DVD Easter Eggs

During the holiday season of Easter, small children play with beautifully designed Easter eggs. They try to find out the eggs hidden in their courtyard. The tradition has become so popular that the virtual world of computer also has adopted it. Easter eggs in the virtual world essentially are the hidden messages or features in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program or video game. These eggs can be graphics, sound effects, or an unusual change in program behavior, that mainly occur in a software program in response to some undocumented set of commands, mouse clicks, keystrokes or other stimuli.

Techno savvy people have been pioneers in inserting hidden Easter eggs in various software. For instance, when Microsoft released MS Excel, there was an Easter egg in the software. The developers hid a game in the program. According to the game, the user had to fill certain fields of the spreadsheet with a specific value, etc. after which, he/she was able to unlock a 'Doom-like' game. Another such instance is Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, which contained a small, hidden video game named 'Gorilla.Bas'. The virtual Easter eggs have amused those, who access their computer frequently.

Easter eggs are equally ubiquitous in DVD releases of movies. They are called DVD Easter eggs. They are often in the form of hidden trailers, documentaries, or deleted scenes, and are accessed by manipulation of the disc's interactive menus. The developers who make the DVD's, their menu systems, etc. tend to hide special features on the disc. Easter eggs in computer and video games are different from cheat codes, which allow players to cheat. Cracking the DVD

DVD Easter eggs are one of the pastimes enjoyed by computer savvy people, during the festival season. Despite the apparently innocuous nature of this software wizardry, companies have become increasingly apprehensive of Easter eggs. For example, Microsoft no longer allows Easter eggs as part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative. Therefore, the frequency of finding DVD Easter eggs has lessened in the recent time. Nonetheless, people still have access to DVD Easter eggs and have a lot of fun.