The Best Easter Eggs in Tech History
Since Easter is approaching and quarantine days are not over yet, how about setting off a fun adventure Easter egg hunt you can practice at home? Over the years, you might have come across some of the Easter eggs hidden in your favourite programs, video games, hardware and the web might but there are still a lot out there waiting to be discovered!
First, where it all started…
The inspiration behind Easter eggs comes from the long-living tradition of Easter egg hunt, where kids have to find the hidden decorated eggs. In the computing and software world, an Easter egg is a purposely hidden message (or joke) or feature in a product. Most of the times, Easter eggs are used to display the credits of the development team that built the product or to display a fun message. Finding an Easter egg is not that simple, as users have to follow a special procedure. This adds to the fun of going on a hunt for Easter eggs as you stumble upon them accidentally.
But why are they hidden and how did developers come up with this idea? The first software Easter egg appeared in the 1979 Atari 2600 game, Adventure. It is said, that developers that worked for Atari were kept as a secret to avoid being recruited by rival companies. Warren Robinett, who worked on that project at the time created and hid a feature with his name in the game to credit his work.
Now you know how Easter eggs were first created are you ready to discover some hidden treasures in software products you use every day?
Apple’s Mouse
If you thought your Mac’s mouse is just an ordinary mouse then think again or, better, try holding it above your desk with the red LED light open. The image of a mouse will be revealed before your eyes.
Google’s Barrel Roll
Google has a lot of Easter eggs hidden in its search engine. Most of them are triggered by using search phrases such as “do a barrel roll”.
Messenger
People use the Messenger app a lot for texting or calling but did you know you could actually play games on it? First Easter egg on the app is the basketball. Just text a basketball emoji and press on it to let a basketball net make an appearance.
If you don’t like basketball or want to discover more than press the little plus symbol on the bottom left corner that appears in a chat window and tap on the “games” icon. A list of games will appear before your eyes.
It is no secret that developers hide their fun Easter eggs everywhere! See all 101 best Easter eggs in tech history.
