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File:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg, 250px, An image that reveals an Easter egg when the hedgehog is clicked or tapped. Another Easter egg can be found in a tooltip when a mouse pointer is hovered over the hedgehog. rect 455 383 550 434 I am a hedgehog, NOT an egg! desc none
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
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...
video game ''
Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'', in reference to an Easter egg hunt. The earliest known video game Easter egg is in '' Moonlander'' (1973), in which the player tries to land a
Lunar module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...
on the moon; if the player opts to fly the module horizontally through several of the game's screens, they encounter a
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
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 The PDP-6, short for Programmed Data Processor model 6, is a computer developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) during 1963 and first delivered in the summer of 1964. It was an expansion of DEC's existing 18-bit systems to use a 36-bit d ...
/
PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, espec ...
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.


Origin

The use of the term " Easter egg" to describe secret features in video games originates from the 1980 video game ''
Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'' for the
Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
game console, programmed by employee Warren Robinett. At the time,
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...
did not include programmers' names in the game credits, both to prevent competitors from poaching its developers as well as to deny developers a means to bargain with the management of the new owners,
Warner Communications Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...
. Robinett, who disagreed with his supervisor over this lack of acknowledgment, secretly programmed the message "Created by Warren Robinett" to appear only if a player moves their
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...
over a specific pixel (dubbed the "Gray Dot") during a certain part of the game and enters a previously "forbidden" part of the map where the message can be found. When Robinett left Atari, he did not inform the company of the acknowledgment that he included in the game. Shortly after his departure, the "Gray Dot" and his message were discovered by a player. Atari's management initially wanted to remove the message and release the game again, until this was deemed too costly. Instead, Steve Wright, the Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division, suggested that they keep the message and, in fact, encourage the inclusion of such messages in future games, describing them as Easter eggs for consumers to find.


In video games

While Robinett's message in ''
Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'' led to the first use of the phrase "Easter egg", Easter eggs are included in previous video games. The earliest known video game Easter egg is in '' Moonlander'' (1973), in which the player tries to land a spaceship on the moon; if the player flies horizontally enough, they encounter a
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
restaurant and if they land next to it an astronaut will visit it instead of standing next to the ship. Other early known Easter eggs include one in the first text adventure game, '' Colossal Cave Adventure'' (1976), from which ''Adventure'' was fashioned, which includes several secret words. One of these is " xyzzy", a command which enables the player to move between two points in the game world. According to research by Ed Fries, one of the earliest Easter eggs in a graphical video games could be found in '' Starship 1'' (1977), programmed by Ron Milner. By triggering the cabinet's controls in the right order, the player can have the message "Hi Ron!" appear on the screen. Fries describes it as "the earliest arcade game yet known that clearly meets the definition of an Easter egg". The existence of this Easter egg wasn't published until 2017, leading Fries to suggest that, as more than one hundred arcade games predate ''Starship 1'', earlier Easter eggs may still be undiscovered. Fries says that some Atari arcade cabinets were resold under the Kee Games label and include changes to the hardware that make the game appear different from the Atari version. '' Anti-Aircraft II'' (1975) includes a means to modify the circuit board to make the airplanes in the game appear as alien UFOs. Fries surmises that this feature may have been intended for a Kee Games release. For this reason, and because it requires a hardware modification, Fries questions whether it meets the definition of an Easter egg. In 2004, an Easter egg displaying programmer Bradley Reid-Selth's surname was found in ''Video Whizball'' (1978), a game for the Fairchild Channel F system. Since ''Adventure'', there has been a long history of video game developers placing Easter eggs in their games. 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 ''Age of Empires'' is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was '' Age of Empires'', released in 1997. Nine total games within the se ...
'' (1997) is an example of the latter;
catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stor ...
projectiles are changed from stones to cows. More elaborate Easter eggs include secret levels and developers' rooms—fully functional, hidden areas of the game. Developers' rooms often include inside jokes from the
fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
or development team and differ from a debug room in that they are specifically intended for the player to find. Some games even include hidden
minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than t ...
s as Easter eggs. In the LucasArts game ''
Day of the Tentacle ''Day of the Tentacle'', also known as ''Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle'', is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game ''Maniac Mansion''. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli a ...
'' (1993), the original '' Maniac Mansion'' (1987) game can be played in its full version by using a home computer in a character's room. Similarly, a programmer included the whole of ''
TimeSplitters 2 ''TimeSplitters 2'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Free Radical Design and published by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube game consoles. It is the second game in the ''TimeSplitters'' series, and a sequel to ...
'' (2002) within '' Homefront: The Revolution'' (2016), accessed by using a special code at an in-game arcade cabinet. Other Easter eggs originated unintentionally. The Konami Code, a type of cheat code, became an intentional Easter egg in most games, but it originated from Konami's '' Gradius'' (1985) for the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
. The programmer, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, created the code as a means to rapidly
debug In computer programming and software development, debugging is the process of finding and resolving '' bugs'' (defects or problems that prevent correct operation) within computer programs, software, or systems. Debugging tactics can involve i ...
the game by giving the player's avatar additional health and powers to easily traverse the game. These types of codes are normally removed from the game before it is shipped but, in the case of ''Gradius'', Hashimoto forgot to remove it and the code was soon discovered by players. Its popularity inspired Konami to reuse the code and purposely retain it for many of its future games as an Easter egg. Technical issues may also create unintentional Easter eggs. Jon Burton, founder of
Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developi ...
, said that many seemingly apparent Easter eggs in their
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...
games came about as a result of introducing programming tricks to get around some of the difficulty they had in getting Sega's strict certification for their games, catching any exceptions during execution to bring the game back to a usable state as to pass certification. For example, hitting the side of the ''
Sonic 3D Blast known in Europe and Japan as is a 1996 platform game in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series for the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn. As Sonic the Hedgehog, the player embarks on a journey to save the Flickies, birds enslaved by Doctor Robotnik. ...
'' (1996) cartridge while it is slotted in the console will bring the game back to the Level Select screen, which Burton explains is the default exception handling for any unidentified processor error, such as when connectivity between the cartridge and the console's microprocessor is temporarily lost.


