It’s nearly Easter and talk of eggs is at the tip of everyone’s tongues in the office. We’re swapping notes about whether we’ve managed to buy chocolate ones for our children, and Easter traditions in our houses. For others it’s just pure excitement for a long weekend!
Suddenly, someone brings up digital easter eggs.
What’s a digital easter egg?
Digital easter eggs are secret messages, in-jokes or features. They are hidden by web developers or programmers in the website or software they build. They are undocumented treats left for users to find. Game players, film buffs and many more tell the world when they find one.
The first digital easter egg
Warren Robinett, the creator of Atari game Adventure, hid an easter egg the game’s code. He programmed a secret room which could be opened with a sequence of actions, revealing his name. This code was too expensive to remove, rendering him a celebrity forever. Film makers, programmers and digital geniuses everywhere have planted easter eggs ever since.
Find the hidden easter egg
We have hidden an easter egg on our website for you to find! (If you haven’t already.)
Click here to look for the digital easter egg on our website. It’ll bring you right back to this article if you find it. Happy searching!
Our favourite digital easter eggs
We love easter eggs here at Framework Digital. Here are a few of our favourites.
The classic
Google has so many easter eggs – over 75 interactive games and features that occur when you type specific things. One of the best, is the simple feature that happens when you type “do a barrell roll” into Google. Give it a try!
Mike’s Eggcel treat
I used to use an easter egg at school the teachers weren’t too pleased about getting out. In Excel, you could press F5, type L97:X97 and a flight simulator would play. Great memories! Videos of the flight simulator are on YouTube if you want to take a trip down memory lane. It’s not like the flight simulators of today!
Microsoft Teams gestures
Not a Teams meeting goes by without one of our staff using the double thumbs up to make fireworks appear. Useful when someone shares some good news and you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the meeting! Just raise both thumbs, and everyone will see fireworks appear!
Someone’s birthday? Do the peace sign and balloons will appear! Try it the next time you have a Teams meeting.
Alexa easter eggs
You can probably guess what happens when you say “Alexa, who you gonna call?” but it’s still fun to give it a go.
We love “Alexa, what do you think about Google?” Ask more than once with most Alexa easter eggs and you might get a different answer. Endless fun.
This one’s for any old Konami NES gamers: Super Alexa Mode! Say “Alexa, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start”. Go on, you know you want to!
Digital Easter eggs to teach the children over the holidays
• Google’s secret Pacman game – Google Pacman and play a full game.
• Alexa random fact generator – hours of fun. Warning – be prepared for these facts to be relayed to you many times over.
• If you have a Google Home device, say “OK Google, crystal ball”. They’ll love this one!
• Ask Alexa “What shall we do today” for suggestions.
• Say “Alexa, tell me an Easter egg,” and it will give you a clue about an Easter egg it can do.
There are also some excellent references in films, such as the Shining reference in Toy Story. Look very closely and you also might find C3PO and R2D2 in Raiders of the Lost Ark!
What’s your favourite digital Easter egg? Let us know on our Facebook page. Thanks for playing!
