Of course, Easter eggs are the chocolate gift we give to our nearest and dearest – and millions will be exchanged over the course of this weekend.
But the term, Easter egg, has taken on a second meaning since the release of a 1980 video game for the Atari 2600. Gaming content creator, LLXP took to TikTok to explain how and why the name came about, which refers to a hidden message or feature within a game or more commonly today, in film.
Whilst 1973 game Moonlander is widely regarded as the first to contain such a message, it wasn’t until seven years later that the phrase was coined by Adventure programmer, Warren Robinett. LLXP’s video highlights the moment in the game in which Robinett’s name appears, explaining: “In the Atari 2600 game, Adventure, in a hidden room there it is – ‘Created by Warren Robinett’.”
LLXP continued the story, revealing: “He wanted to be credited for his work, but Atari, the company that made the game, didn’t like that.” However, prior to that, a young gamer found the secret room and and wrote to Atari, who at the time were unaware of it’s inclusion.
“They were furious and wanted to re-release the game without it,” LLXP noted. “But they realised this would cost them a lot of money.” By this point, Robinett had left the company, but Steve Wright, Director of Software Development in the Atari Consumer Division expressed his desire to keep the secret in the game.
“He thought it would be cool for players to find hidden surprises in future games and he called them Easter eggs like the hidden surprises you seek on Easter,” LLXP explained.
Indeed, Wright told Electronic Games magazine at the time: “From now on, we’re going to plant little ‘Easter eggs’ like that in the games. Eventually we may have a real treasure hunt, with clues hidden in various game cartridges!”
Other Atari executives got their own way too, however, for in re-releases of Adventure, Robinett’s name was removed from the secret room, and instead replaced with, ‘TEXT?’.
Over on Reddit, meanwhile, users of the social media platform admitted they were only just learning of the Easter egg hidden message concept. “TIL [Today I learned] the first known Easter egg in a video game was a secret room in Atari Adventure (1979) that credited the game’s developer, Warren Robinett,” one person exclaimed in a post.
Another penned: “Someone just read Ready Player One.” A third added: “Learned this from Ready Player One.” And a fourth concurred: “Same, I read the s*** outta that book.”
Ready Player One is a 2011 book by Ernest Cline, later adapted to the big screen in 2018 and taught a new generation about the history of the Easter egg. Set in 2045, much of humanity uses the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), a virtual reality simulation created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Games for people to to escape the real world.
The plot sees a pre-recorded message left by Halliday after his death announces a game granting ownership of the OASIS to the first player to find the golden Easter egg within it – locked behind a gate requiring three keys which players can obtain by winning three challenges.
Eventual winner Wade Watts completes the challenge after playing Adventure, and discovering Halliday’s elusive Crystal Key by locating Robinett’s Easter egg in the game.