In computing


Software

In
computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
, Easter eggs are secret responses that occur as a result of an undocumented set of commands. The results can vary from a simple printed message or image to a page of programmer credits or a small video game hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software. Software developers have planted easter eggs in all programming languages, in all platforms, from operating systems to web browsers. In the
TOPS-10 TOPS-10 System (''Timesharing / Total Operating System-10'') is a discontinued operating system from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for the PDP-10 (or DECsystem-10) mainframe computer family. Launched in 1967, TOPS-10 evolved from the earlie ...
operating system (for the DEC
PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, espec ...
mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
), the command is used to invoke the TECO editor to create a file. If given the file name argument , so that the command reads , it will pause and respond before creating the file. The Easter egg was added sometime between October 1967 and October 1968 by William F. Weiher at the Stanford AI Lab to the COMPIL program for the PDP-6, which was then used in the TOPS-10 operating system, making it the first Easter egg in a software program. This same behavior occurs on the RSTS/E operating system, where TECO will provide this response. Other
Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
s respond to "" with "" (a reference to '' The Prisoner'' in Berkeley Unix, 1977). Some versions of the DEC
OpenVMS OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing and virtual memory-based operating system. It is designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. Customers using Ope ...
operating system have concealed exit status codes, including a reference to the
Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...
Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" is a Monty Python sketch. It first aired in 1970 on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' as part of Episode 25, and also appears in the film ''And Now for Something Completely Different''. ''Atlas Obscura'' has noted tha ...
skit; "" returns the message "%SYSTEM-W-FISH, my hovercraft is full of eels" while "" returns a reference to an early
Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
: "%SYSTEM-F-GAMEOVER, All your base are belong to us". Easter eggs in the 1997 version of
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
include a hidden
flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they re ...
in
Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro (comp ...
and a pinball game in
Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...
. Since 2002, Microsoft does not allow any hidden or undocumented code as part of its trustworthy computing initiative. The
Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...
operating system's package tool
apt-get Advanced package tool, or APT, is a free-software user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on Debian, and Debian-based Linux distributions. APT simplifies the process of managing softwa ...
has an Easter egg involving an
ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
cow when variants on are typed into the shell. An Easter egg is found on all Microsoft Windows operating systems before XP. In the 3D Text screen saver, entering the text "volcano" will display the names of all the
volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...
es in the United States. Microsoft removed this Easter egg in XP but added others. In Windows Vista and later, by launching a screensaver executable (introduced with Windows Vista) on the command line with the /p65552 flag, for example launching the "bubbles" screen saver with bubbles.scr /p65552 command-line parameter, it runs as desktop wallpaper. Microsoft Excel 95 contains a hidden action game similar to ''
Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * ...
'' (1993) called ''The Hall of Tortured Souls''. The Google search engine famously contains many Easter eggs, given to the user in response to certain search queries.
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
banned Easter eggs from Apple products upon his return to the company. 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
timestamp A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolut ...
ed as "24 January 1984", the date of the sales launch of the original
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
. The Python programming language and its ecosystem of libraries include various Easter eggs.


