A Virtual Easter Egg is an obscure message or feature hidden within software and other media products that are not immediately obvious or accessible to the end user. These are added by the product developers as a bit of fun, and perhaps nowadays for a little extra publicity and marketing advantage.
Virtual Easter eggs can range from simple animations, rolling credits of programmer names, to undocumented features and elaborate built-in extras such as those found in some movie DVD's. Others eggs can be in the form of hidden tracks in music CDs (usually at the end of the disc) or as a games easter egg like this Heart of Liberty City entry for GTA 4. Most eggs are triggered by carrying out a set of commands or procedures with the product.
Wikipedia has a comprehensive section on Easter eggs (wikipedia:virtual Easter eggs) and the historical background on the subject for further reading.
If you've tried all the above, you can post your experience in the comments section to help determine wether the egg is a bad one or not.
Some of the bigger commercial sites may keep these web eggs in the design long term, but as most sites will undergo design revision on a constant basis, some listed here may not work any longer.
These were some of the earliest available Windows Easter eggs and the best produced in mainstream computer products. Microsoft's Flight Simulator in Excel and the numerous Microsoft Word Easter eggs are some memorable examples. All Microsoft Easter eggs implementation officially ended with its Trustworthy Computing Initiative around 2002.
Our guideline would be if what you've found has no connection with the usability of the program and seems out of place, then you have either an egg, a curio or maybe an undocumented feature. Please submit it to us for consideration.
By adding a new Virtual Easter Egg or Curio, you'll get recognition by listing your name (or screen name) beside your listing and enjoy the great honor that comes with contributing knowledge to the biggest virtual Easter egg archive in the World!
You can post comments or offer additional notes to any entry too, and thus help enhance the reliability of the listings for all readers. See the next note.
All user comments are very welcome and are the preferred way to enhance any current listing. These could offer additional ideas and notes in helping enhance the egg/curio. Note although comments like "cool egg!" and "it works great!" are common, those types likely won't get published. Remember 'constructive comments' are the key!
We try very hard to ensure each Easter egg or curio is accurate and in the correct sequence. As we obviously don't have access every game or product to verify each one personally, some may pass through that don't and wont work. You can help by commenting on the entries with your experience. We appreciate your help in verifying listings for which all readers benefit.
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