Mac Newton Easter Egg List

From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 09:41:38 PDT
Subject: The Macintosh/Newton Easter Egg List


                                                          .__________.
  .__________________________________________________.    | Contents |
  |                                                  |    |================|
  |  The Macintosh/Newton Easter Egg List            | .  | Hardware       |
  |  compiled by Brian Kendig (bskendig@netcom.com)  | .  | System         |
  |                                          ____    | .  | Other software |
  |  Easter 1994 edition.                   | OK |   | .  | Useful tips .  |
  |                                         `----'   | .  `-------------|\-'
  `--------------------------------------------------' .                |_\
      .................................................    (c)1994 bsk    \


Welcome to the Macintosh/Newton Easter Egg List!  An "easter egg"
(sometimes known as a "cookie") is something amusing or otherwise
nonproductive (like a picture, a song, or the developers' names) hidden
in your computer.  It won't appear unless you do some action you
wouldn't normally do, so you can't find it unless you're lucky or you
know what you're looking for.

Some really clever About boxes are mentioned in this list too, and I've
also included a few interesting, useful, and little-known tips further
down that are really handy to know.  The list is getting so long, though,
that I've been weeding out some of the trivial or very esoteric tricks.
Too many applications will bring up "secret" things if you hold down the
right keys and click in the right places, so I'm only keeping the more
interesting easter eggs around.

Please report any corrections to me!  And if you find a really good
easter egg, then please tell me about it and I'll put your name in here.

You may (of course!) distribute information about these tricks freely,
but please note the copyright on this collection -- I really don't like
when people try to pass it off as their own work.  If you'd like to use
this material in a book or newsletter or distribute it commercially on
electronic media like disks or CD-ROMs, please contact me first for
permission, and you'll get it.  :-)  It would also be nice to let me know
if you're including this list in a users' group collection.  So far,
this list has been printed in the WAMUG (Australia) and BMUG
newsletters, translated into Japanese and printed in the Japanese users'
group "MuON" newsletter, used in the books "Maximizing your Mac" and
"Voodoo Mac", and distributed on Nautilus and Pacific Hitech CD-ROMs.

Thanks to the people who have written similar lists, from which I've
gotten plenty of ideas: J. D. Sterling Babcock and Mike Kimura, among
others.  For additional help, I thank Paul Franklin and Seth Pettie.
Rene Ros has contributed so much that he deserves special mention, too!

The list has grown to such a size that I can't personally verify every
trick here, so if you just can't get something to work, please tell me!

If you want to skip forward to the "Useful Tips" section, have your
software search for three asterisks ('***') now.


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				Hardware

Macintosh Plus

>From MacsBug or the interrupt debugger, enter "G 40E118" (that's a zero,
not an oh).  (To get into the interrupt debugger, press the button on
the left side of your machine closer to the back.  If you're running
System 7, just Shut Down your machine, then while the "you may turn off
your Macintosh safely" dialog is displayed, press the button.)  This
gives you a tiny "Stolen from Apple Computer" message in the upper
left-hand corner of your screen.

----------------
Macintosh SE

>From MacsBug or the interrupt debugger, enter "G 41D89A".  (See the
trick above for info on how to get into the debugger.)  This brings up a
slideshow displaying four bitmap pictures of the Macintosh development
team.  Reboot (hit the button on the left side of the machine closer to
the front, with the triangle on it) to get out of the endless cycle.

Also, entering "G 4188A4" into the debugger gives you a tiny "Stolen
from Apple Computer" message in the upper left-hand corner of your
screen.  [Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock.]

----------------
Macintosh Classic

Hold down Command-Option-x-o right after you turn on or reboot the machine.

This starts up the Classic from a minimal ROM-disk which contains System
6.0.3, Finder 6.1x, and AppleShare.  (This version of the System is not
recommended for use with the Classic, so you probably shouldn't boot off
it to do any important work.)  If you look at the ROM-disk with a
program able to see invisible files (like ResEdit or MacTools), you'll
find a folder named "Brought to you by" hidden there, containing more
hidden folders bearing the names of the Classic designers.  (The keys
`X' and `O' were chosen because the development name of the Classic was
the "Mac XO", or was it OX?)  Also, there's an invisible application in
the System Folder named "Launch" and set as the startup application;
anybody know what it does?  [Thanks to Charles Gousha for the details.]

----------------
Macintosh SE/30

This trick requires that you have MacsBug installed.  Press the
interrupt switch to dump yourself into the system debugger, then use the
command "dm 4082E853 20" to display a few bytes of memory from location
4082E853 onwards.  The bytes there spell out, in ascii, "WHAT ARE YOU
STARING AT?"  [Contributed by Esa Ristila.]

