Spectrum Easter eggs

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Mr NOBODY WAZ ERE

1999

THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

balor knight

ACE FACE WAZ ERE !

cheat

THERE IS ONE BABY!

chris pile

Dr KOOL WAZ ERE !

fuck off

AND YOU EGG BREATH

hello

WELL HI THERE !!!!

help

FIND THE CHEAT,FUD

hi

WELL HELLO THERE !

shit

YUM YUM I EAT IT !

sinclair user

TALK TO ME IN C.T.

steve corry!

LIKE A VIRGIN !!!!

virgin

I AM NOT WHY ARE U

your sinclair

ZZKJ KEEP OUT !!!

Ant Attack

Towards the far left of the city you can find ©SW (for author Sandy White) written in blocks.

astroking

SO YOU FOUND IT!!!

balor

COOL AND DISTANT!!

cheat

'KOFF MATEY!!!!!!!

chris!

DOLE BUM *1 !!!!!!

fuck

'AVE A GO THEN!!!!

jade!

BEAUTIFUL BABE!!!!

woody!

DOLE BUM *2 !!!!!!

Type WHY for the message: "FORTY TWO!" (a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Bomb Jack II

There is a hidden message in the code: **** 20/1/87 A.WILLIAMS ****.

Cavelon

Type JSWILLY during a game. A message appears on the screen: HI CHRIS WHAT DO YOU WANT..... You can now teleport to any level by pressing keys 1 to 6. "Chris" probably refers to Christian Urquhart, who wrote the game.

Chaos

The game contains default names for the eight wizards (JULIANLL, GANDALFRT, GREATFOGEY, DYERATI, GOWIN, MERLIN, GILLIAN RANE, SIMONO ZARK) which are overwritten when players choose their own names and thus never used; and there is a symbol table in the code that includes the label FUCK.

According to one transcription of the instructions, "Chaos is actually an unfinished game. Games Workshop released it without Julian's knowledge, and as such there is the odd bug that crops up. Further clues to this include the fact that if you hack into the program, there are a few sprites not used in the game, and the names of a few spells that are never shown." Does anyone know more about this?

Chronos

See also hidden content in loading screens.

If you fire and move the Kempston joystick around, the eyes in the title screen light up, the hidden mouth appears, and the high score table is replaced with an alternate version:

AGENT X What the mags said
'I have seen it all, now I can die'
Computer Weekly
'Globber, slobber, burp.' C&VG
'How did this get in here'? BMX Review
But seriously thanks to Crash,
C&VG and Your Sinclair for the
great reviews

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.

The Colour of Magic (Alternative Software)

Deja Vu

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.

The phrase time to go away (apparently a Human League reference) is also in the table of high score responses, but it doesn't seem to be linked to any input.

Down to Earth

The game contains a hidden Teletext-style magazine called Orifice, inspired by Spectacle in Dark Star. Author Darren Byford explains, "Orifice occupies the game's backscreen memory on load-up and so it gets deleted when the game is run. To access it, you have to hold down the keys 12345 while the game is loading. The first thing the game does is to check for these keys being pressed." Here is the text from Orifice. Note that "beer mat" is a slang term for the original 48K Spectrum.

I'd like a screenshot for this, but my PC keyboard doesn't recognise the key combination.

Egghead 4

There is a hidden message in the code:

HELLO HACKER. THIS IS THE 24 x 23 DUMMY SCREEN BUFFER. WERE YOU EXPECTING TO FIND A SECRET MESSAGE OR SOMETHING? MAYBE A HIDDEN GAME? OR SOME PICTURES OF NAKED LADIES FONDLING RUBBER KEYBOARDS? TRY ONE OF MY OTHER GAMES THEN - THOSE HAVE LOTS OF EASTER EGGS. THE ONLY EGG IN THIS IS THE MAIN CHARACTER HIMSELF. SOZ AND ALL THAT.

