EasterEggs
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Top Terminal easter eggs
Yeah, the headline makes it sound like the eggs are on their deathbed. But no, easter eggs (in software jargon) are little presents or surprises that developers have slipped into an application or operating system. One excellent place to find easter eggs in Mac OS X is in the Terminal. Now technically, these easter eggs aren't part of Mac OS X. The Terminal app is a portal into the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X. You can find the Terminal app in the Applications > Utilities folder. Here are four of my favorites: 1. Important dates in history -- Lord of the Rings style At the Terminal prompt paste the following: cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history and press return. You'll get a list of famous dates throughout the centuries -- including some that take place in Middle Earth. 2. Snake Game At the Terminal prompt type in emacs, then press enter. You'll see a bunch of text come up. Once it does hold down the ESC key and press X. If you timed your presses right, you'll notice the cursor has moved to the bottom of the page next to the letters M-x. Now type in snake and enjoy! 3. Tetris Follow the same steps as for the Snake game. At the Terminal prompt type in emacs, then press enter. You'll see a bunch of text come up. Once it does hold down the ESC key and press X. If you timed your presses right, you'll notice the cursor has moved to the bottom of the page next to the letters M-x. This time, type in tetris. Use the arrow keys to move and rotate the blocks, and press the space to make the blocks fall. 4. Emacs psychoanalysis Like the previous two, this last easter egg is an extension of the emacs UNIX command. At the Terminal prompt type in emacs, then press enter. You'll see a bunch of text come up. Once it does hold down the ESC key and press X. If you timed your presses right, you'll notice the cursor has moved to the bottom of the page next to the letters M-x. This time, type in psychoanalyze-pinhead. You'll get a speedy conversation between two doctors. Press Ctrl-G to stop the conversation and then read the transcript. All these easter egg tips were taken from The Easter Egg Archive which lists Easter eggs found in movies, TV, books, art, music, and software. Check out the site for many more Mac easter eggs and please post any that you know of in the comments! [Binary egg photo by Rakka]
Konami website now iPhone-accessible
Make this happen by mirroring the standard Konami sequence (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right) using swipes instead of touching command keys. When you get to the BA sequence, a controller will appear on-screen to let you tap the B-button and then the A-button. As for the Konami-compatible websites listed, they are not as forgiving, I'm afraid. The iPhone compatibility does not extend to any of the listed pages that I tested. Given that we have fully entered the age of iPhone OS (and soon, the tablet), I think you can expect touchKonami to start expanding to ever new sites and applications. For example, Polish Demon's Emojinabler app (currently in App Store review) uses the sequence to unlock Emoji text access on non-Japanese iPhones. Know of a touchKonami-enabled website or App Store app? Let us know in the comments.
Flick Bowling Holiday "Easter Egg"
While this might not meet the official definition of an "Easter Egg" in an application, I thought it was pretty cool that when I opened Flick Bowling (click opens iTunes) on December 1st, I noticed something different.First, the background on the splash screen (below) was red instead of the normal blue. The "Flick" logo is in Christmas red and green, and the bowling pins now have red and green stripes. When you bring up the Free Play mode and start bowling, you'll notice that the usual bunting at the end of the alleys is now supplemented with Christmas lights and a big wreath (see screenshots below). And a closeup... I haven't found any more unique items added to this app, but if anyone else finds Christmas or other holiday-related goodies in any other iPhone apps, let us know!
Terminal Tips: Play Tetris in Terminal
Terminal boasts some cool, but hidden features that we like to call "Easter eggs." These "eggs" are hidden features that the developers build in (mostly for fun or laughs), that don't have anything to do with the functionality of the program.One of these "eggs" is the ability to play Tetris in Terminal. Here's how to do it. First, open a new Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities) window and type "emacs," then hit enter. After the screen loads, press "escape," then "x." Type "tetris" (lower-case) and hit enter. There you have it, a fully playable game of Tetris. Use the arrow keys to control the blocks.Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.
