Date   : Thu, 15 Feb 2001 11:27:18 +0000
From   : "Richard G. Hallas" <Richard@...>
Subject: Hidden messages and Easter Eggs

On 14 Feb, jim <jim@...> wrote:

> On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, John Simpson wrote:
> > Later Acorn machines carried on this tradition. In RISC OS 3.5 (I
> > think), if you click on the letters "T" "E" "A" "M" in the string
> > "Acorn Computers Ltd" you get a graphics file generated with
> > photos of all the developers.
> 
> "Help! We are being held prisoner in a software factory!"

The 'team' thing was awkward to activate because you had to click on
each letter turn using Menu, and then again using Select (I think).
Anyway, it actually initiated a list of paging credits that replaced
the text in the icon you'd clicked. It was nothing to do with the team
photo in ROM. The 'team' thing worked, I believe, in all versions of
RISC OS 3, though the messages changed slightly between versions.

The team photo was quite difficult to access, but the following
one-line program will do it:

S=&39F47AC:E=&39F78DC:O=65536:SYS6,129,0,&FF TO,V:IF V<>&A5
ELSESYS&42701,%1000,-1 TOQ:DIM R Q,P O:SYS&42701,%0100,R,S,E-S,P,O
TO,,,,,U:A$="<Wimp$ScrapDir>.":B$=A$+"b":A$+="a":C$="Filer_Run ":
SYS8,10,A$,&FF9,,P+8,P+P!4+8:SYS8,10,B$,&FFF,,P+P!4+8,P+O-U:
OSCLIC$+A$:OSCLIC$+B$

Anyway, it was there in RISC OS 3.5 but was removed at some later
point, maybe as early as RISC OS 3.6, because they needed the ROM
space for something more useful than a photo. I believe that there may
have been a different picture in RISC OS 3.1.

The "Help! We're being held prisoner in a software factory!" message
appeares in the (laptop) power warning window in the Switcher's
Templates file, and first appeared in RISC OS 3. When the RISC OS 3
'New Look' appeared, with 3D windows and new window gadgets, the 3D
version of the window said: "Help! We're being held prisoner in a
software factory, in 3D!"

In RISC OS 4, the message has now become "Help! We've been released
from the software factory, and don't know what to do!". The same
set of templates in RISC OS 4 also includes a shutdown confirmation
window containing "I don't love you since you ate my dog" as its
default text.

The most entertaining RISC OS easter egg, though, is the game of Space
Invaders built into RISC OS 4, in which you have to shoot down a
variety of different file icons. To access the game, you have to go
into Basic and enter:

SYS "OS_Module",2,"IRQUtils"

(or issue the equivalent SWI via other means).

-- 
Richard
-=-=-=-
Richard G. Hallas  * Writer & Designer *  Editor, Foundation RISC User
Proprietor of KeyNote:  Music Typesetting & General Desktop Publishing
Email: Richard@...        / Richard@...        * Tel/Fax: 01484 460280