Fantasy World Dizzy

Gauntlet III

There is a hidden message in the code: For God so loved the world that he gave his one & only son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Grange Hill

"Gravy" on comp.sys.sinclair reports, "There's a scene in the game where someone offers you some drugs. If you accept them, it spits out a torrid tale of initial fun followed by addiction and eventual death; but, in the development version, accepting the drugs gave the player the ability to fly between locations and beat the game in a jiffy."

Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers

When logging on, you can enter the following names for hidden messages.

Incredible Shrinking Fireman

Robert Baker says, "There were officially something like 41 rooms, but there were more objects listed within the code than were actually visible in the game, so as an experiment I teleported myself to room 42. (I think I did so by poking using my Multiface, and then losing a life.) I found to my surprise that room 42 actually existed and contained one of the missing objects! One could go left into the rightmost normally-accessible room, but of course this was a one-way link."

Jack the Nipper II: Coconut Capers

Jet Set Willy

At least two of the Jet Set Willy II enemy sprites are also present in the original Jet Set Willy, even though they are not used. The wheeled base starts at memory address 45312 and the periscope at 44440.

Lunaris

There is a hidden message in the code: Ooh Lordy, it's the hidden message. Let's see if the author stuck anything rude in this bit. Hmmm let's see, the obligatory cronosoft.co.uk plug... some nonsense about drinking lots of tea... a crap joke... No, it's clean. Hey, where'd the crap joke go?

Match Point

There is an anti-piracy message hidden in the code: IF YOU HAVE DISASSEMBLED THIS CODE,AND INTEND MAKING COPYS FOR RESALE,FRIENDS OR OTHER BEAR IN MIND YOU ARE A THIEF AND THAT 4 PEOPLE SPEND A GREAT DEAL OF TIME ,EFFORT AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS PRODUCING THIS PROGRAM:- STEVE ,ANN,MARIA AND STEVE T. A FEW QUID ISN'T MUCH TO PAY . DEDICATED TO THE GIRL WHO TAKES MY BREATH AWAY... AND IT'S THE GREATEST THING.

Moon Alert

Quite far into the game, there are references to Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner (JET-SET WHO?, below an NCB [National Coal Board] miner's hat) and to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (DON'T PANIC).

Nodes of Yesod

There is a hidden message in the code: ZAP LOAD BY LEE GRIFFITHS © 1985 YS KEEP OUT!!! L.F.C. RULE. YS is presumably Your Sinclair magazine, and LFC is the Liverpool football club.

Oink!

There is a hidden message in the code: Poetry Time: There was a young lady from Wath.She lived in Wath.She walked in Wath.She talked in Wath.She bonked in Wath..........Where is Wath anyway ?

Two other messages can occur in the event of a tape loading error: What's happened to the volume ? and That was very, very naughty.

Pang

There is different background music for each multiloaded block of levels, but a bug in the code means that only the first set of tunes ever get played. (The AY file on World of Spectrum includes all of the tunes.)

Pheenix

There is a hidden message in the code:

PROGRAMSWANTED!writeto16WhileRoadSuttonColdfieldW.Mids.fordetails

Psytron

There is a hidden message in the code:

DEAR FIONA
YOU ARE TOO PRECIOUS FOR MERE WORDS
BUT MAYBE I LOVE YOU WILL DO?

SOMETIMES LATE AT NIGHT I HEAR YOU CRY
WHILE I LIE AWAKE AND WONDER WHY
SOMEONE SO GOOD AND TRUE
COULD GET SO UPSET,DOWN AND BLUE
I KNOW I'M HARD AT TIMES
WHEN PERHAPS YOU NEED ME MOST
BUT WE ALL HAVE OUR DESTINY
AND THAT'S NO IDLE BOAST
WHERE EVER I AM
WHAT EVER I DO
ALWAYS REMEMBER
I LOVE YOU
P.S. THANKS FOR THE TEA
BODE OLOWU:
EARTH'S FIRST PSYTRON
SAY HI TO KEV, ANGIE AND JAN
P.S. THE SOUND IS STILL.