Super Tuesday iPod touch Easter Egg
You have so got to love Apple. If you own a jailbroken iPod touch and have bought the January Software Upgrade, navigate yourself over to /private/var/mobile/Applications. There, you'll find your nikita_receipt.plist. Open it in your favorite property list editor, copy the payload (from <data> to </data>) and use your favorite online base64 converter to decode. Perhaps Apple engineers wish they could vote for Lincoln this time around. Thanks to the amazing DRP Team and pumpkin, and Francis who gave us the heads up on this
Kindle easter eggs: Google Maps cell-based location, picture viewer, and more
Apparently, Amazon's wondrous e-book reader, the Kindle, has more than meets the eye -- not unlike some fictional, alien, robotic characters which shall not be named. Users of the device have been plumbing its depths, and have uncovered a handful of easter eggs which will make current owners extra happy, and might push potential buyers over the edge. Amongst the hidden features are access to Google Maps coupled with CDMA-based location-finding, which also allows you to quickly locate nearby gas stations and restaurants (as well as your own custom searches). In addition to the GMaps integration, the Kindle also comes equipped with a hidden picture viewer and slideshow functionality, the ability to snap a screenshot, a clock quick-look, plus everyone's favorite time-wasting game: Minesweeper. Hit the read link to learn all about the unrevealed guts of the innocent little reader.[Via interface]
I am not there. I do not die.
Frequent commenter Heraclea, in commenting on John's post about Pleasant Patch Surprises, managed to do just that as far as I'm concerned. Mentioning that a new questgiver in Stormwind was giving out an odd delivery quest to a person on the Aldor Rise in Shattrah, I decided this needed exploration. To make it harder on myself, I hopped onto my night elf warrior, a poorly geared 70 Scryer, to see if the quest was limited to Aldor only. After a brief sidetrack in Stormwind where I did an old level 10 warrior quest requiring me to beat a drunk up for his mug and made an astonishing 4 gold for the whole experience, I made my way to Stormwind Keep and sure enough, a little girl gave me Alicia's poem and some gold to deliver it to Shattrah. Amazingly, I was able to ride right onto the Aldor rise and hand the poem to Caylee Dak, a night elf huntress.The poem is based upon this one, which is somewhat famous as a remembrance or funeral poem, with some changes to make it work for Azeroth and Outland. This quest reminds me slightly of the Letter of Sully Ballou quest in that it was inspired by a real life writing. It's an interesting easter egg that reminded me, as someone living in Canada, that Remembrance Day was this week and for you Americans, Veteran's Day was as well. Yet another real life holiday making it into Azeroth? I don't know, but I would find it very interesting if this is how they chose to do it, and somewhat fitting.Edit: Risa in the comments provides this link to add some context.
Samus gets a secret call from Iwata
Of the things you were wondering about today, the size of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's waistline was probably not high on your list. Now, imagine if you had to worry about getting killed by Metroids and piloting a starship. Pretty much falls off the list all together, doesn't it?But did that stop Iwata from calling and leaving that exact information on Samus' answering machine? Of course it didn't. According to Go Nintendo's translation, he says "Hello, this is Iwata from Nintendo. You may not know from an outsiders point of view, but being a director is really hard! When things are really busy and stressful we (us directors) may look tired and sick, then people may feel sorry for us! But in my case, it's the opposite, I get fatter and fatter, so then people don't think I'm stressed at all!" That's great, boss. Can we get back to saving the world now?
