Memorable Easter Eggs In Games

[Dohc-WP]

An Easter Egg in a game is not related the chocolaty type of luxury we are used to indulging in but instead is a hidden minigame, secret or parody within a video game. According to Wikipedia, the name Easter egg comes from Dan O'Bannon's horror spoof, Return of the Living Dead. In the film, a container of zombies goes missing and is referred to--in code--as an "Easter egg."

The first Easter egg on the list is the one that started it all. In 1980, Atari programmer Warren Robinett set about making a video game version of the original text Adventure. In the depths of the black castle in Games 2 and 3, which required special tools, direction, and a certain amount of know-how, players could maneuver to a room by the catacombs that had a single-pixel gray dot, the same color as the game's background. The dot would allow players access through a wall to a superfluous area with the text "Created by Warren Robinett" running down the middle. Robinett was partially motivated by the fact that, at the time, designers weren't given credit for their games. And so he claimed his own. Given the size of Atari games, this little screen ate a substantial portion of the memory (at around 5 percent), although Robinett has claimed that he created it only after the game was finished. Reprinting the cartridge without this screen would have proved to be too costly for Atari, and given the relative obscurity of the egg, it was left in for all future printings. These days, Adventure is almost as notorious for fathering the first Easter egg as it is for its innovations in action adventure gameplay.

Some memorable Easter Eggs are :


IN Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a hidden music track is revealed when you try to read it as a CD instead of as a PlayStation disc. In any music-playing program, if you load the black PlayStation disc, you'll be treated to "Alucard #2," the second (and only listenable) track listed. The song begins with a warning from the man himself to not attempt to listen to the first track, since it's merely computer data followed by a full Castlevania song that's been remixed. Click the Castlevania picture to listen to the beginning of the hidden track.


In need For Speed Most wanted the Main Player in the Game Drives into The City of Rockport In a BMW M3 GTR (The Hero Car in the Game) Ironically at the End of Juiced 1 (A game that was The Direct Rival to The Need For Speed Underground Series) the player leaves to go to Rockport in an M3 GTR !


as we all know Diablo II was and still is a serious game, but it didn't mind exhibiting a little humor every now and then. Once a rumor surrounding the original Diablo, the infamous "Secret Cow Level" was a reality in Diablo II, and infused the strategy game with a little fun. A Unique sequence of events and one complete play-through of the game let you open a portal to a world where cows reigned supreme. All you needed was the leg of Wirt (an artifact from the game's first act) by the time you defeated Diablo in the game's last act. A trip to town and a transmute later and you'd have an open portal to a place known only as the "Secret Cow Level," which was filled with a seemingly endless amount of hell's bovines. Of course, the sheer number of these creatures and their high levels provided a worthy challenge to Diablo II fans, who now play that level almost exclusively to power up their characters. More humorous than the fact that you're fighting hordes of two-legged cows is that they emit quite-human-sounding "Moos," and they literally swarm you. Once they finally let up, you can fight the Cow King, but defeating him means sealing off the Secret Cow Level forever. So do so with caution. The Secret Cow Level is an example of an Easter egg that takes some work to unlock, but it also provides a decent reward. Not only does it exhibit the humor of Blizzard North's programmers, but also it's worth the effort financially.


In "GTA III," 2001, and the "GTA III" set in the film studio in "Vice City,"there are movie posters for "Badfellas" that feature a drawing of Marlon Brando as he appears as Don Vito Corleone in the title role of "The Godfather," 1972, which also stars Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, James Caan as Santino "Sonny" Corleone, and Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor (Marlon Brando) of 1972.


In Grand Theft auto San Andreas When you import cars from the docks, there are many different license plates there that are unusual to the standards license plates found on the regular cars. I will let you explore the differentiations, but there is one specific one worth mention, which states "EA sucks". LOL...

Also in GTA San Andreas If you visited Los Santos, located in the Unity Station, and you looked through the tunnel the train goes to, you can locate a sign. Zoom by any means and see a parody of the GTA-wannabe True Crimes: Streets of LA, and the sign will read: True Grime Street Cleaners.


Another San Andreas one is In the San Fierro side of the Gant Bridge, there's a little diner area and a parking lot area near it. Here, you can view a sign that gives the in-game statistics about the bridge itself, such as how many memory spaces did it take, how much pixels, and whatever.


Final Fantasy Tactics wasn't the first game to include characters from an earlier game in the series, but it's definitely one of the most well-thought-out. In its installment as one of GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time, homage is paid to the Cloud Strife Easter egg. "Not only is Final Fantasy Tactics one of the greatest games of all time, but it also features one of the greatest Easter eggs of all time: Cloud Strife, the hero of Square's remarkably popular Final Fantasy VII, is a hidden, playable character. He comes equipped with his trademark buster sword and limit break special moves from FFVII. Finding Cloud, and getting him to join you, was a convoluted process, to say the least, but word of his presence in the game quickly spread--even as many fans of Final Fantasy Tactics continued to believe that this hidden character was a hoax. For good measure, and as part of the process of getting Cloud to join your party, Ramza has a run-in with a girl who looks identical to Final Fantasy VII's Aeris. These cameo appearances helped solidify Final Fantasy Tactics' reputation as a genuine Final Fantasy game, since everything else about it is so different from the series' conventions."