The Quest for the Golden Eggcup (Mastertronic)

Type HARVEY, NIGEL or SAID (referring to Harvey Lodder, Nigel Brooks and Saïd Hassan) for the message: The secret password will only work when all else fails... (Any of these will get you out of the dungeon where you are sent for typing rude words — except the first time, when you must DIG to find a trapdoor.)

Type PAUL COOK for the message: Paul hasn't really got spots, it only looks that way.

Riptoff

There are various hidden messages in the code: AARGH! MY KNEE IS NOT PURPLE!!! ALL MUSIC ARRANGED & PROGRAMMED FOR THE 128k SPECTRUM BY RICK_O'NEILL TO USE THE TUNES, POKE 64161,TUNE NO. (0 TO 3) RANDOMIZE USR 64160. THE ONLY REASON THIS RUBBISH ISHERE IS TO FILL UP THE REST OF THIS BANK OF MEMORY. IT ISN'T OFMUCH USE TO ANYBODY. LOAD IN THE EDITOR LOADER PROG AND DO 'GOTO 40' TREE! P.S. I DINNY USE AN ASSEMBLER COS AH HUVNY GOAT YIN YA BEAUT; Screen Splitter . . Wre-Writ end of July 1990.; Yes, indeed! That was the control routine for this screen clearing thingy. Here's some colours:; RIPTOFF - CREDITS Design, coding, graphics - Rick O'Neill 128k Music arranged and programmed by Rick O'Neill Level designs: 5,6,8,10 & 13 - Craig Hunter 7 - Rick 1,3,9,11,12,14 & 15 - Rick & Craig 2 - Paul "JAFFA" Mellia It is highly recommended that you play this game using the KEYBOARD. Joysticks weren't designed for it.; This program is a PATCHWORK program. All it does is jump around all over the shop! It is, I'll admit, a bit silly and completely CRAP!!; Hello There! Just a few words on the bloody terrible programming in this so-called game. It's absolutely FUCKING CRAP!! OO! Bad words! Personally, I like the actual game, but the graphics are terrible! The 128k Music took about a month to do!

There is also a hidden message in the level editor: Hello there! Welcome to my wee bit of gibbering rubbish! . . . As I have said already the programming isn't very good! The main problem is that, in the main game especially, I often want to add new features and I do this as follows:- First, write the thing. Then see if I can find some spare memory. If I can't, cut the routine down in length, if possible, and try again! Once I've done this, I then have to find a way of calling it at the right time. This means writing clumsy patches from other bits of the program. Now I've explained, maybe you can forgive me?

Robin of the Wood

There is a hidden message in the code, which — strangely enough — refers to Nodes of Yesod and not Robin of the Wood: I LOVE HEATHER - MAX X X X! Welcome to Nodes of Yesod, from :- MAX B. COUNT - and everyone else!. Stuart Fotheringham explains, "Steve Wetherill also included I LOVE YOU HEATHER! at the end of the scrolling message in Arc of Yesod and was nearly fired, because we had to call all the cassettes back and remaster them."

Rookie

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.

The default entries in the high score table are quotations from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Also present in the code are the names of some musical artists (but who is Lynn?): Depeche Mode, New Order, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, Lynn Fairclough, Everything but the Girl, Chris Rea, Erasure, Lynn Fairclough (again).

Rygar

The introductory text ends with two silly lines that are never displayed.

4.5 BILLION YEARS HAVE PASSED
SINCE THE EARTHS CREATION.
MANY DOMINATORS HAVE RULED
IN ALL THEIR GLORY. BUT TIME
WAS THE GREATEST ENEMY
AND IT DEFEATS THEIR REIGN
AND NOW NEW DOMINATORS
AND THEIRS BEGINS .......
BECAUSE THEY ARE SILLY
BUGGERS .................

