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Oddball Easter Eggs on Vista DVDs

by Terrence O'Brien on June 15, 2007 at 01:42 PM


Peering at the hologram on his DVD of Windows Vista Business Edition with a microscope -- why, we don't know -- one Windows user discovered an entire nest of Easter eggs. Easter eggs, for those who don't know, are when developers or programmers hide jokes somewhere inside of games, DVDs and software -- often times unbeknownst to their bosses.

These Easter eggs are a series of minuscule photos that are invisible to the naked eye. Upon closer inspection, they're revealed to be works of art. There are also a few photos of people, who we're guessing are the parties responsible for the gag. On the official Windows Vista Blog -- yes, such a thing exists -- Microsoft claims the photos are an anti-piracy measure designed to make the discs harder to forge. We think it's more like Microsoft is only now learning of the photos and is playing the "We knew they were there the whole time" game.

Easter eggs in technology go back a long way, but were popularized by the Atari game, 'Adventure.' At the time of its 1978 release, game programmers weren't often given credit for their games -- especially at Atari -- so Warren Robinett hid his name in a room that was all but impossible to find, even if you were looking for it. Since then, Easter eggs have become commonplace.

Microsoft has a long history with Easter eggs, itself. For example, in Office 95, the inspirational tips of the day included such gems as, "You can hurt yourself if you run with scissors," and "You should never look directly at the sun." In Office 97, there's a hidden flight simulator game in Excel and a hidden pinball game in Word (see photo). Internet Explorer 4's developer credits contained the following:

"Disclaimer: No fluffy warm creatures were maimed, dismembered, tortured, deplumed, discarded, deflowered, dropped, twisted, wrungOut, extended, respliced, broken, humiliated, irradiated, browbeaten, pickled, deluded, duped, detained, mishandled, desiccated, bronzed, belittled, coddled, expelled, deported, imbibed, elected, marginalized, placated, misrepresented, overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, prepackaged, overly petted, genetically altered or cloned during the making of this product, except of course for Bunny and Bear."

For more fun Easter egg hunting, check out the following resources:


From Engadget

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Tags: easter eggs, EasterEggs, hidden, microsoft, vista, windows

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