The first Windows 1.0 Easter egg has been discovered by a developer. It’s just a small menu with the list of development team members, but has been hidden for over 36 years and has exposed a very popular name that you will recognize: Gabe Newell.
A virtual Easter egg easter egg) is, for the news at hand, a hidden message in the software code. It is secretly included by developers (although there are also other unintentional ones), it has various motivations and it is included in video games, applications or operating systems. We can also find them in multimedia content, movies, series or music tracks.
In software, it is usually a simple challenge fun for programmers or advanced users who like to search for them. They can be an artistic touch, a personal brand, a political letter or anything. Also claims of the development team or any of its members, as was the case of the oldest known, the video game Adventure Atari’s 1979 game that secretly included Warren Robinett as the brand forbade including the team’s names in their games
The Windows 1.0 Easter Egg
Windows 3.0 was the first version of Windows where Easter eggs had been discovered. Until now, since Lucas Brooks has found one in Windows 1.0.
Which version of @Windows is the first to include Easter eggs? Windows 3.0? Nope. What if I tell you there is an Easter egg in Windows 1.0 RTM? This is what I have recently discovered: pic.twitter.com/dbfcv4r7jj
— Lucas Brooks (@mswin_bat) March 18, 2022
It is a small menu that includes the list of the team that worked on its development. The best known name is Gabe Newellfounder and CEO of Valve, the company responsible for popular games, hardware, and the Steam video game distribution platform.
It has to be said that Newell was hired by Microsoft in 1983, two years before Windows 1.0 hit the market and was around until 1996 when he left Microsoft to found Valve. He worked as a featured programmer on the first three versions of Windows and led the team that ported Doom to Windows. Although he has had some notorious conflicts with his former employer, contacts have been maintained and so has collaboration, most recently to improve the Steam Deck handheld experience.
Why hasn’t it been discovered in 36 years? Brooks explains that it was very well hidden, encrypted in a bitmap file with a smiley face, which has not been visible to anyone until now. When Windows 1.0 came out, third-party developers simply couldn’t find the hidden code due to a lack of proper tools.
Even now, nobody knows how it can be activated through methods considered ‘standard’, since to get to it the developer had to patch different binaries and use other advanced techniques. in the easter egg the developers congratulate the user for finding the secret, in a small frame text signed by “The Windows Team” that reads “Congratulations!” next to the list of team members.
There are hundreds of these secrets discovered in Windows, Android, Linux and other applications, but the number of those that have not yet been found is unknown and that will surely continue to surprise us when they come to light. The Windows 1.0 Easter Egg was included 36 years ago and has now been discovered.
