? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

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eisnerguy1
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? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by eisnerguy1 »

So, I had a rather bizarre question about the Mac version of Freddy Pharkas. I did a search on Google Groups and found a post by Keith Nemitz (one of the lead Mac devs at Sierra) from 7/1/93

In the post, he mention a special Mac easter egg. In a response to my email he said:

"If I remember correctly, at the start of the game, if you travel to an
ajacent screen (not sure which direction) there is a pond. If you do
something to the pond (can't remember, may require an item or talk to
it...), a hand will reach out of the water offering a Macintosh.

good luck! Let me know if you figure it out.

The pond was used in the game demo, but not for the final game. My team
thought it'd be fun to add something."

Should probably clear this part up. The demo that was being referred to was the DOS floppy demo. In the DOS floppy demo, the swamp was used as a plot point. This area wasn't important in the final DOS version. There wasn't a Mac demo.

I did some digging and threw together a quick website with my findings.

Short version is that thanks to various tools, I know what message the game displays when the easter egg happens, what sound is used (probably); what script, view, palette, position, scale & etc. are used but not how to actually get the easter egg to show up in the game normally :P

I emailed both Al Lowe & Josh Mandel & neither knew of this easter egg or how to trigger it.

I was wondering if anyone had ever seen this easter egg in action for themselves and knows how to trigger it?
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Tawmis
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Re: ? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by Tawmis »

Can't one of the editors be used to see what "commands" are done to see what triggers it?
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Re: ? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by eisnerguy1 »

Tawmis wrote:Can't one of the editors be used to see what "commands" are done to see what triggers it?
Can't. With the SCI tools I've tried, they don't recognize the Mac files because they are in a different format (I think big endian instead of little endian).
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Re: ? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by eisnerguy1 »

So, I finally figured out the elusive easter egg that was exclusive to the Mac version of Freddy Pharkas.

By using the “Talk” icon in the same spot on the Mine that generates the “Mac programmers deep within the Old Abandoned Mine toil at their shunned lore.” message (by using the "Look" icon), a sequence will begin that ends with a hand raising a Macintosh out of the swamp.

I didn't think about using the Talk icon in that same exact spot until I read this message.

I uploaded a video of the whole easter egg on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12N6y47yTwk

Feels good to have finally figured this out :D
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Re: ? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by BBP »

Great job man! :geek:
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Re: ? about a rare Freddy Pharkas (Mac version) easter egg

Post by Tawmis »

Awesome! Yeah, I have no access to a MAC so I had no way to help! Excellent find.
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