Easter Eggs and Other Delights

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to PC games. I’ve played since the early 80s, when I ordered a 5” floppy disc version of Adventure for my shiny new, state of the art, amber screened IBM PC XT. Adventure was one of the first forays into interactive fiction—a text-only game in which the player controlled the action with simple typed commands that went something like this:

Computer: You’re in a forest.
Player: Go north.
Computer: A ferocious dragon blocks your path.
Player: Kill it.
Computer: How?
Player: Stab it with my sword.
Computer: Your attack has no effect.
Player: Throw a rock at it.
Computer: Your attack has no effect.
…One hour and 50 attempts later…
Player: Strangle it with my bare hands.
Computer: Congratulations. You’ve just strangled a dragon with your bare hands.
…AAAAAHHHHHH!
Computer: A dead dragon lies across your path.

The history of interactive fiction, interactive storytelling and hypertext fiction makes interesting reading in itself: Interactive Fiction. For more about narrative structure in the digital age, I also recommend the book Hamlet on the Holodeck.

In time, I moved on through a succession of upgraded computers and upgraded games with graphics: Zork Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor; Myst (damn those brothers!) and its sequels Riven and Exile, Shivers I & II, and my all time favorite-Dungeon Keeper. Eventually I found RPGs (role playing games) and never looked back—i.e., “hang on, I’ll be with you in a minute, right now I have to kill this f**#!ing cave troll.” I’ve played the fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, on and off for over 2 years and am eagerly awaiting the release of #5, Skyrim, on 11/11/11. Hey, I’m the Champion of Cyrodiil five times over, fool. Just who might you be? I’m lettin’ my geek flag fly!

One of the great things about these games is finding easter eggs.
Little hidden treasures and pop culture references that developers scatter throughout the game for our amusement and their own—a secret level that only pops up during the full moon, a giant version of the annoying little mud crab you’ve had to fight hundreds of times, a dialogue choice that makes a disparaging yet witty remark about the current president’s administration, a dead troll with crumpled note in its hand addressed to a production supervisor, a sign that reads ‘there are no easter eggs here’…that kind of thing.

Thusly inspired, I’ve tried to plant the same kind of resonance in my writing. And sometimes, because of a quirky turn of mind, I just can’t help myself. For example, the geek flag reference above (for the young ones, it’s ‘freak flag’ from the song Almost Cut My Hair-Déjà Vu-CSN&Y). In my Tom Carney novel, the minor character, Niko, is one giant easter egg. If you recognize him, or who he was is real life I should say, not only have you earned my esteem but also your own self-satisfaction, and it makes his interaction with Tom just that little bit more entertaining. And that’s not all. Song lyrics, puns, literary allusions…enjoy!