The History of Easter Eggs - A Tribute to Adventure

 We've been talking about Easter Eggs a lot, but I thought that the present would make no sense without the past. This is the reason that I decided to start this new series about that History of the Easter Eggs we so cherish these days.

Where does it all start?

It all starts with the story of Warren Robinett, one of the Game Designers at the legendary 1980s game producing company Atari. At the time when he was a Game Designer there, Game designers were not given their due credit. They were, as he describes in an interview, treated badly and thus many of them left. Warren realized that he could add a surprise in his graphic game Adventure that would help him get the fame that he deserved.

What was special about this game?

This game is considered to have the first known video-game Easter Egg. This was a major leap as there had been surprises in electronic media before this, but none had been termed as an "Easter Egg" before. It was not discovered by anyone for several years. Warren said in one interview that if no one discovered the Egg, then he would start a rumour about the Egg. He would teach one person how to do it, and the knowledge of his Easter Egg would spread and give him the fame that he deserved. Fortunately, the Easter Egg was discovered by a 15 year old from Salt Lake City named Adam Clayton. It was also the very first graphical game on the Atari 2600, and paved the way for the future generations of games to come.

What about the gameplay?

In Adventure, the player's goal is to recover the Enchanted Chalice that an evil magician has stolen and hidden in the kingdom and return it to the Golden Castle. The kingdom is made of a total of thirty rooms, with various obstacles, enemies, and mazes located in and around the Golden, White, and Black Castles. The kingdom is guarded by three dragons—the yellow Yorgle, the green Grundle, and the red Rhindle—that protect or flee from various items and attack the player's avatar. An enemy bat can roam the kingdom freely, carrying an item or a dragon around; the bat was to be named Knubberrub but the name is not in the manual. The bat's two states are agitation and non-agitation. When in the agitated state, the bat will either pick up or swap what it currently carries with an object in the present room, eventually returning to the non-agitated state where it will not pick up an object. The bat continues to fly around even offscreen, swapping objects.

The player's avatar is a simple square shape that can move within and between rooms, each represented by a single screen. Helpful objects include keys that open the castles, a magnet that pulls items towards the player, a magic bridge that the player can use to cross certain obstacles, and a sword which can be used to defeat the dragons. The player may only carry one object at a time. If eaten by a dragon, the player can then opt to resurrect the dead avatar instead of completely restarting the game. The avatar reappears at the Golden Castle and all objects remain at their latest location, but all slain dragons are resurrected. The ability to resurrect the avatar without resetting the entire game is considered one of the earliest examples of a "continue game" option in video games.

The game offers three different skill levels. Level 1 is the easiest, as it uses a simplified room layout and doesn't include the White Castle, bat, Rhindle, nor invisible mazes. Level 2 is the full version of the game, with the various objects appearing in set positions at the start. Level 3 is similar to Level 2, but the location of the objects is randomized for a greater challenge. The player can use the difficulty switches on the Atari 2600 to further control the game's difficulty; one switch controls the dragons' bite speed, and one causes them to flee when the player carries the sword.

That concludes the first post in the History of Easter Eggs, devoted to the game with the first ever Easter Egg. We will continue to travel that magical land of Easter Eggs, while making sure that these Easter Eggs always reach your eager eyes.

Happy Hunting!
EasterEggHunter