The Metal Gear Solid Series alone could probably generate an entire document on Easter eggs, since the series is rife with extras. One of the most famous is its ode to perverted little boys everywhere: the chance to see the game's empowered female character, Meryl, in her underwear. Long before Hillary Clinton was vying for presidency, Meryl had no one to protect her naked legs from a vent-crawling, peeping Snake. Before freeing her (or the DARPA chief, for that matter) from prison, Snake can peer in on both of them from a ceiling vent. A few trips in and out of the vent and you get the opportunity to witness different moments in Meryl's workout routine, from sit-ups to one-handed push-ups. If you do it enough times, she'll begin doing her workout in her underwear. Although frankly, this one is more like tepid coffee, since seeing a woman's legs isn't the most provocative event in video game history.


In the second last level of Duke Nukem 3D ATOMIC, in the third room, if you press the action button at one of the walls it will open, and you will see Homer's desk at Sector 7G and many donuts on the desk.


Also in Duke nukem 3D, throughout the game some billboards can be seen that say "Guilty?" on them. This is a reference to the OJ Simpson trial. The game was released around the time his trial was taking place. Another Reference to the Trial is In the Red Light District Area at the bar area, there is a TV screen with a white car, this is another reference to the infamous OJ Simpson trial where OJ's white Ford Bronco is being chased down the freeway by the police.


InDeath row in Duke Nukem 3d there is a dead Space Marine; this guy is from the DOOM series of games by ID Software. This is an actual sprite from the game during the Marine's death phase, though it has been chopped up and gored up a bit more than it is in Doom. When Duke sees the marine, he says "That's one DOOMed space marine!".


At the Toxic Dump Level in Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition the submarine's name is USS Dallas, which is the name of the submarine in the movie "Hunt For Red October"


On The Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition Stage The Abyss, In the secret cave with the dancing girl and the three Atomic Health there is a message on the wall, SUYT. This crude acronym stands for "Show Us Your Tits".


Super Turbo Turkey Puncher3, in Doom 3 is a Reference to Street Fighter Alpha 3, With Arcade Cabinet and Marquee looking Almost exactly like those from the Capcom Game.

[Dohc-WP]

It was so difficult to pull this Mortal Kombat trick off that most players doubted it was even possible. But this was no simple wives' tale. If you satisfied a very specific set of requirements, you could face off against a green ninja at the bottom of the game's Pit stage. To face Reptile, first you had to be playing on one of the later revisions of the game. Then you had to fight on the Pit stage on one of those rare occasions when some shadowy item is flying in front of the moon. This didn't happen all that often, but when it did, you needed to beat your opponent without getting hit and without touching the block button. Do all this and you'd get to face Reptile. Reptile moved much faster than the regular characters, and he had both Scorpion and Sub-Zero's moves. If you could manage to defeat him, you could get yourself 10,000,000 points. Lose and you might end up getting Scorpion or Sub-Zero's fatality performed on you. People went crazy trying to figure out a formula for making the shadow appear in front of the moon, but it really just might as well have been random. Later versions of the arcade game had Reptile popping up before the start of random matches, as well as giving off clues as to his whereabouts.


Few games have the foresight to tie in stories through their series. However, the rich Resident Evil games manage to do just that by introducing a family of characters--with varying relationships to the famous Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. team and to one another--that seems to change (coherently) throughout. In Resident Evil 2, long before we knew how many games there would be in the franchise, patient (almost maniacal) fans were treated to a totally obscure reference. If you search the S.T.A.R.S. office on the second floor of the Raccoon City Police Department, Wesker's desk in particular, you'll get a message that says, "It's trashed. Someone must have searched the desk..." If you choose to keep looking, say, another 50 times, you'll finally receive a roll of film. The film, when developed, produces one picture: Rebecca Chambers in a basketball uniform. Later games in the series will tie in Rebecca's relationship with Wesker more thoroughly, but needless to say, this is the kind of egg that really requires a strict attention to detail.


In Call Of Duty 4 After the credits roll, a special epilogue mission is unlocked for play, featuring an anonymous four-man squad of SAS troops retrieving a VIP from terrorists who have hijacked an airliner. The SAS rescue the VIP and escape before the plane is destroyed.

The Mario series is another one that's filled with a number of different hidden surprises. One of the most notorious comes from Super Mario 64. After completing the game fully, by getting all 120 of the game's available stars, you unlock a cannon in the castle's front courtyard. You can use the cannon to get up onto the roof of the castle, where you'll encounter Yoshi, Mario's lovable dinosaur friend. Yoshi fully stocks your lives, although it's a little unnecessary at this point. Despite the pointlessness of the encounter, it was still considered a rite of passage to meet up with Yoshi in Super Mario 64, since it required so much regular gameplay, and it required familiarity with the rest of the franchise.


