The Arcade’s Top 5 Easter Eggs
With all kinds of movie and video game universes, picking 5 of them wasn’t an easy job. We’ve tried to think of them all - which is, off course, impossible. Lots of gems were crossed off or voted away, taking a full day, scraping the web, this is what we’ve ended up with. Our top five easter eggs.
5. TRON visitor
Ever noticed our little friend Pac-man starring in the original Tron movie? Yeah. That’s right. During the movie one of the characters is looking at the game grid. And whilst it’s hard to see in the movie, it’s pretty clear this screen is multi functional.
4. ‘Phone home’
Is it just us? Or is ET sitting pretty in Star Wars Episode I? Pausing the movie we can see not one, but three look al likes in the Galactic Senate. Back in the day eagle eyed fans noticed the ‘ET’s’ and new theories quickly spread. Soon, the beings got a name of their own, Grebleips. It being a reference to ET’s director Spielberg. Got it?
3. Gothic Masterpiece
So well hidden none of its players discovered it for two years. In Arkham Asylum a secret blueprint was to be found in Quincy Sharps office. The plans showed an expansion of the asylum, taking up a larger part of the city. A brilliant reference to the game its own sequel: Arkham City. Rocksteady gave it away in a preview for the next title. Honestly, have you ever noticed? We certainly didn’t… Easter Bunny: 1. Players: zero.
2. Will Smith got to see it before we did
The fresh prince made a strong appearance in the 2007 ‘I Am Legend’, wandering through an ‘empty’ New York city. One scene, in particular, gives us a good view at what Time Square looks like in what’s left of Robert’s home. And there it is. A big and dusty banner of Zack Snyder’s movie Batman vs Superman, ten years before it actually hit theaters. A legendary easter egg.
Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with producer Akiva Goldsman traveling through time, kindly asking Zack if the DC battle was already in the making. Goldsman explained that he wrote an early draft for a Batman vs Superman movie, but it wound being dropped and Christopher Nolan’s insanely good trilogy launched instead.
Goldsman never actually got permission to put his easter egg banner in I Am Legend.
Surprise, surprise…
1. The ‘adventure’ that started it all
In late ‘70s, Atari decided to stop crediting all developers’ names from their video games. That didn’t sit well with Warren Robinett, the man behind the popular Atari 2600 game, ‘Adventure’. So, he made sure that in the game there is a hidden room containing the message “Created by Warren Robinett”. Simple and effective as it was, it popularised easter eggs in video games. So, cheers Warren!
Bonus entry: Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg's 2018 movie (based on the book by Ernest Cline) features a video game world where players are looking for a golden egg. The movie has reportedly over 100 popular culture references and cameos, making almost everything in the film an easter egg. We are not sure if anyone has found them all.