Also, type "g eb1000" into MacsBug or the interrupt debugger.  This
displays the "Macintosh SE/30 Engineering Hall of Fame".  Entering
"pc=e11000;g" works too.  [Contributed by Aapo Puskala and Mark
Gadzikowski.]

----------------
Macintosh IIci

Set the system date to 9/20/89 (the release date of the IIci), and set
your monitor to 8-bit color.  Restart while holding Command-Option-c-i.
You'll see a color picture of the IIci design team.  Click the mouse to
continue.  (Other color settings might also work...)

----------------
Macintosh IIfx

Set the system date to 3/19/90 (the release date of the IIfx), and
restart while holding down Command-Option-f-x.  You'll see a color
picture of the IIfx design team.  Click the mouse to continue.
(Interestingly enough, this is the same picture used in the IIci.)
[Thanks to Jeff Home for details.]

----------------
Macintosh IIsi

Enter the debugger and type "dm 4086F088 20".  The bytes there spell out
"SO...WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?  "  [Contributed by Jeff Home.]

----------------
Any Macintosh computer

Every Mac will play interesting noises if it fails its internal RAM
check.  You can harmlessly force it to fail its check by pressing the
Interrupt button on your system immediately after it starts booting up.
Mac II systems play interesting chimes, Quadra AV's play drum solos,
LC's play a flute, and the Power Macintoshes play a sound of a car wreck
with glass breaking.  [Contributed by Rick Warfield.]

----------------
Macintosh ROMs (any of them)

With a debugger, look at the last few locations on the ROM of your
machine.  Developers put their initials there, as well as the date that
the ROM was linked.  For example, the 128k ROM (Mac Plus) contains, at
$41FFC0-$41FFFF:

    ALR ELR BA BMB EHB JTC SC DLD PWD KWK LAK SEL BWed, Nov 6, 1985

which are the initials of Erich Ringewald, Bill Atkinson, Bill Bruffey,
Ernie Beernik (sp?), Jerome Coonan, Steve Capps, Donn Denmann, Pat
Dirks, Larry Kenyon, and three other unknown developers.  [Contributed
by Scott Lindhurst and Ed Tecot.]

----------------
Apple Fax Modem

While holding down the button on the front panel, turn on the modem.
The modem will beep three times.  After the three beeps, press the
button again three times, timed exactly in "rhythm" with the beeps.  If
your timing is correct, the modem will speak the digitally-recorded
voices of the three developers saying their names ("Peter, Alan, Neal").
[Contributed by Neal Johnson and Alex Rosenberg.]

----------------
StyleWriter

When you turn on your printer, hold down the RESET and FORM FEED keys to
print a diagnostic test page, which lets you exercise the print head and
see if any of the pins are damaged.  [Contributed by Tommy Aenst.]

----------------
Newton Messagepad

Write "About Newton" on your Messagepad, hilite it (hold the pen down
until a large dot appears at its tip then draw a line across the words
with it), then tap Assist.  The names of all the Newton developers will
appear.

On the original Messagepad (now called the Messagepad 100), tap the
clock in the lower left-hand corner of the display, and hold down on it.
The display will show you the current temperature!  (This is because the
battery level indicator works by sensing temperature.)

Go to the Map, tap "Find", then write "Elvis".  It will briefly say "The
King was sighted in" and choose a city name at random before it catches
itself and says "not found".  [All three of these were contributed by
Scott Ryder.]

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				 System

	   ("7.0" means 7.0.0 or 7.0.1 and probably 7.1 also)

Multifinder 1.0 (distributed with System Software prior to 6.0)

Hold down Command and Option while selecting "About Multifinder" from
the bottom of the Apple menu.  A scrolling list of credits appears.
[Contributed by Seth Theriault.]

----------------
Multifinder 6.0

Select "About Multifinder" and leave the dialog up for about an hour or
more.  (Yes, this means you can't use your machine meanwhile.)  A
message will appear:

  "I want my"
  "I want my"
  "I want my l--k and f--l"

You can also see this message if you snoop around in the 'STR#'
resources of Multifinder for a while with ResEdit.  [Contributed by Tony
Cooper and James Boswell.]

----------------
System 6.0.7, 6.0.8, or 7.0

Take a look through the data fork of the System File (with MacSnoop or
MacTools, or open it with MS Word).  (It's short.)  The string "Help!
Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!" is in the
data fork, with a list of the names of the Blue Meanies (the System 7
developers).  In System 7.1, the string is slightly different.  "We're
still being held prisoner..."  [Contributed by Kevin Bolduan, Seth
Theriault, and Tim Hammett.]