John Romero, the charismatic designer with the famous long hair, was the face of Doom in more ways than one. While Doom II was still in production, a late-night trip through the final level with "no clip" mode on revealed that someone in the Doom offices had made Romero's role with the game a little more sinister. Although to defeat the end boss players shot at a large demon head affixed to the wall, the actual damage was being done to a graphic--unable to be seen during normal gameplay--of John Romero's head on a stick behind it. To have the last laugh, John Romero and the sound designer recorded Romero's voice for the demon, which said, "To win this game, you must kill me, John Romero." However, the voice was distorted and reversed so it wouldn't be obvious. To witness this egg in action, you must activate the no-clip cheat, as Romero did, and pay a visit to his face up close and personal. The pixelated picture winces as each bullet makes contact, until finally, after enough damage has been done, you complete the game. This egg is particularly important because it was a classic example of designer-fueled celebrity...as it might not have been as interesting if John Romero weren't a widely recognized character.

[Voicy]

Very nice write-up, Dohcie!

The greatest easter egg I ever found was when playing Day of the Tentacle...and if you go into a kid's room in a house next door and access his computer, you can play an in-game version of the complete original "Maniac Mansion"!

[Maplassie]

also duke3d

Terminator, In Episode 3, level 11, entitled Freeway. You will see a crushing machine there with a terminator and it's arm sticking out!

Allso in episode 2 one of the stages has a huge abyss, where you can get on a pipe and blast a hole in a wall, revealing luke skywalker hanging from the ceiling

and in serious sam 2 in that swamp forrest place, if you jump some islands there you will find duke3d dead

[Voicy]

In Monkey Island™ 3... if you click on a crack in the crypt, your head pops out of a log in Melee Island™ forest with the same graphics from Monkey Island™ 1.

[Tsar]

In duke3d(Don't remember were)You find Indiana jones I think duke says we meet again Dr Jones and then whistles the tune.

Also in Dark forces 2 star wars(I can't seem to recall what level) You would find The bunny from sam&max in there.

[Raven Gold]

CoD 4 is riddles with one-liners and references to the Alien quadrilogy.

Cargo ship mission. When get across the deck of the ship and are about to breach the hatch, Gaz pulls out a shotgun and says "I like to keep this for close encounters" Same line said by one of the marines in Aliens 2

Also Lt. Vasquez shares a name with the female Marine also in Aliens 2

Captain Price is also a character in CoD2

Starcraft also has alot of references to the Alien movies.

Spore has alot of references to the movie "2001: A space Odyssey"

In Metal Gear Solid 2 there are figurines scatered throughout the game of "Vulcan Raven" from the previous game. And in MGS 3 you can see models of both metal gear Rex and Ray in the office of a scientist whos name I forgot.

In Assassins Creed in some the e-mails on the computers when you're as Miles makes vague references to the Medalion of time the Prince had in PoP: Warrior Within and threw into the sea in the begining of The Two Thrones.

In Prince of Persia 2008 if you completed the or put in a few key codes you can change your character model to the one from Sand Of Time, or as Altair and a few others. Aswell as Making Elika look like Fara from Sands of Time.

In Warcraft 3 some of the cheats codes are famous lines from Zero Wing.

Also In warcraft 3 the Frozen Throne you can find "Wirts Other Leg" as an item in one of the missions and it describes the story of the secret cow level from Diablo 2

Starcraft 2's site also had those aprils fools pranks of the Tauren Marines and the Terratron that was clearly meant to make fun of Power Rangers.

[tpex]

Good stuff Dohc,
I got sum
GTA San Andreas, One of the missions you do with Catalina (stealing the petrol tanker) the glass window of the petrol station has a sticker in the corner that says "Max Payne"

MK: Shoulin Monks, A tribute to Terminator 2: Judgment Day is seen during Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, when Scorpion is defeated by Liu Kang or Kung Lao. As he's dragged into the lava by the bloody skeletons of the damned, he holds out his right hand to give the camera a thumbs up as he's finally pulled under in a scene near-identical to the scene of the Terminator's destruction in a pool of molten steel.

COD4, In the "Mile High Club" level, during the opening sequence when a hole is being cut to
drop into the plane, somebody says, "Surely you can't be serious". Captain Price then
says, "I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley". This is a line from the movie Airplane.

[Strategist01]

Also, In warcraft 3, frozen throne, on the blood elves campaign, the level where they all have to escape through the portal, there are some sheep in a room, and magical plates behind them, and each one pressed will produce a sound of Baa, Ram, or ewe. There's a special combination - can't remember now - but if you get this combo correct, you unlock a secret level (a tower defense game I think), and a secret hero if you complete the secret level, who has some pretty funny powers!

[Tsar]

I know in one of the war craft 3 levels you use the cheat to reveal the entire map and right on the edge there was a zerg unit.