DVD Easter Eggs
During Easter, young children try to find out eggs hidden in their courtyard by Easter bunny. But Easter eggs in the virtual world are hidden messages or features in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. These eggs can be graphics, sound effects, or an unusual change in program behavior, that mainly occur in a software program in response to some undocumented set of commands, mouse clicks, keystrokes or other stimuli.
Microsoft geeks have been pioneers in inserting hidden Easter eggs in various Microsoft software. When Microsoft released MS Excel there was an Easter egg in the software. The developers hid a game in the program. You had to fill certain fields of the spreadsheet with a specific value, etc. and you were able to unlock this ‘Doom-like’ game. Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, which contained a small, hidden video game named ‘GORILLA.BAS’, is another such example.
Easter eggs are equally ubiquitous in DVD releases of movies, these are often in the form of hidden trailers, documentaries, or deleted scenes, and are accessed by manipulation of the disc’s interactive menus. The developers who make the DVD’s, their menu systems, etc. tend to hide special features on the disc. Easter eggs in computer and video games are different from cheat codes which allow players to cheat.
Despite the apparently innocuous nature of this software wizardry, companies have become increasingly apprehensive of Easter eggs. For example Microsoft no longer allows Easter eggs as part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative.