About This Notebook<eol>Macintosh Secret Trick List
Welcome to the Macintosh Secret Trick List! A "trick", also known as a "cookie" or an "easter egg", is something amusing or otherwise nonproductive (like a poem, a picture, or a song) hidden in a program. It won't appear unless you do some action you wouldn't normally do, so you can't find it unless 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.
Please report corrections to me, no matter how insignificant!
New info about tricks will be attributed and very much appreciated.
You may (of course!) distribute information about these tricks freely, but please keep my name on this list if you pass it around whole. It's okay to distribute this list in electronic format (on disks or CD-ROMs, over Usenet or BBS's, &c.), but if you'd like to use this
material in a book or newsletter, 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, or on a CD-ROM, or so forth. So far, this list has been printed in the BMUG newsletter, translated into Japanese and printed in the Japanese users' group "MuON" newsletter, used in the upcoming book "Maximizing your 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 corrections to stuff I had wrong here, thanks go to Paul Franklin and Seth Pettie.
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!<eot> <eol> <eot>Macintosh Plus<eol>Macintosh Plus
From the debugger, enter "G 40E118" (that's a zero, not an oh).
(To get into the 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.
<eoT>Macintosh SE<eoL> Macintosh SE
From the debugger, enter "G 41D89A".
(See the previous trick for info on how to get into the debugger.)
Four bitmap pictures of the Macintosh development team appear as a slideshow. 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, try entering "G 4188A4" into the debugger.
This gives you a tiny "Stolen from Apple Computer" message in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
(Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock)
<eoT>Macintosh Classic<eoL>Macintosh Classic
Hold down Command-Option-x-o right after you turn on or reboot the machine.
The Classic starts up 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 more info.)
Press the interrupt switch to dump yourself into the system debugger. 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)
<eoT>Macintosh IIci<eoL>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...)
<eoT>Macintosh IIfx<eoL>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.
<eoT>Macintosh ROMs<eoL>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 ?. (Contributed by Scott Lindhurst and Ed Tecot)
<eoT>Apple Fax Modem<eoL>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)
<eoT> <eoL>
<eoT>MultiFinder 6.0<eoL>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)
<eoT>System 6.0.7<eoL>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). (Contributed by Kevin Bolduan and Seth Theriault)
<eoT>System 6.0.7J<eoL>System 6.0.7J (Kanjitalk)
Set the clock to January 1, 1992, and restart.
The startup screen says "Happy new year" in Japanese. (Contributed by Junio Hamano)
<eoT>System 7.0<eoL>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)
<eoT>Finder 7.0<eoL>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 now reads "Displays a dialog with the original Finder picture.")
The original picture of the mountains from "About the Finder" in System 1.0 appears. 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.
<eoT>Caches 7.0.1<eoL>Caches 7.0.1 (on a Quadra)
Turn on balloon help and point to the version number. Also, try option-clicking on the version number.
The balloon reads "Wink, wink". Option-clicking makes the "040" icon whoosh to the side, revealing the name of the programmer. (Contribued by Kemi Jona)
<eoT>Caps Lock 7.0.1<eoL>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)
<eoT>Color Control Panel 7.0<eoL>Color Control Panel 7.0
Click on the Sample Text a few times.
The strings "by Dean Yu" "& Vincent Lo" alternate.
<eoT>Labels Control Panel 7.0<eoL>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".
<eoT>Map Control Panel<eoL>Map Control Panel
Type MID as the city name, and click Find. Also try: clicking on the version number, option-clicking on Find, opening the control panel while you hold down shift and/or option, clicking somewhere in the Map and dragging off the edge of it, or copying the map from the Scrapbook and pasting it while the Map control panel is open.
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. Dragging off the edge of the map 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)
<eoT>Memory Control Panel<eoL>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 programmers; each name points to a submenu with a few comments. (Contributed by Povl Hessellund Pedersen)
<eoT>Monitors Control Panel<eoL>Monitors Control Panel 7.0
Click the version number (7.0) in the control panel window. While you hold down the mouse button, tap Option several times.
When you click, a box pops up with the names of the people who wrote Monitors. Pressing Option 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".
<eoT>Finder 7.0<eoL>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..."
<eoT>QuickTime <eoL>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)
<eoT> <eoL>
<eoT>Claris CAD<eoL>Claris CAD
Hold down the Option key and select "About Claris CAD".
A system configuration summary appears.
