
- ^ Compute!. 12 (6–9). Small System Service. 1990.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - ISBN 9780849311734. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
- ISBN 9781568843483. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
- ^ a b Supnik, Bob (24 February 2008). "CVAX". Computer Simulation and History. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ "Steal The Best". Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo. 7 July 1999. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (1 July 2011). "Comic Book Easter Eggs Archive!". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Johnston, Rich (8 April 2017). "Marvel Artist Ardian Syaf Hid Antisemitic And Anti-Christian Messages In This Week's X-Men Comic". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
And there was the time a production artist drew a penis on Bucky in classic Captain America archive reprints.
- ^ McCallum, Diana (4 February 2011). "6 Comic Book Easter Eggs That Stuck It to The Man". Cracked.com. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "Universe X Spidey 1 Harras Slander Variant". Recalled Comics. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (19 July 2011). "Comic Book Easter Eggs - New "Se"X-Men #118 Edition!". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Gail Simone (w), Ardian Syaf (p), Vicente Cifuentes (i). "In the Line of Fire" Batgirl, vol. 4, no. 9 (July 2012). DC Comics.
- ^ Lovett, Jamie (8 April 2017). "Marvel Releases Statement On Controversial X-Men Gold Art". ComicBook.com. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "Buni Yani Questioned Again in Cyber Harassment Case". Jakarta Globe. January 2017. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Brown, Tracy (11 April 2017). "Today in Entertainment: Inside Disney's Pandora; Fyre Fest's apology; and 'Hamilton' ticket details". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ISBN 9780072226638.
- ^ ISBN 9780415962414. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9781932112405. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- ^ Merda, Chad (30 January 2014). "Easter egg in Old Spice Super Bowl ad yields two tickets to curious fan". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
- ^ Bricken, Rob (25 May 2015). "Every She-Ra: Princess Of Power Figure, Ranked". io9. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
- ISBN 9781411631281. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
- ^ D'Onofrio, Matthew (14 May 2021). "10 Things Only Die-Hard Fans Of The Series Will Notice In Adventure Time: Distant Lands". Game Rant. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
- ^ Strause, Jackie (7 September 2017). "'Black Mirror' Bosses on "San Junipero" Sequel and an Unpredictable Season 4". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ^ Goslin, Austen (8 July 2022). "Stranger Things' Surfer Boy Pizza number really lets you call Argyle". Polygon. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
- ^ Kabay, M. E. (27 March 2000). "Easter eggs and the Trusted Computing Base". Network World. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Schultz, Greg (29 August 2010). "Take a look back at Microsoft Word Easter Eggs". ZDNet. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
Microsoft's developers hid multiple Easter Eggs in Word 95/97/2000.
- ^ Neuman, Peter G. (10 November 2006). "A Conversation with Douglas W. Jones and Peter G. Neumann". Queue. 5 (9). Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ISBN 9781590593899. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Wilkins, Alasdiar (13 April 2014). "Doctor Who: "Blink"/"Utopia"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ Gach, Ethan (30 March 2018). "The Real-Life Atari Secret That Inspired Ready Player One". Kotaku. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
External links
- "Chip Fun: Microchip-based Easter eggs" – National Museum of American History.
- The Easter Egg Archive