Silkworm

The end sequence consists of a rather frivolous message:

AND HISTORY RECORDS THAT DURING
THESE ELEVEN EVENTFUL DAYS MANY
LIVES WERE LOST
PEACE RETURNED TO THE NOW
DECIMATED COUNTRYSIDE. THE PEOPLE
RETURNED TO FIND CROPS RUINED,
CHURCHES DEFILED,AND THE VILLAGE
POND DRIED UP
A MEETING OF THE ELDERS AND
PLEASANT PEASANTS WAS HELD IN
THE LOCAL PUB
LUCKILY EVERYONE
SAW THE FUNNY SIDE

Sokoban (Dominic Morris)

There is a hidden message in the code: YOU CHEAT!!!! DIRTY SO AND SO! HOWDI..YA KNOW WHAT I'M GONNA SAY SO I WON'T..SEE YA SOON... NO, DON'T HACK YOU HORRIBLE PERSON.. MY CODE ISN'T THAT INTERESTING!! AH..COME ON!! IT ISN'T THAT EASY!!!. I don't know how to activate the cheat mode.

The password to the last level, 70, is GET A LIFE YOU SADDO.

Son of Blagger

There is a hidden message in the code:

WELCOME TO ALL HACKERS.
I,M ELLIOT, AUTHOR OF THIS MEGABRILLIANT PROGRAM.
I'M GLAD YOU'VE DECIDED TO HAVE A LOOK INSIDE.
DON'T TELL ME....YOUR LOOKING FOR AN INFINITE LIVES POKE !!!
HI! IF YOU'VE READ ABOUT THIS BIT IN A MAGAZINE AND THOUGHT YOU'D CHECK IT OUT.
HERE'S A BIT ABOUT ME...
I WAS BORN ON MARCH 4th 1967,I LIVE IN LEEDS AND HAVE MY A LEVELS IN MAY 85.
MY FIRST COMPUTER WAS A ZX81 EQUIPT WITH 16K OF WOBBLE,I BECAME SUPERB AT ZX BASIC AND SOON TIRED OF IT DUE TO ITS AMAIZING SPEED (0.000000001 MPH).
THIS PROMPTED ME TO TEACH MYSELF Z80 MACHINE CODE,THIS I DID AND WROTE SOME BITS AND BATS SUCH AS "ANTS IN YER PANTS" AND "SMOKERS COUGH".
I THEN MOVED ONTO THE SPECTRUM & I WROTE SOME STUFF FOR IT.
I NOW USE THE ZX81 TO HEAT MY BEDROOM!!
THEN ONE DAY I SAW AN ADVERT LOOKING FOR PROGRAMMERS TO WORK FOR ALLIGATA. I ANSWERED IT, HAD AN INTERVIEW AND NOW I'M WORKING ON A FREELANCE BASIS FOR THEM.
SON OF BLAGGER IS MY FIRST PROGRAM FOR ALLIGATA,KEEP A LOOK OUT FOR MORE OF MY GAMES IN THE FUTURE.
SEE YA LATA ALLIGATA
Love and Loading Errors ELLI GAY (TOR) programmer extraordinare.
SO GET PLAYING,HACKING OR WHAT EVER YOU DO WITH COMPUTER GAMES !!!
DONT PIRATE IT, COS IF YOU DO I'LL GET SO ANGRY THAT I'LL SLAP YOUR LEGS (SWINTAN)!!
12 MARKS TO EVERYBODY AT ALLERTON GRANGE HIGH SCHOOL ESPECIALY TO THE PINK PAJAMA LOONIES IN THE 6th FORM !!!!
OH NO, THE MEN IN WHITE COATS ARE COMING TO TAKE ME AWAY
BETTER RUN.....BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speedlock

Games protected with Speedlock often contain hidden messages.

The Last Mohican's tape loader has the messages:
CRACKING ANY SPEEDLOCK PROGRAM WHICH IS DEAD DEAD EASY IMPROVES YOUR SEX LIFE
HELLO MUM
HI TO SU [Sinclair User]

Bruce Lee and Quartet (among others) have the messages:
BUG OFF YOU BIG WALLY
AND UP YOURS
SPEEDLOCK Protection System © DJL Software & D. Aubrey Jones 1984 - Tel:0793 724317 * Government Health Warning - Attempting to crack SPEEDLOCK can damage your sanity!

