Easter Egg

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An Easter egg should not be confused with a bug which is an unintended malfunction of a program.

In the computer scene is an Easter egg an intentionally hidden message, surprise, inside joke, or extra functionality which isn't documented and is very often well hidden hidden. Easter eggs often have very imaginative or funny references or innuendos. Easter eggs can include references to the authors, coders, developers, creators, etc. of the software or hardware.

In recent years, Easter eggs very often appear in diverse computer programs including applications, operating systems and even games. Since the dawn of the Web-based Internet, Easter eggs have also appeared on websites.

The computer game Adventure , which was created for the Atari 2600 console in 1978 contains what is perhaps the first example of an Easter egg. The author of the game, Warren Robinett, encoded his name within a hidden part of the game. He was motivated to do so because, at the time, Atari did not publicly credit programmers for their work.

Non-Easter Eggs

Not all hidden or undocumented feature are true Easter eggs. Hidden features that (usually) do not qualify as Easter Eggs include:

• Undocumented cheat codes triggered by key combinations.
• POKEs to memory locations that gain the player extra lives, or more live energy.
• Applications hidden from end users which useful to IT professionals.
• Malicious software such as viruses.
• Functions known euphemistically as "digital rights management" which interfere with the ordinary function of the machine in order to make some kinds of software piracy more difficult.

This is a list of Easter eggs for the C64:

C64

Easter egg in C64-BASIC 2.0

Try it yourself, write after the key combinations RUN/STOP  + RESTORE  this:

POKE781,96:SYS58251

It appears an absurd and randomize listing of the char ? (look screenshot). Stop this with pressing the keys RUN/STOP  + RESTORE  or use a reset.

Games

• Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior: The coders design the sprite of princess Mariana naked, but it isn't used in the game. With a cracked version of the group "Remember" you can used these special sprite in the game. It must be acivated in the cheat menu.
• California Games: If you wait to long in level discus, a ufo kidnap you. Other hidden jokes are also inside the game.
• Goldshaft
• Gremlins – The Adventure
• Summer Games and Summer Games II: By pressing the key combination F3 +DEL +CRSR down  an alternative start screen appears.
• The Games – Summer Edition
• Mega Apocalypse: By pressing a key combination you start the "star mode for insomniacs".
• Spindizzy: At a special corner on the map you see the word "HAWK WIND".
• World Games: By input the first names "AUTHOR" and "OFTHEGAME", appears a small animation in the levels "Barrel Jumping" or "Bull Riding".
• Zak McKracken: The famous red herring is the petrol can on the Mars, which is needed for the chain saw in Maniac Mansion.
• In many text- and graphic adventures: The frustrating input of four-letter words in the command line show ironic comments.

Links

Egg Wikipedia: Easter Egg

• Commodore Easter Eggs at MOS6502.com
• Bill Gates’ Personal Easter Eggs in 8 Bit BASIC at pagetable.com
• German collection of Easter Eggs