(Contributed by Karl-Koenig Koenigsson)
<eoT>Dark Castle<eoL>Dark Castle
Try playing the game on December 25 (or set your system's clock to that date, and play the game).
A Christmas tree appears in the foyer.
(Contributed by Philip Craig)
<eoT>DART <eoL>DART (Apple's Disk Archiving and Retrieval)
Select "About DART", and click on the picture of the dartboard.
A credits animation will play; clicking on the text area while the credits are displaying will make them go by faster.
(Contributed by Oliver Breidenbach)
<eoT>Disinfectant <eoL>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)
<eoT>HyperCard 2.x<eoL>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 the many developers is put there.) Also, on any recent Mac (ones that require System 7.0.1 or 7.1), you will be told your system is a "Macintosh Macintosh".
(Thanks to Seth Theriault for more info.)
<eoT>Installer <eoL>Installer
On version 3.0.1 (the one that comes with System 6.0.7 and 6.0.8), after dismissing the initial welcome dialog, type "ski".
A humorous list of the developers will appear, and you will be able to choose from five wait-cursors: the hand with the moving fingers (standard), a spinning globe, the familiar spinning disc, the even more familiar wristwatch, and dots that move.
(Contributed by John DeRosa and John Hawkinson)
Here's another: On version 3.2 (the one that comes with System 7), hold down command and option while the Easy Install screen is up.
The Help button becomes "About", and clicking on it brings up a few screens of credits. (Contributed by Matthew Russotto)
<eoT>MacDraw Pro<eoL>MacDraw Pro
Hold down Option while selecting "About MacDraw Pro".
The dialog shows your system setup.
(Contributed by Dave Claytor)
<eoT>MacPaint 2.0<eoL>MacPaint 2.0 (only the first few copies, before Claris caught it)
Hold down Tab and Space while choosing "About MacPaint".
A bitmap of a well-known painting of a nude zebra-striped woman atop a white zebra appears.
<eoT>Maelstrom <eoL>Maelstrom
From the main screen (after it loads), press 'L'.
This brings up a level select. "Turbofunk mode" makes the game play as quickly as the hardware you're using can support.
Also try pressing 'X'.
This brings up a rather interesting poem that I think is from a song.
<eoT>Microsoft Excel 3.0<eoL>Microsoft Excel 3.0
Open a new spreadsheet, then go to cell IV16384. (Press Cmd-Right then Cmd-Down to jump there.) Use the scroll bars to scroll down and right more until only that cell is showing, then set that cell's width and height both to 0. All that will remain in your window will be the little square in the upper-left-hand corner that you normally click on to select the entire spreadsheet; click on it.
The contents of the window will be replaced by a little Lotus-stomping then a list of Excel's programmers and beta-testers. When your normal Excel window comes back, scroll away to keep the show from repeating. (Contributed by Evan Torrie)
Here's another: set the style of any cell to "excel" (by selecting "Format Styles..." and typing "excel" without the quotes). Then choose "About Excel..." from the Apple menu and click on the big Excel icon.
A brief animation ("So good, it hurts.") alternates with the names of the developers ("Recalc or Die!").
(Contributed by Rob Griffiths)
One more little one: On a color Mac running System 6, launch Excel while you hold down Shift-3-D.
Excel's "tool bar" will have the System 7 "three-d" look to it, instead of looking boring and flat like it usually does under System 6. (Contributed by Randy Lambertus)
<eoT>Microsoft Word 3.01<eoL>Microsoft Word 3.01 and 4.x with the US dictionary (and maybe UK?)
Spellcheck the word "childcare".
The spell-checker will suggest one word: "kidnaper" [sic]. (Contributed by Adam Shostack)
Also, try spellchecking "supression" [sic]. (Does this work on Word 3 too?)
The spell-checker will include "Cupertino" among its choices. (Could this be secret Apple-bashing? ;)
(Contributed by Hiroki Morizono)
<eoT>Microsoft Word 4.0<eoL>Microsoft Word 4.0
Select "About Microsoft Word" and command-click on the Word icon.
The resulting dialog gives the names of beta-testers.
<eoT>Microsoft Word 5.0<eoL>Microsoft Word 5.0
Hold down Command and Shift as you select "Preferences" from the Tools menu.
At the bottom of the preferences list will be a new item, Credits; select it to see listed the names of the Word 5 developers. (Contributed by Jonathan Leblang)
<eoT>Norton Utilities<eoL>Norton Utilities
Command-click the little rhomboid just in front of the version number in the About box.