Lee Prince says, "I've definitely seen these messages in other early Speedlock games too, but I can't remember which ones offhand — presumably, Ocean/US Gold/Imagine games released around the same time as Bruce Lee (late 1984/early 1985)."

Star Firebirds

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.

If you wait too long at the high score prompt, one of the following is entered at random:

• I'm not waiting for ever. bah!
• I'm seriously considering RST 0 [a system reset]
• You humans are all the same....
• The man with no name.
• Time's up, o sloth-fingered one
• C'mon, I don't sweat you !(yuk)
• Wotsthatmean ? PRAVLERTSL ?

Street Hawk: Subscribers' Edition

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.

In addition, the phrases marked with an asterisk change the scrolling message to: HI JOFF. YOUR TURN TO BREW UP !!!

SWIV

Hold down the keys SW when the white trademark sign appears. When the game finishes loading, you will see a white border and pressing Enter will play a speech sample from Aliens: "Get away from her, you bitch!" The Aliens logo (made from specially defined characters) also appears at the bottom of the initial high score table.

Task Force

There are two hidden messages in the code:

LOADSA SPACE....WOT A LOAD OF OLD COBBLES!!!! DO YER LIKE DA PROGGY? YOU BETTER LIKE IT OR I'LL DO SOMETHING UNMENTIONABLE TO YER, YA GIT!! JABBA'S A BIG FAT GIT..... SIMON'S A BIT POOFTER!!!!!!! STEVE'S A MOP IN DISGUISE.... JULIAN'S A BALDY, DWARFY, FAT, BLOBBY, BULLSHIT MERCHANT DISGUISED AS AN INCOMPETENT MANAGER!!!!! HA,HA!! I'M JUST TOO COOL TO BE A PROGRAMMER!?

MY GOD, AM I EVER GOING TO GET ANY MONEY OUT OF INTERCEPTOR.... I DOUBT IT..... BY THE WAY, THERE IS MORE TEXT THAN THERE IS GAME IN THIS MACHINE... IF YOU WANT ANY MACHINE CODE TIPS PLEASE SEND ` 3 TO SONJA BABES, INTERCEPTOR LIMITED, MERCURY HOUSE, CALLEVA PARK, ALDERMASTON AND THEY WILL GIVE THELETTER TO MOI!!! I SOLD TASKFORCE FOR ONLY `800 TO INTERCEPTOR... I GET THE FEELING I WAS RIPPED..(BYE!).

Techno-Cop

The code contains the strings STOP FUCKING HACKING and SHIT HEAD.

Tetris

The code contains the message ....HOLD IT......HMMM.....THE CHEAT MODE IS NOW OPERATIVE.............., which (according to Russell Marks!) should be displayed if you press O for the options screen while memory location 39999 contains the value 33. I don't know how you'd achieve this, or even whether it is a genuine cheat mode.

See also hidden content in loading screens.

Turbomania

There is a hidden message in the code:

Yes, this is the buffer message. This 16K game is a sort of thank-you for all those Spectrum owners who have supported Cronosoft and Retro-Soft. Have fun! JC, 29th Oct. 2005

Turbulence

Enter the level code WHO AM I to play Trashout, a hidden Breakout clone by Chris Pile. It was previously released as both Crashout and Smashout. However, this hidden version is credited to Ewvbean Hadd ("you've been had") of Lorate ("low rate") Software!

West Bank

There is a hidden message in the code: Piss off you Daygo Twats!. This is only present in the Gremlin Graphics version, not the original Spanish version.

World Cup Soccer: Italia '90

The code includes strings like POLICE and TAX COLLECTED that also appear in Sim City (by the same author), which might indicate that it was assembled after Sim City had been previously loaded into memory.

Zub