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Spectrum Easter eggs

This page is part of an archive of Easter eggs in Sinclair Spectrum games and utilities. It includes hidden features, secret messages, and strange game behaviour. Please mail webequ.in with corrections and additions.

This page deals specifically with programs by Design Design Software.

Simon Brattel writes in: "We really did used to get through a load of cheesecakes, I think because it was something easy enough for lazy bastards like us to cook."

On Lavinia's [or Lavernia's] massage parlour: "This referred to the flat I was sharing with JDG at the time. There was no actual Lavinia, but there were a couple of sisters living upstairs that we used to dream about. For some reason Sylvia lent me her copy of More Joy of Sex, which was an evil thing to do to a desperate virgin but not quite as evil as having her bloody bedroom right over mine and having a bed that squeaked. Ah, they were far too sophisticated for the likes of us, penniless students as we were. Sylvia's boyfriend had a BMW!"

Bug Blaster

There is a hidden message in the code: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WRITER OF THIS FRONT END HAD NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH THE REST OF THE PROGRAM. IT WAS WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN !!!!! WE DID N'T REALLY WANT TO MARKET IT, BUT WERE FORCED TO BY AN ACCIDENT, ONE F***ING BIG ACCIDENT.

Cyber Zone

There is a hidden message in the code that appears to follow on from the hidden message in Bug Blaster: HI THERE AGAIN, YET AGAIN THE WRITER OF FRONT END WISHES TO DISASSOCIATE HIMSELF FROM THE REST OF THE PROGRAM. SEE YA BUT IN ONE OF MY OWN PROGRAMS NEXT TIME

Dark Star

The program filename is BeefBurger.

The string Hello ! appears near the top of memory.

Press 6 on the Game Variants menu to select a previously invisible menu option:
Something else . . . .

There are several different high score tables. One is selected randomly each time you load the game.

There is a hidden message in the code: (c) Design Design Software Awful game concept & coding by Simon Brattel Awful pictures by J.P.Ritman and Inlay by Dave De-Leuw

If you try to print out the high score table without a printer, you will see the message:
Look sunshine ... seeing as how you aint got no scratcher attatched I don't see as how I can scratch anything !
Just as well since I can't stand the damn thing !

The password to access Spectacle, the extra program on the tape, is Everyone's a nervous wreck. One of Dark Star's high score tables refers to a Supertramp album that includes a song with these lyrics.

Certain phrases are converted to hidden messages in the high score table.
"Motty" is Neil Mottershead. Tony Bridge was a well-known adventure columnist.

Entering your name for the high scores as a whole row of characters that are one pixel wide (full stop or exclamation mark) produces the message It's easier with repeat ! (Compare Invasion of the Body Snatchas, where you cannot hold down a key to repeat it.)

Forbidden Planet

Chris Cowley says, "The first copy of Forbidden Planet that I bought would sometimes stop and display a hex error number, a phone number, and a message asking me to report the bug. I phoned the number and spoke to Simon Brattel, who patiently explained he'd had loads of people phone him to report it. I got a replacement tape in the post with a little audio message tagged onto the end."

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

Invasion of the Body Snatchas

The program filename is CheeseCake.

There are hidden messages in the code:

Stop looking in my program ! I never wanted to be a programmer I always wanted to be a ... (a) Sex Aid (b) Lumberjack (c) Hedgehog (d) Cheese cake (e) Father
Answers on a postcard please to Simon Brattel & Neil Mottershead
This program is copyright ( but not by us )
ANNOUNCEMENT This space has been rented by the Design-Design marriage guidance bureau . TWO aging depressed (depressing) programmers { soon to be certified } seek female company with a view to establishing an extremely verbose relationship . Translation :- 'Love amongst the cheese cakes' (Fruit cakes) END OF ANNOUNCEMENT
PS Lavernia's massage parlour has moved to 125 Smedley Rd Cheetham Hill LN / Tel. 061 205 6603 and ask for Joe
PSS This game owes its existance to :- (53) 2-Litre coke bottles (6) Greens Original Cheese Cakes (24) Very hot curries (4) 600 K floppy discs (100000) Neurons (1) Another Greens Original (4) 1/2 pint glasses (98) kWh of t'electric (2*4*10^6*60*60*10*49) T-States and finally (980) misery filled hours of wasted effort.
PSSS We appologise for the awful noises They weren't our idea
PSSSS Coming soon (we hope) THE LOADER ... and so off they go into the dawn ... ... pausing only to reconstruct the Nascam ... ... reinvent the keyboard ... ... resubmit the cheques ... ... think of the next line ... But the cheese cake has arrived and so I must go . 10-4 (aaaaaaargh !)
"Is that the sort of thing you're after ?" "Yes I think we can use that."

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

Entering your name for the high scores as a whole row of characters that are one pixel wide (full stop or exclamation mark) produces the message Bet yer wrists hurt after that ! (Compare Dark Star.)

On the Run

There is a hidden message in the code: Hello.

Rommel's Revenge

There are hidden messages in the code: Hello; (The Thing); Hello Simon, having fun? (programmer Simon Brattel); Nazir's vindaloo curry sauces are great.

When you get a high score, you are told: "You have beaten name by amount". The name placeholder is initially set to Snoopy.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

There are hidden messages in the code:

Lavinia's Massage Parlour:Tel(061) 223-3519
I Had A Little Froggy
Yes c*nt - a keyboard table!
F*ck Off !

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

The text At it again I see ! (i.e. hacking) appears just before the above strings in memory.

When you pause the game by pressing 2, the message Pausing - press C to continue is eventually replaced by various other messages:

C,short for CONTINUE
When you're quite ready
4th along,bottom row
Hello ?
Gone for a cheesecake ?
Oh not again
No not again
Please not again
The next one's good !

There is some more hidden text further on in memory, including a few Monty Python references:

PS we apologise for the game being boring but we were literaly only given 3 weeks to write it .
PPS Return of the Things !
coming soon - the follow up to Halls
The programme about which will be said :-
"Oh no not again" Sinclair User
and
"I'll get them for this" GOD
and finally
"..sod 30% what about a wench ?.." The Authors
" one thats nice "
" not too nice "
" with huge .... tracts of land "
" and not too expensive "
PSSP See you in the next game !
Try not to take life seriously or you'll go as far as ¦ have .....
Virgin,22 years old,lonely,suicidal and mad .
(interesting order they're in huh ?)
PSSPS It's goodnight from me
and It's goodnight from another unoriginal joke
(c) S.Brattel and the one and only N.Mottershead
(Chewrubba and Mottly)
(The Blue Brothers)