That shifty Vargoth
Ever wanted to bring a smile to the face of the projection of an NPC trapped in a far off tower? Now you can. When you dance with the Image of Archmage Vargoth, the tricksy little mage now laughs. I heard this rumor and had to try it myself. It seems that the devs added this in the patch. I ran straight out and pulled my Archmage Vargoth's Staff out of the bank and tried it. Sure enough, he's a chuckling fool. I tried telling him jokes, pleading with him, flirted a bit, but only the dancing seems to charm his exiled soul. Now we have an audience if we ever feel the need to burst into dance. Sure he wants me to turn in my quest, but since my only purpose in visiting Netherstorm these days is to farm primals, he's going to continue to be disappointed. These are the sorts of small undocumented changes in the patch that make me giggle. Have you found any little gems that have shifted in the game without being mentioned in the patch notes? If so, what's your favorite?
Unlock the full potential of the Wii browser
We'll tell you up front that by "full potential" we mean "decently handy shortcuts". We're dramatic like that, but only because we're so excited about browsing!If you never used the Opera browser on the PC, you may not be aware of the unique "mouse gestures" it employs. Moving your mouse in a certain pattern, or clicking the mouse buttons, can act as shortcuts for frequent tasks like back, forward, and reload. The Wii browser works in much the same way, with certain Wiimote button combinations mapped to browser tasks. Here's the full (known) list of Wiimote shortcuts:B+ D-pad up: RefreshB+ D-pad down: BookmarksB+ D-pad left: SearchB+ D-pad right: Enter new addressB+ (-) : BackB+ (+): Forward They may not be "hidden" (they're in the manual) but it's apparent that many users don't know about these functions. And we're happy to do anything to help you refresh Wii Fanboy more quickly.[Via GoNintendo]
Blizzard, improve Noblegarden!
Some of the best times i've had in World of Warcraft have been participating in Blizzard's entertaining holiday events. Large portions of the world are revamped with decorations, new quests, and of course, prizes! And, while the prizes may not be that important (food, Halloween costumes, etc), participating in the holiday events is always a fun change of pace from the norm. However, I have to say Noblegarden -- Blizzard's Easter event -- pales in comparison to their other holidays. Why? No decorations or changes in any of the cities... not even a lone NPC to inform players that they can hunt for eggs. A one-day holiday as opposed to the week(s) of festivities for Halloween, Winter's Veil, etc. Noblegarden eggs are quite rare... and the prizes are sub-par at best. No holiday quests. Not a single one! If you didn't participate in Noblegarden this year, I'll give you the rundown. In the secondary newbie zones (not the starting zones, but the zones after that), eggs were hidden. You could loot the eggs to get a few copper coins, assorted candy (61 health over 18 seconds), and a chance at an Easter dress or pieces of a tuxedo. Yesterday I spent four hours (can you tell that I really wanted an Easter dress?) scouring Elwynn Forest for eggs. During this time, I managed to locate 26 eggs (which comes out to about one egg every 9 minutes). While I got plenty of candy and perhaps a whole silver worth of coin, I didn't get any of the holiday clothes that were the only appeal of the event -- but after spending 4 hours at the hunt, I couldn't bring myself to keep going. (And I imagine most sane people would have stopped sooner than that.)So what could Blizzard do to make this event fun and worthwhile for its players? Read on for speculation!
Our Favorite Easter Eggs
Happy Easter to all our Christian TUAW readers! To help you celebrate, here's a list of some of our favorite OS X Easter eggs for you to discover and enjoy. A "Python" audio clip. Navigate to the following folder: /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/test. Open the audiotest.au audio file you'll find there in QuickTime and play it back. A hidden picture in Mail. In Finder, open your Applications folder. Select Mail, control-click (right-click) it and select Show Package Contents. Navigate down to Contents, and then Resources, and then open Senders.tiff by dragging it onto your Preview application icon. Cool dates in history. In terminal, type open -e /usr/share/calendar/calendar.history More after the jump.
We're hunting for Easter eggs...