A list of the developers appears. (In 2.0, you get a great caricature.) (Contributed by Karl-Koenig Koenigsson and Larry Cunningham)
Also click on the man standing in front of the file tree.
He holds up a flag in which scroll the names of everyone who worked on NU.
In the Wipe program, version 2.0, command-click on the rhomboid beside the version number in the About box.
The cursor turns into a hand holding an eraser. Move it around the About box; zeroes are left in its wake. Fill the entire box with zeroes; a brief melody plays, and a picture of the developers appears. (Contributed by Larry Cunningham)
In the Speed Disk program 1.0, command-click on the rhomboid beside the version number in the About box.
The large letters that make up the name "SPEED DISK" swap themselves pair-by-pair until the name eventually unjumbles itself again. (Contributed by Andy Calder)
<eoT>PageMaker 3.02<eoL>PageMaker 3.02
Hold down Shift while you select "About PageMaker."
A list of "PageMaker's Makers" is displayed.
(Contributed by J. D. Sterling Babcock)
<eoT>QuicKeys 2.x<eoL>QuicKeys 2.x
Open the macro definition window, and click on the logo to bring up a credits window. Wait for about half a minute.
A bunny walks across the window beating a drum. After it crosses, the message "QuicKeys keeps on going!" is displayed. (There's also a way to get a safe to drop on the bunny, but I don't know how. Anybody have any ideas?)
(Contributed by Kenny Wong)
<eoT>ResEdit 2.x<eoL>ResEdit 2.x
Hold down Shift, Option, and Command as you choose "About ResEdit."
You get the chance to enter "pig mode" (oink oink oink). When you put ResEdit into pig mode, resources will be compacted and purged each time ResEdit goes through its event loop (several times a second). (However, since this makes ResEdit slower, it's not of much use outside Apple.) (Contributed by Ian Neath. (Info about "pig mode" from Chris Webster and Russell Street.)
Mr. Street adds that if you turn on pig mode while running ResEdit from a floppy disk the disk will "oink" a few times each second (most easily heard on an old Plus in a quiet room), but when I tried this my machine crashed. ;)
Also, just try holding down only command and option as you choose "About ResEdit"...
... to get some credits. (as in who made ResEdit, not as in Star Trek money)
<eoT>Simple Player<eoL>Simple Player (for QuickTime) 1.0
Hold down Option as you select "About Simple Player..."
The two movie frames now have greyscaled cats in them.
(Contributed by Scott Ryder)
<eoT>Spectre <eoL>Spectre
When playing the game, type "god".
You are treated to a bird's-eye view of the entire battlefield at once.
(Contributed by Jeff Ivler)
<eoT>TeachText <eoL>TeachText 1.1, 1.2, and 7.0
Hold down the option key while you select "About TeachText..."
Some "Thanks to" credits appear. (Contributed by Andrew Stoffel)
<eoT>Vette!<eoL>Vette!
Select course 3 (starting on the Bay Bridge), but turn around and go _backwards_ for a ways (with the wall on your left and the ocean on your right, and traffic coming at you -- be careful!).
After you've gone far enough, you will suddenly be in a very nicely- detailed area whose streets are named after the developers.
<eoT>WriteNow<eoL>WriteNow 2.2 Select "About WriteNow", then option-click on the About dialog.
Little men run out and change all the letters one-by-one.
<eoT> <eoL> <eoT>LC and IIsi interrupts<eoL>
The Macintosh LC and Macintosh IIsi don't have restart and interrupt buttons like other Macs, so to generate these signals from the keyboard, press Command-Control-Power (the key with the triangle on it) for "reset" and just Command-Power for "interrupt." This also works with other newer Macs such as the IIvx.
<eoT>Frozen Mac<eoL>
If your computer seems to have crashed or frozen up, or is taking WAY too long to finish doing some task that it won't let you interrupt, press Command-Option-Escape. This will sometimes bring up a dialog that reads "Force 'application' to quit? Unsaved changes will be lost." The dialog has two buttons, "Force Quit" and "Cancel". Sometimes, clicking on "Force Quit" will kill the active application, allowing you to continue using your Mac without having to restart. Take advantage of this to save your other work and restart your Mac as soon as you can, because a crashed application might have trashed other things in memory. Use this at your own risk! Sometimes it won't work, but if your machine's hung, it could come in handy.
