Computer programmers often put easter eggs into software as a lighthearted but harmless prank. An Easter egg is not meant to be malicious, unlike a backdoor, which is created using the same techniques. An Easter egg usually displays a picture, artwork or a witty quote or may play some music.
Easter eggs show up in widely available software, operating systems, computer games and music players. For example, a cow displays when a command involving the word "moo" is typed while using the Debian variant of the Linux operating system. When the command "why" is typed in the numerical computing environment MATLAB, funny answers are generated. Simple games were available in MS Excel and MS Word in the Microsoft Office '97software.
By far the most common occurrence of Easter eggs, however, is in video games. When a certain command sequence is typed, or the user goes to a certain part of the environment, he may be led to a hidden room that displays quotes, pictures of the developers who created the game, or some fact about their company. Here, Easter egges are meant as lighthearted rewards for dedicated gamers. Some online communities are dedicated to finding and exploring these Easter eggs.
Easter eggs are not limited to software. Even DVDs of many Hollywood films contain Easter eggs. Pressing a certain combination of keys on the remote control can uncover hidden menus and features. These include movie characters appearing in scenes they were not in previously, characters singing, and behind-the-scenes footage.
Easter eggs are also present on music CDs, and sometimes even in the firmware of computers and other electronic devices like gaming consoles, although this trend is not seen often anymore. In this case, the Easter egg functionality is activated during startup, or when certain buttons on the remote/keypad are pressed in some sequence.
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