----------------
System 6.0.7J (Kanjitalk)

Set the clock to January 1, 1992 (or any year?), and restart.  The
startup screen says "Happy new year" in Japanese.  [Contributed by Junio
Hamano.]

----------------
System 7.0

With ResEdit, take a look at STR# resource -16415 in the System file.
The first string in the resource reads "May you code in interesting
times."  [Posted to Usenet by Nigel Stanger.]

Also, while running System 7, try renaming a disk to "Like Wow Man. HFS
For 7.0!" (where the space after 'Man.' is actually an option-space;
you'll have to type this somewhere else like the Notepad then cut/paste
it into the disk name).  Then eject the disk with Command-E, and double-
click on the greyed-out disk icon.  The Mac will ask you to please
re-insert "HFS for 7.0 by dns and ksct".  (The intials are of David
N. Feldman and Kenny S. C. Tung, who wrote the HFS extensions for System
7.)  Other disk names work, due to the way the name is checked; try
"KMEG JJ KS" or "Hello world JS N A DTP".  [Found by Francois Grieu and
mentioned in TidBITS #143.]

----------------
Finder 7.0

Hold down Option while choosing "About This Macintosh".  (The menu
option changes to "About the Finder", and if balloon help is turned on,
the balloon for it reads "Displays a dialog with the original Finder
picture.")  This brings up the original picture of the mountains from
"About the Finder" in System 1.0.  If the creation date of the invisible
"Desktop Folder" is May 13, 1991 (System 7's release date) or later, the
names of all the Finder developers through Mac and Lisa history also
scroll by.  Hold down Command-Option while choosing "About" to get a
goofy-face cursor.

Also, "Get Info" on an alias, turn on Balloon Help, and point to the
icon's italicized name.  Then point to a place right below the very
beginning of the name; you'll have to hunt for the exact spot.  The
Balloon help on the italicized name reads "The underline indicates
that..."  And the Balloon Help on the little invisible point right below
the beginning of the name reads "This is the system software version..."
but there's nothing there.  Oops.  [Contributed by David Richardson and
John Feinberg.]

----------------
System 7 Tune-Up 1.1.1

The owner resource of this third-Tune-Up release contains the question
everybody asked when it was released: "Again?"  [Contributed by Rene Ros.]

----------------
Caches 7.0.1 (on a Quadra)

Turn on balloon help and point to the version number; the balloon reads
"Wink, wink."  Option-clicking the version number makes the "040" icon
whoosh to the side, revealing the name of the programmer who wrote it.
[Contribued by Kemi Jona.]

----------------
Caps Lock 7.0.1 (on a PowerBook 100, 140, 145, or 170)

Turn on balloon help and point to the Caps Lock file icon.  The balloon
help reads: "This file allows your Macintosh TIM or Derringer to display
an icon..."  (These were the working names of the first PowerBooks;
Apple forgot to change the extension before System 7.0.1 was released!
Whoops.)  [Contributed by Seth Theriault and Fabian Hahn.]

----------------
Color Control Panel 7.0

Click on the Sample Text a few times.  The strings "by Dean Yu" "&
Vincent Lo" alternate.  Also, if you're running version 7.1 of the
control panel, "& Don Louv" sneaks in there every sixteenth click.
[Contributed by Don Louv.]

----------------
Labels Control Panel 7.0

Delete all the label names in the Labels control panel, and reboot.  The
labels are now "None," "a", "l", "a", "n", "j", "e", "f".  (Who are Alan
and Jef?  Beats me...)

----------------
Map Control Panel

Type MID as the city name, and click Find.  The stored point MID is
actually "Middle of Nowhere", an insignificant location in the middle of
the South Atlantic.  (This one was added in version 7.0.)

Clicking on the "7.0" puts "v7.0, by Mark Davis" into the city name
field until you release the mouse button.

Option-clicking on Find repeatedly will take you alphabetically to every
city the Map knows.

Opening the control panel while you hold down the shift key will display
a magnified map (the resolution is the same, so it's very jagged).
Opening it with option held down magnifies it more, and shift-option
magnifies it even more to the point of being really blocky.

Clicking somewhere in the map and dragging your pointer off the edge of
it will scroll around the world.

You can paste a new picture into the control panel; the Scrapbook that
comes with System 7 includes a particularly good color map.
[Contributed by Takeshi Miyazaki and Doc O'Leary.]

