Atari VCS/2600
Easter egg contest!
Updated November 20, 2001
Our first contest winner is Kurt Howe! With a little programming "trickery", he was able to uncover the special display in Activision's SPACE SHUTTLE. Excellent work!
Digital Press' very own John Hardie has turned up Peter Niday's initials in Dumbo's Flying Circus, courtesy of a little "fireside" chat with Peter himself. Peter also mentioned that either one or both of his other 2 games may also conceal a hidden surprise. See the entry below for more info!
The "mystery" guardian in Tutankham is none other than King Tut himself! See the Easter egg entry for this game for a picture of it.
Next up are Thomas Jentzsch and Ronnie Dingman ("Stan Jr"), who deciphered the solution to revealing the last major Easter egg in E.T. It took nearly 17 years (to the day) to finally solve this riddle. It was originally mentioned via an anonymous letter sent to Electronic Games magazine (January 1984). In 1993, Jeff Adkins was the first known person to document his brief accidental discovery of the initials. His description appears in the 2600 Connection #17 (E.T.: The Warshaw sword). Howard Scott Warshaw confirmed its existence in 1996-97, in both Slap-Dash and the 2600 Connection. In follow-ups to both Warshaw and Jerome Domurat, neither one remembered how to trigger them. Early this year (2001) two people contacted me (Keith "Lordhtiek" and Kristine Roper) to say that they had seen them, but also didn't know how to repeat it. On Nov. 8, I found the graphics for the initials in the code, using a program called ROMHACK, by Fabrizio Zavagli, which started a 24-hour brain-storming session to find the solution. Kurt Howe ("Nukey Shay") began disassembling the code to see how it was triggered. Ronnie then joined in, trying to find them through normal playing (he mentioned that he had stumbled across them numerous times, but thought nothing of it...), while Thomas took Kurt's approach. Amazingly, both Thomas and Ronnie discovered the solution within minutes of each other, using completely different methods! How incredible is that??
Thomas Jentzsch found how how Steve Woita's hidden message is revealed in Quadrun. Actually, it's not hidden at all! If you reach the 6th level (past GOONS, SNAGS, YO-YOS, NODS, and BRATS), it's called "WOITA WAVE" (same as in Taz). He hacked the code to make a special version of the game, with unlimited lives and time, to discover this.
Thomas Jentzsch scores again! After I found Bob Polaro's initials in Sprintmaster, Thomas went to work and disassembled some of the code to find out how it's triggered. He also proved that the rumored Pac-Man "infinite lives" trick is not true. As for the other trick, Delf Meek confirmed that the tunnel glitch does exist!
After an extensive search by several individuals, it is fairly certain that Jerome M. Domurat's initials do not exist in the release version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, so this leaves the possibility that any prototypes that are out there may have it. Screenshots of it (showing it in the Valley of Poison) can be found in at least 4 publications: Electronic Games magazine, November 1982 (page 8); Electronic Games magazine, March 1984, page 24 (picture is upside-down); Consumer's Guide book, How to Win at Home Video Games, page 56, and in the book, Videospelletjes - complete handleiding voor winnaars, on page 52 (by Arnie Katz, Bill Kunkel and Kees van Toorn). If you have, or know of anyone who has a prototype of this game, please email me!
Big money! Big prizes!
Answers are worth $100, $75, or $25 each. See below. There's also a $50 "bounty" for any heretofore unknown hidden names/initials/messages that are revealed during gameplay in games. Check http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/2600.htm for a current list of known Easter eggs.
If you have an answer to submit, please send them to: super_stonic@yahoo.com
The contest deadline will be announced at a later date.
Good luck and happy hunting!
$25:
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (by Atari)
According to an interview with Warshaw (in the Winter 1999 issue of Classic Gamer Magazine) a Yar will fly up through the treasure room (inside a mesa) when you start digging. It depends on the right configuration of (three?) items in your inventory.
$75:
BOB POLARO's missing egg
Do any more of Bob's games have Easter eggs left in them? The remaining titles are Holey Moley, Rampage, RealSports Volleyball, Road Runner, and Stunt Cycle (and the Dukes of Hazzard variant).
$75:
FATHOM (by Imagic)
Rob Fulop revealed that the "escape" ship (shown at the end of Atlantis and Cosmic Ark) is hidden somewhere in the game somewhere, but doesn't recall how to uncover it.
$75:
HAUNTED HOUSE (by Atari)
Are Steven Wright's initials hidden somewhere in Grave's Manor?
$75:
PETER NIDAY's missing egg(s)
According to Peter, besides Dumbo's Flying Circus, there is most likely another Easter egg in Sorcerer's Apprentice, and possibly Crystal Castles as well.
$25:
STAR RAIDERS (by Atari)
Has anyone discovered the "mystery" rank through playing/beating the game? (Videotape)
Is it possible to save the star base in any version? (Videotape)
$25:
LASER GATES / RESCUE TERRA 1 / SPACE CAVERN
Programmer Dan Oliver mentioned in an interview that one of his games contained an undocumented (?) feature that reconfigured the joystick for a left-handed player.
Can Laser Gates be beaten? (Videotape)
$25:
MISSILE COMMAND (by Atari)
Copies of this game are rumored to exist without Rob Fulop's initials in them - does anybody have one?
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