Firmware

While computer-related Easter eggs are often found in installed
software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...
, occasionally they exist in the
firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
of certain devices. On some
home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. ...
and early
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or te ...
s the ROM contains Easter eggs, including lists of the developers' names, political exhortations, snatches of music, or images of the entire development team. The palmtop PC HP 200LX (1994) includes an undocumented hex calculator HEXCALC.EXM. The built-in maze game "Lair of Squid" incorporates a hidden gallery of the software developers. In test mode it displays several poems. Other notable examples include some errant 1993 AMI BIOS that on 13 November 1993, proceeded to play "Happy Birthday" via the PC speaker repeatedly instead of
booting In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via Computer hardware, hardware such as a button or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its ma ...
, as well as several early
Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...
models that have photos of the development team in the ROM. These Mac Easter eggs were well-publicized in the Macintosh press at the time along with the means to access them, and were later recovered by an NYC Resistor team, a hacker collective, through elaborate
reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
. Similarly, the Radio Shack Color Computer 3's ROM contains code which displays what looks like three Microware developers on a + + keypress sequence—a hard reset which discards any information currently in RAM. Several
oscilloscope An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...
s contain Easter eggs. One example is the HP 54600B, known to have a '' Tetris'' (1984) clone, and the HP 54622D contains an imitation of the ''
Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
'' (1979) game named ''Rocks''. Another is the Tektronix 1755A Vector and Waveform Monitor which displays swimming fish when Remote > Software version is selected on the CONFIG menu. In the second and third hardware revision of the Minolta Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9 (introduced in 1998) SLR camera, including all SSM/ADI upgraded bodies (since 2003), an undocumented button sequence can be utilized to reconfigure the camera to behave like the Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9Ti (1999) and subsequently invoke support for the limited model's extra functions also in the black model. (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.) (NB. Not related to the undocumented button sequence revealed in the 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.) One of
Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
's electronic pocket
calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...
s, the
HP-45 The HP-45 is the second scientific pocket calculator introduced by Hewlett-Packard, adding to the features of the HP-35. It was introduced in 1973 with an MSRP of US$395 (). Especially noteworthy was its pioneering addition of a shift key that ga ...
(introduced in 1973), has a built-in undocumented stopwatch.


Hardware

The
Commodore Amiga 1000 The Commodore Amiga 1000, also known as the A1000, is the first personal computer released by Commodore International in the Amiga line. It combines the 16/32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU which was powerful by 1985 standards with one of the most adva ...
computer includes the signatures of the design and development team embossed on the inside of the case, including Jay Miner and the paw print of his dog, Mitchy. The Commodore
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
models 500, 600, and 1200 each feature Easter eggs in the form of song titles by
The B-52's The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, ...
as white printing on the
motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...
s. The 500 says " B52/Rock Lobster", the 600 says " June Bug", and the 1200 says " Channel Z". The Amiga OS software contains hidden messages. Many
integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
(chip) designers have included hidden graphics elements termed
chip art Chip art, also known as silicon art, chip graffiti or silicon doodling, refers to microscopic artwork built into integrated circuits, also called chips or ICs. Since ICs are printed by photolithography, not constructed a component at a time, th ...
, including images, phrases, developer initials, logos, and more. This artwork, like the rest of the chip, is reproduced in each copy by
lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
and
etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
. These are visible only when the chip package is opened and examined under magnification. The 1984 CVAX microchip implementation of the MicroVAX CPU contains in its etchings the Russian phrase in the
Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
alphabet "VAX: When you care enough to steal the very best", 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".


Comics

American
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
artists are known to include hidden messages in their art: * In a reprint of classic ''
Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...
'' comics, a production artist drew a penis on Bucky Barnes. * In 2000, Al Milgrom inserted a message into '' Universe X: Spidey'' #1 insulting his previous boss, Marvel Editor in Chief Bob Harras, following Harras' termination from
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in ...
. 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". *
Ethan Van Sciver Ethan Daniel Van Sciver (No date on article; date appears in the website') (; born September 3, 1974) is an American comics artist and social media personality. He is known for illustrating or drawing covers for a number of superhero titles in the ...
hid the word "sex" in the background of nearly every page of '' New X-Men'' #118 (November 2001). 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. * Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf is known to engage in the practice of hiding Easter egg references to political figures in the backgrounds of his artwork. In ''
Batgirl Batgirl is the name of several superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, depicted as female counterparts and allies to the superhero Batman. Although the character Betty Kane was introduced into publication in ...
'' (vol. 4) #9 (July 2012), Syaf included a storefront sign that referenced the
President of Indonesia The President of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Presiden Republik Indonesia) is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia. The president leads the executive branch of the Indonesian government an ...
,
Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...
, although the text that accompanies the image of Widodo is covered by a caption. In April 2017, he caused an outcry by placing Easter egg references to the
November 2016 Jakarta protests November 2016 Jakarta protests (also called Protests defending the Quran or 4 November peace protests) refer to an Islamist mass protest which took place on 4 November 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was attended by an estimated 50,000–200,000 pr ...
into the pages of '' X-Men Gold'' #1, which were perceived by readers to be
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
and anti-Christian. Though Syaf acknowledged the political nature of the messages, he stated that they were not intended to express any anti-Semitic nor anti-Christian sentiment on his part. In response to these Easter eggs, Marvel terminated their contract with Syaf.