----------------
Memory Control Panel 7.0 (on a machine capable of virtual memory)

Turn on virtual memory and hold down Option while clicking on the pop-up
menu used to choose a hard drive for your swapfile.  This brings up a
hierarchical pop-up menu with the names of the developers; each name
points to a submenu with a few comments about the developer.
[Contributed by Povl Hessellund Pedersen.]

----------------
Monitors Control Panel

Click the version number in the control panel window.  A box will pop up
with the names of the people who wrote Monitors.  While you hold down
the mouse button, tap Option several times; this makes the smiley face
stick out its tongue.  After tapping Option several times, the names
begin to get rearranged and some first and last names get replaced with
"Blue" or "Meanies".  [Thanks to Steve Noskowicz for details.]

----------------
Finder 7.0 and MacsBug

Turn on Balloon Help and point to the MacsBug file.  The balloon reads:
"This file provides programmers with information proving that it really
was a hardware problem..."

----------------
QuickTime

Turn on Balloon Help and point to the QuickTime file.  The balloon
reads: "time n. A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in
apparently irreversible succession from the past to the present to the
future."  [Contributed by Kristopher Nasadowski.]

----------------
Sound Control Panel 8.0.1

Hold down Option and select something from the popup menu.  You get a
weird sound and a credits dialog.  [Contributed by Bronson Trevor and
Noah Salzman.]

On a Quadra AV system, go into the Effects section of the Sound control
panel and click on the wave icon in the lower right-hand corner of the
window.  It draws a line and the words "by Jeff Boone".  [Contributed by
bwooster@aol.com.]


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			     Other Software

Adobe Illustrator 5.0

Hold down Option while selecting the Tool Description box (in the lower
left portion of the working window), and instead of the usual four
choices, some new things appear: the number of shopping days until
Christmas, the programmer's home phone number, a pair of eyes that watch
the cursor, the phase of the moon, the number of mouse clicks since you
opened the document, a random number, and so forth.  [Contributed by
David Darrow and Richard Foley.]

----------------
AppleLink CD

Select "About AppleLinkCD" and hold down the Option key.  The spinning
CD turns into a spinning cat's head.  [Contributed by Brian Golden.]

----------------
BBEdit 2.2

Change your Chooser name (in the System 6 Chooser or the System 7
Sharing Setup control panel) so that it contains "Mike" or "Michael",
then hold down Option while you choose "About BBEdit...".  Everyone in
the About box will be given a first name of Mike, Michael, or something
similar.  [Contributed by Rich Siegel.]

----------------
CompuServe Information Manager 2.0.2

Click on the spinning earth in the About box, and hold the mouse button
down.  The earth spins in the other direction.  Eventually, other windows
will appear, giving credit to the authors.  [Contributed by Rene Ros.]

----------------
Dark Castle

If you play the game on December 25 (or if you set your system's clock
to that date, and play the game), a Christmas tree appears in the foyer.
[Contributed by Philip Craig.]

----------------
Disinfectant

Select "About Disinfectant", and hold a menu down to pause the advancing
virus names while the music plays (to prevent the foot from arriving too
soon and stopping the music).  John Norstad appears in one half of the
dialog, while in the other half an animated sequence of virus names
march out as the Monty Python theme song plays, until they get stomped
by a huge foot.  Holding down a menu pauses the viruses but not the
music, and if you hold the menu down long enough, the entire theme song
(John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March") will play!  (You may have to
release the mouse button every now and then if the music does stop.)
[Contributed by Dave Claytor and Mitchell Marmel.]

----------------
Finale 2.x

Select "About Finale" and wait for a few seconds.  The conductor walks
away.  [Contributed by Arthur Rishi.]

----------------
Fractal Forest (an After Dark 'Art of Darkness' module)

Run this sometime around Christmas, and all the trees sprout Christmas
ornaments.  [Contributed by Phil Barrett.]

----------------
FrameMaker

Put the word "Interleaf" into a document, and spell-check it.
FrameMaker will substitute "FrameMaker" wherever it finds "Interleaf".
(Interleaf is FrameMaker's competition.)  [Contributed by Erik Ableson.]

----------------
HyperCard 2.x

Hold down Option as you select "About Hypercard...".  In 2.1, you get a
dialog describing your system setup.  In either 2.0 or 2.1, the chooser
name, if you've entered one, appears in the "HyperCard by" title.  (That
is, if you entered "Joe Cool" as your name in the Chooser (6.0) or
Sharing Setup (7.0), the top of the window will read "HyperCard by Joe
Cool".  If you have no Chooser name, one of the names of…

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