The Art of the Hunt
The Art of the Hunt
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The Art of the Hunt

If I were to mention the term "easter egg," what comes to mind? I bet most of you are familiar with the term in relation to the religious holiday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, when I say easter egg, I am not talking about searching for painted hard boiled eggs around and inside your house. Instead, I am talking about hidden secrets, gems, inside jokes, and adventures in modern media. More specifically, in video game culture. So put on your polo, grab your basket, and follow me as we search through some of my favorite easter eggs.

So where should I start? To make it easy on all of you, I am going to begin far from the realm of gaming and start with Google. Let me say that one more time, "Google." The search engine that we are most familiar with is likely your closest connection to easter eggs. The tech giant is notorious for engaging users with fun secrets to discover. Perhaps most recently, you were aware of the Star Wars easter eggs hidden in Google and YouTube. From choosing your side of the force to navigating Google Maps with a TIE fighter, the internet giant riddled it's services with fun interactions to celebrate the release of Episode VII. Additionally, Google has a bunch of easter eggs you can try for yourself now. If you have Hangouts installed on your mobile device, or in a Chrome browser, you can experiment with a bunch of different cool artistic gems here.

 Clearly I am digressing. This conversation is meant to be about video game easter eggs. So, before I share a few of my favorites let me share with you some classics that inspired generations to come.

Easter eggs have been around for a long time, nearly as long as video games have been an integral part of media. In 1979, game programmer Warren Robinett inserted a small bit of text into the videogame "Adventure." This Atari classic held the secret text, "Created by Warren Robinett" within the game itself. You can see the easter egg in full force below.

 Warren Robinett Easter Egg

As you can see, this easter egg is extremely minimal. It might even be missed by most game players. However, it's intent was to giive Robinett some more recognition since game developers weren't accredited by Atari at the time. Now, this examples is archaic compared to easter eggs of just 15 years later. Still, it's creation helped inspire the future of hunting. So, what are some more modern examples?

 In 1994 id Software released the first-person shooter classic Doom 2. Notorious for it's over zealous use of violence and gore, it was not unexpected that designers might of harnessed a little too much rage. Unhappy with their programmer John Romero, team members decided to hide John Romero's head, on a spike, as a hidden boss battle. Apparently it goes to show what a little generosity won't get you, cranial impalement. Check out the video below.

 

Move forward to 2008. Video game culture has erupted since the 90s. Consoles are more popular than ever, rivaling pc games in every facet except for, possibly, variety. Known to be one of the most successful gaming franchises, GTA released their fourth game that year, Liberty City. While most games have some small easter eggs to find, typically they don't strike quite so close to home, or to the heart. If you are to pilot a helicopter from Liberty City to the Statue of Liberty, you can walk inside to find her beating heart chained to the walls. If you don't believe me, check out the video below.

 

Easter eggs are all over. In fact, there are easter eggs in games today that are themselves games. Take the Call of Duty: Black Ops series for example. Starting back with World at War, legendary developer Treyarch added a four person zombie mode to the game which inspired the Black Ops Zombies series to fruition. Originally, the storyline of zombies was imagined by players, who needed a background for these four helpless soldiers facing endless hordes of undead Nazi's. From the online fan fiction, Treyarch realized the opportunity and took full advantage.

Start with Black Ops, the developer began creating hidden stories, ciphers, songs and quests for the players to find hidden within each zombie map. From the fallen ruins of Shangri-La to the weightless laboratories on the moon, zombies have traversed nearly all conceivable fantasies us fans imagine. Each zombies easter egg seems to best the last, but let's leave that up for discussion.

Now, eight years later, they have released their fourth installment of the Zombies game-mode. In Black Ops 3, there are two gigantic known easter eggs, as well as a bunch of other medium and small ones hidden amongst the rest. Currently, I am playing my way through Der Eisendrache, trying to stop the events from happening on the moon in Black Ops 1. Oh, I forgot to mention, there are multiple universes, time travel, teleportation, and conceivably magic. Saying this game is only about Zombies, is hardly the truth. If you are interested in completing the easter egg, or need help, check out this tutorial video below by the amazing MrDalekJD.

 

If you enjoyed this post, and want to hear more about easter eggs, feel free to comment below. If you are hunting for zombies easter eggs and needs some help, feel free send me a message on XBox under the username "The Woofie" and I will be glad to assist. What easter eggs are your favorite? Are there any we didn't cover? What about some I should play? Share with us below, and we hope to see you back here soon!