I once purchased a Pascal compiler for the Atari ST.<p>Can't recall its name, but it was written in Assembler, ran very fast (much faster than e.g. ST Pascal) and did everything in RAM, and thus felt a bit like TurboPascal.<p>Accidentally, I discovered a certain key combination activated a microscopic
BASIC interpreter that was integrated (undocumented); I wrote to the developers
to learn that I was the first to find it.
Microsoft used to have them in everything, but I believe, and perhaps somebody can correct me on this if I am wrong, that to contract with national governments, hidden or extraneous functionality had to be removed.<p>I loved the flight simulator and a doom game in excel. Also a few programs had hidden functionality in the about menus.<p>I suppose my favorite of all time was a hidden menu in an oscilloscope that caused it to play I believe it was pong or some other simple arcade game.<p>One that if I ever have the time is I want to reverse the very antiquated Apple II or IIgs Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game, by chance I hit a key combo and the game went beserk.
>Not doing Easter eggs proves loyalty to power and order<p>Power and loyalty is everything these days. Surrender to corporate or perish. All whimsy is to be management-approved.
The Basic Editor Monitor on the Sperry Univac OS/3, when it had an error, would put an ASCII image of a vague insect on the screen and state something like that "BEM, the Bug-Eyed Monster, strikes again".
Easter Eggs were, to me; part of the early charm of the weird aesthetic to 90’s software and web things.<p>It’s definitely a bit sad to see Easter Eggs be less common these days, but I do understand how it’s not always the best practice.