Where Does the Term “Easter Egg” Come From?

An Easter egg is a joke, message or reference hidden in movies, television shows, video games, computer software programs, and other visual or digital media. There are a few origination stories of the term “Easter egg,” but the very first reference appears to be from the 1975 comedy musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The cast organized an Easter egg hunt on set but not all of the eggs were found. When filming resumed, some of the eggs ended up in the actual movie (see below).

But why is Rocky Horror Picture Show here?

Easter Eggs in Video Game History

Around the same time in video game history, an Easter egg was inserted into the 1979 Atari video game Adventure. Atari preferred to keep their game designers and developers anonymous for fear that competing companies would attempt to poach their employees, so no credit was given to anyone who worked on Atari’s games. One of Atari’s game developers, Warren Robinett, decided to give himself credit by hiding the message “Created by Warren Robinett” inside a secret room in the Adventure game. When Atari’s management found out about Robinett’s hidden message, they actually liked the idea of having their consumers go on an “Easter egg hunt” to find more hidden messages so much that they encouraged the inclusion of such messages in future game development.

Listen to Robinett tell his story below:

“Inside The World’s First Video Game Easter Egg” by Great Big Story

Although Robinett’s Easter egg was claimed to be the world’s first video game Easter egg, other Easter eggs have been discovered in earlier media. In the demo game that came with the Fairchild Channel F Console (made in 1976), hitting the 1, 2, and 4 buttons simultaneously at the end of the game would display two programmers’ names: Michael Glass and Brad Reid-Selth (source).

Easter Eggs in Film

Circling back to the film industry, Easter eggs have become an interesting way for directors to have fun with movie watchers, with some films even built on this hook of hidden Easter eggs. For example, Pixar Animation Studios is quite famous for their Easter eggs that usually reference other works produced by the studio (see some examples here), and the recently released fantasy thriller Ready Player One is full of nostalgic pop culture references, including one that highlights the Adventure Easter egg (discover more Ready Player One Easter eggs at collider.com).

Watch the video below for 10 more clever movie Easter eggs that you may not have known about:

“10 Movie Easter Eggs That You Can’t Take Your Eyes Off Of!” by Screen Rant

Fun Fact: Our printed Nevada Production Directory contains a few Easter eggs hidden throughout the book. You can drop by our office and pick up a free directory!

Be sure to check out our online Nevada Production Directory to find professionals in the media, video game, and entertainment industry.

If you offer services related to the film, television, and video game industry and are not yet listed in our Nevada Production Directory, you can learn more about how to sign up for the NPD here.

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