Video


Home media

Easter eggs are found on films, DVDs, and
Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
s, often as deleted scenes or bonus features. Klinger states that their presence is "another signifier of artistry in the world of DVD supplements." According to American film critics James Berardinelli and
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
, most DVDs do not contain them and most examples are "inconsequential", but a few, such as the one found on the '' Memento'' DVD release, are "worth the effort to seek out".


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
hidden Mickey A Hidden Mickey is a representation of Mickey Mouse that has been inserted subtly into the design of a ride, attraction, or other location in a Disney theme park, Disney properties, animated film, feature-length movie, TV series, or other Disney ...
in a Disney film or a real telephone number instead of a
555 Year 555 ( DLV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 555 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the p ...
fictitious telephone number Ranges for fictitious telephone numbers are common in most telephone numbering plans. One of the main reasons these ranges exist is to avoid accidentally using real phone numbers in movies and television programs because of viewers frequently calli ...
. A 2014 Super Bowl advertisement was leaked online in which a lady gives a man a real telephone number, which the advertiser had hidden as a marketing ploy; the first caller to the number received a pair of tickets to the game. The 1980s animated series '' She-Ra: Princess of Power'' featured a character called Loo-Kee who typically appeared once per episode, hidden in a single screenshot. At the end of the episode, the screenshot would be shown again and Loo-Kee would challenge viewers to locate him before revealing his hiding place.
Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
also had a character known as The Snail that was hidden in almost every episode of the show. 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. The
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
series ''
Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Pr ...
'' 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.


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 " logic bomb" could also bypass testing. Kabay asserts that this undermined the Trusted Computing Base, a paradigm of trustworthy hardware and software in place since the 1980s, and is of concern wherever personal or confidential information is stored, as this may then be vulnerable to damage or manipulation. Microsoft created some of the largest and most elaborate Easter eggs, such as those in
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
. In 2005, Larry Osterman of Microsoft acknowledged Microsoft Easter eggs, and his involvement in development of one, but described them as "irresponsible", and wrote that the company's
Operating System An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
division "has a 'no Easter Eggs' policy" as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative. In 2006, Douglas W. Jones said that while "some Easter eggs may be intentional tools used to detect illegal copying, others are clearly examples of unauthorized functionality that has slipped through the quality-control tests at the vendor". While hidden Easter eggs themselves are harmless, it may be possible for
malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depr ...
to be hidden in similar ways in voting machines or other computers. Netscape Navigator contributor
Jamie Zawinski Jamie Zawinski (born November 3, 1968), commonly known as jwz, is an American computer programmer, blogger and impresario. He is best known for his role in the creation of Netscape Navigator, Netscape Mail, Lucid Emacs, Mozilla.org, and XSc ...
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.


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 ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'' episode "
Blink Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral portio ...
", the existence of video Easter eggs across seventeen DVDs leads to solving the protagonists' dilemma. * In Ernest Cline's novel '' Ready Player One'' and its
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
, the protagonists are competing with others to find various Easter eggs within a large
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...
environment. The final challenge includes identifying and reaching the Easter egg from the Atari ''Adventure'' game.


See also

* * *
List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products Some of Microsoft's early products included hidden Easter eggs. Microsoft formally stopped including Easter eggs in its programs as part of its Trustworthy Computing Initiative in 2002. Windows Windows 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 all include an Eas ...
*
List of filmmaker's signatures This is a list of filmmakers' signatures or Easter eggs that are found in many of their works which become signatures or trademarks. These are usually inconsequential small elements like signs which are inside jokes, cameos or references to other ...
* List of Google Easter eggs * List of Easter eggs in Tesla products * * * ''
The Book of Mozilla ''The Book of Mozilla'' is a computer Easter egg found in the Netscape, Mozilla, SeaMonkey and Firefox series of web browsers. It is viewed by directing the browser to . There is no real book titled ''The Book of Mozilla''. However, apparent qu ...
'' * *


References


External links


"Chip Fun: Microchip-based Easter eggs"
– National Museum of American History.
The Easter Egg Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Easter Egg (Media) Cheating in video games Computer humor In-jokes Perception Software anomalies Software features