It's that time of year again! No, I don't mean to run outside and start hunting for colorfully painted eggs mysteriously hidden in the grass. I'm talking about Easter eggs in our favorite computer game, World of Warcraft. And with Blizzard's odd sense of humor, you know there are plenty out there to find. The first step on our hunt is to visit BlizzPlanet's excellent list of Easter eggs and Burning Crusade Easter eggs. And now? Time to jump into Azeroth or Outland and find some new ones -- in the spirit of the season, of course
Remember! Noblegarden tomorrow! [Updated]
Don't forget, tomorrow, April 8th, is Noblegarden in the land of Azeroth. What does that mean to adventerous players like us? That there are colorful eggs to collect -- and some of them might contain unique prizes. (I'm still hunting for that Noblegarden dress!) For those interested in egg hunting this year, they're found in the lowbie zones around major cities. So hunt in Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, and Durotar Eversong Woods, and Azuremyst Isles -- at least presuming they've updated the event to include these new zones. The screenshot above (Blizzard's official Noblegarden shot) is deceptive -- last year, at least, the eggs were half that size at best.Happy hunting, everyone!Update: Fixed two errors in my initial post, adding Teldrassil and Tirisfal Glades as locations, and removing Silverpine Forest. Also, according to reports, there seem to be no eggs spawning in the new Burning Crusade zones, Eversong Woods and Azuremyst Isles. Thanks to commenters Auriea and Rob!
Twilight Princess Easter eggs & tin-foil hat conspiracies
Green chus? Bottomless pits of water? Warp birds named after hexadecimal color codes? Maaaybe...IGN forum poster yoshi117's list of Twilight Princess "Easter eggs" isn't entirely useless; in fact, it highlights many of the inconspicuous details that were sprinkled into Nintendo's heralded masterpiece. The importance of these minute elements is often overlooked in game development, but Nintendo EAD proves once again how a little touch of wonder, or harmless act of mischief, can provide a lasting memory.[Thanks, KozWiz; via Wii Fanboy]
Why hello, Easter eggs!
If you've explored a little bit, you've no doubt come across numerous Easter eggs -- amusing and sometimes obscure references to the real world that are just enough to make you grin when you encounter them. And, of course, the Burning Crusade has not been immune to such treatment, and we probably haven't found the half of them yet. Who is the Blood Elf pictured to the right? Well, according to the game, it's Haris Pilton <Socialite>. You can also meet her pet, a wolf named Tinkerbell. And then there's Adam Heman (complete with tiger), Slim <Shady Dealer>, Floyd Pinkus, and even Eyonix himself (he's an innkeeper). World of Raids has a thread covering a few of these (including a full version of the Haris Pilton shot), a link to a screenshot gallery at JudgeHype with more (the site is in French, but I'm sure we can all figure out how to click on screenshots), and then there's the soon-to-be-legendary thread about Eyonix's in-game appearance.
Easter Eggs in WoW
I love discovering little hidden references in games, and during my time playing WoW, I've spotted a fair amount of in-jokes, from the various Goblins named after USS Enterprise crew members, to the Friday the 13th homage in Ellwyn Forest. The guys over at Blizzplanet, however, have done their homework far better than me. They've compiled an enormous list of easter eggs to be found throughout Azeroth, some of which I now realize that I had seen, but never made the connection before. For example, the Psycho-themed names in the Undercity I should have gotten right away; I'm dissappointed in myself. And who'd have thought they'd squeeze in so many Thundercats references?
Breakfast Topic: Hidden gems
From an out-of-the-way inn my guild uses for meetings, to the time I finally managed to watch a race in the Shimmering Flats, Azeroth has many well-kept secrets. How many times have you stumbled across a location or piece of scenery and wondered what on earth it was there for? Aside from the game's easter eggs, which are fun to track down, some places seem to hold unfulfilled potential.I've found that RP gives me a whole new outlook on these places; every one suddenly suggests several possible storylines, although I've acquired the habit of dismissing a lot of the empty-looking content by saying "oh, that's only for RPers". Do you think this is true? Are the deserted buildings and empty locations there for RP enjoyment alone, or to lighten the hearts of the players who love running around into every nook and cranny? Have you found a particular spot that surprised or delighted you?
