Atari Myths

[NovaXpress]

Here's the first one I'd like to challenge: the myth that Atari was opposed to easter eggs.

 

Adventure: there still hasn't been any confirmation about the person who discovered it. The first known revelation of this egg was in Electronic Games #2, which would have happened early-to-mid 1981. How did they get the information? And how interesting did Atari find it when an old game became talked-about again and remained a hot seller? If Atari didn't leak the info, one of their programmers did. The egg was then revealed in the first issue of Atari Age. Do we still believe that Atari was opposed to the practice?

 

Missile Command: despite rumors that Atari had it removed, every cart found contains the egg.

 

Yars' Revenge: now Atari had the idea. They talked about the egg in Atari Age #3

 

Raiders Of The Lost Ark: the most common screenshot showed an egg!

 

Defender : solution pretty much totally revealed in Atari Age #7

 

Easter eggs became a selling point. It's certain that Robinette's was unexpected but the result apparently pleased Atari.

[gamme]

Atari Age is great. I need to try out all of these easter eggs - I didn't realize they had all of the known ones listed here. People who like Atari games tend to love discovering secrets. I noticed that Desert Falcon has an easter egg in it too so that's another Atari game to add to the list (not to mention anything that hasn't yet been found).

 

Easter eggs make real that silly thought in the back of your head that maybe if you mess around with a certain game long enough you'll uncover something that no one else found. I can't judge whether or not the company was opposed to it, but the programmers definately shared this feeling about easter eggs. Anyone in a high position at Atari who actually enjoyed playing classic video games would likely be in favor of hidden secrets.

 

The only negative thing would be a programmer hiding something offensive in a game - this might be the only reason that Atari would be slightly against the notion. That's the only reason I can see.

[Rom Hunter]

Here's the first one I'd like to challenge: the myth that Atari was opposed to easter eggs.

 

Adventure: there still hasn't been any confirmation about the person who discovered it. The first known revelation of this egg was in Electronic Games #2, which would have happened early-to-mid 1981. How did they get the information? And how interesting did Atari find it when an old game became talked-about again and remained a hot seller? If Atari didn't leak the info, one of their programmers did. The egg was then revealed in the first issue of Atari Age. Do we still believe that Atari was opposed to the practice?

 

Missile Command: despite rumors that Atari had it removed, every cart found contains the egg.

 

Yars' Revenge: now Atari had the idea. They talked about the egg in Atari Age #3

 

Raiders Of The Lost Ark: the most common screenshot showed an egg!

 

Defender : solution pretty much totally revealed in Atari Age #7

 

Easter eggs became a selling point. It's certain that Robinette's was unexpected but the result apparently pleased Atari.

Interesting point of view, NovaXpress.

 

I think you're right.

 

The first easter egg certainly was a surprise for Atari.

 

I still think it was an action of Robinett to show that programs were written by persons, not machines.

 

But I also think that Atari soon found out that easter eggs meant selling more games.

 

 

BTW: here's the first easter egg known to exist:

 

Edited August 11, 2006 by Rom Hunter

[NovaXpress]

Thanks for the screenshot! I've never seen pics of any of the three Channel F easter eggs before.

[Rom Hunter]

Here are the others:

 

http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/cf.htm

 

[NovaXpress]

Damn, they don't show the "mystery ufo" from Alien Invasion.

 

Isn't it odd that the more advanced systems almost never used eggs? Does 5200 Space Invaders contain the Rob Fulop egg from the pc version? The presence of Imagic HQ in Truckin' is called an egg, but I don't think it qualifies.

[Inky]

Here's the first one I'd like to challenge: the myth that Atari was opposed to easter eggs.

 

Adventure: there still hasn't been any confirmation about the person who discovered it. The first known revelation of this egg was in Electronic Games #2, which would have happened early-to-mid 1981. How did they get the information? And how interesting did Atari find it when an old game became talked-about again and remained a hot seller? If Atari didn't leak the info, one of their programmers did. The egg was then revealed in the first issue of Atari Age. Do we still believe that Atari was opposed to the practice?

 

 

Yars' Revenge: now Atari had the idea. They talked about the egg in Atari Age #3

 

 

Atari also mentioned the easter egg for Adventure in one of the high score booklets they produced. And Yars' egg was mentioned in the instruction book for Yar's Revenge.

[Student Driver]

I've never heard a myth that Atari was opposed to easter eggs-- in fact, one of my first memories of easter eggs was reading circa 1982/83 that Atari was requesting eggs to be put into titles as a publicity stunt/sales tactic.

 

Where has this anti-egg myth been espoused that it needs debunking?

[NovaXpress]

The best "urban legend" expample is the nonexistent censorship of Missile Command. The game mags of the day always promoted the practice as rebel programmers secretly defying the company's orders.

[jaybird3rd]

Missile Command: despite rumors that Atari had it removed, every cart found contains the egg.

Really? That's surprising ... Fulop himself said (on "Stella at 20") that the last run of Missile Command had the "RF" removed. I haven't seen any cartridges without the "RF," but I have seen ROM dumps without it (although I suppose those could have been modified after they were dumped).

[Inky]

Wasn't there a red label MC? Did that one also have the egg?

[llabnip]

Adventure: there still hasn't been any confirmation about the person who discovered it. The first known revelation of this egg was in Electronic Games #2, which would have happened early-to-mid 1981. How did they get the information? And how interesting did Atari find it when an old game became talked-about again and remained a hot seller? If Atari didn't leak the info, one of their programmers did.

 

Does the information about an egg have to be leaked? I bought Adventure and within a month found the Easter Egg on my own. Granted, I had NO idea what the little dot was ... never heard about it or read about it, but I carried it to every room and when I finally discovered the secret of multiple objects + egg + correct room, it was astounding. But certianly lots of folks like me discovered it without reading it somewhere - maybe Electronic Games staff member simply played it enough to find it?

[CPFace]

The way I've always heard it was that Atari was opposed to the idea of a programmer's credit in particular rather than the idea of an Easter Egg in general. I guess there's always the argument that it detracts time and resources away from the main game, but considering some of the terrible games they released, I wonder why they'd pick that particular issue to harp on.

[Retro Rogue]

I think the confusion that Nova and Student Driver are having is with the actual timeline involved. Atari was opposed towards programmers getting credit and indeed their easter eggs - however this was in the late 70's. Once Robinett put his neck on the line to get credit for the work by putting the egg in there and it was discovered by the public, Ray and company realised "hidden" material was a selling point to the games. However they still did not bend on programmer credit issue. The games Nova and SD are mentioning are later games than the period being talked about.

 

Credit was a serious issue with regards to the programmers (besides money) and one of the main reason the original core left to form Activision. You can read Warren's take on the matter here:

http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/ROBINETT.HTM

 

Secondly, Nova is wrong with regards to Missile Command. The reason the egg was to have been removed was not because they were opposed to the egg. It was because Rob Fulop had left for Imagic and they did it to get back at him. Here's an interview that explains it:

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/interview_fulop.htm

 

and another:

http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/rob_...l?SystemID=2600

[Tempest]

By the time 84 rolled around Atari actually request programmers put in easter eggs. Landon Dyer was actually told to add one to Super Pac-Man!

 

Tempest

[shadow460]

Since it seems most easter eggs are something to do with giving the programmers credit for the games, I wonder if Activision thought up something else to use and maybe put an easter egg into any of their games besides the !!!!!! and the mad bomber thing??

Edited August 11, 2006 by shadow460