Subject: Re: Hidden messages in executables
From: [email-masked] (Richard F. Drushel)
Date: 26 May 1995 14:24:55 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

Bruce James Robert Linley ([email-masked]) wrote:

[examples of hidden messages in executables deleted]

	In the BIOS ROM of my old Tandy 2800HD laptop is the
string "No one confuses us with IBM".

	The SmartBASIC 1.0 interpreter for the Coleco ADAM
has the string "Hi Cathy" after the copyright notice, and
unused space in the boot sector of the version 2.0 disk has
"Hi Jan".  We ADAMites theorize that the reason the SmartBASIC
interpreters had so many bugs was that the programmers were
more interested in Cathy and Jan...

	*Rich*
--
Richard F. Drushel, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, Slug Division :)
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio  44106-7080  U.S.A.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: [email-masked] (Bruce James Robert Linley)
Subject: Hidden messages in executables
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 04:35:03 GMT

While grepping my hard drive at work, I came across an unusual message
in the executable binary of the driver for the RAM drive card. It was
right near the head of the binary plain as day and it read "Fuck your
sister. What are you doing looking at this?" No kidding. I know some
companies don't like people reverse engineering their code, but this goes
a little too far and reflects badly on the company.

Windoze's Minesweeper contains "XYZZY", although this is part of the
key sequence to activate cheat mode for that game and is not meant to
be a pure hidden message.

So, has anyone discovered any other interesting or unusual messages
buried in executables?

-- 
Bruce James Robert Linley         | ------- |  __,    | ,-----, | Disclaimer:
[email-masked]/[email-masked] |  B A R  |   / \   | `---, / | My opinions
Programmer/Analyst, FortuNet Inc. |  B A R  |  () ()  |    / /  | not my
Las Vegas, Nevada     ARS: KE6EQZ | ------- |    ()   |   /_/   | employers!

From: [email-masked] (mike magin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Hidden stuff (was Re: Hidden messages in executables)
Date: 6 Jun 1995 21:14:10 -0500

Here's one I found a quite a while ago... In IBM PC-DOS 2.10,
RECOVER.COM, the following message begins at byte 24E, in the
middle of the executable, not at the end with the rest of the
text strings:

Chris Peters helped with the new dos!
Microsoft rules ok

Mike "I'd have to disagree with the 'Microsoft rules' part" Magin

-- 
--
Mike Magin  <[email-masked]>  |  http://sashimi.wwa.com/~mikem/
       529 ** .5             |  Finger for PGP Public Key
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty or safety."   -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Mercer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Hidden stuff (was Re: Hidden messages in executables)
Date: 3 Jun 1995 17:36:38 GMT

Most of the neat hidden stuff I remember goes back to the days when I used
a TRS-80 CoCo (I, then later II, and finally a III).

A CoCo (which was 6809 based and actually a pretty impressive 8 bit machine
in many ways, hardware wise) had a slot for a cartridge (called "Rom Paks"
by Tandy). Someone discovered that you could put a piece of tape over one
of the leads of the cartridges and they wouldn't be automatically executed
once plugged in.
This made it very easy to save the ROM code as a file onto the tape drive.
Then, the computer would be turned off, the disk controller plugged into
the cartridge port, and the computer turned back on. Then, with the assistance
of a pretty simple little utility, you could load in the memory snapshot
from tape, patch it, and resave it to disk. Then you could LOADM the game
whenever you wanted and play it.

This was exceedingly popular, of course, for those who had disk systems and
didn't want to keep screwing around with unplugging and plugging in stuff
just to play games and the like...

ANyways, because of this, I was able to look at the code of a lot of programs
that probably were never originally intended to be looked at. I recall one
game had a brief set of alternative lyrics to the tune "My Bonnie Lies Over
The Ocean", which was the song played by the game (a Shooting Gallery game)
when you started it. The alternate lyrics reflected factors of the game play.
It was actually pretty clever.

I also saw a lot of the usual "Why are you reading this?" stuff. At least one
program said, simply, "Hello, pirate." Another program had *dozens* of hidden
messages, including a list of the author's favorite bands, a cryptogram to
decode, a puzzle, and silly stuff...

By far the neatest hidden thing on a TRS-80 Color Computer was with the
CoCo III, the last model Tandy made. That model featured a significant change
in graphics and memory hardware, as well as more advanced ROM's and an
"enhanced" keyboard (with TWO whole function keys! Wow!).
It turned out that by hitting one of the Function keys down (or perhaps it
was both of them) while hitting the reset button in the back of the machine,
a special Easter Egg buried in the ROM of the machine was activated.
When you let go of the reset button, rather than getting the usual Green
screen and boring copyright message, you'd get a simple 4-color graphic
image of three men standing and smiling at you, with the Microcom "M" icon
behind them. It was obviously a digitized image. Hitting reset again would
cause the machine to reset normally.

It's the only time I've heard of a hidden picture being built into the ROM of
a computer.

It also turned out to be a neat way to get out of programs that trapped the
normal reset interrupt, as they couldn't patch the keyboard and reset 
interrupt. So you didn't have to turn your computer off to get out of one
of those idiot games...

[email-masked] : "How's life Mr. Peterson?"                           
   Jeff The Riffer     : "Aw, I'm waiting for the movie."                     
      Drifter...       :                                                      
  Homo Postmortemus    :                                                      

From: Eric Kidd <[email-masked]>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Hidden stuff (was Re: Hidden messages in executables)
Date: 4 Jun 1995 14:25:51 GMT

[email-masked] (Jeff Mercer) wrote:
>It's the only time I've heard of a hidden picture being built into the ROM 
of
>a computer.

It seems to be quite popular at Apple Computer--many models of Mac from the 
Plus onward have had digitized photos of the design team, or some such, in 
the ROMs. Some you could find by using the debugger to jump to unusual 
locations, but none were particularly easy to display. Apparently, the 
first Macs actually had the designers' signatures on the inside of the 
cases, molded into the plastic.

My Mac--a Quadra 660AV--reportedly has some images in ROM, and has a *very* 
odd sound that you can play by hitting the programmer's switch at boot 
time. It's some short synthesized drum tune.

The error sound played by some PowerMacs if their boot-time check fails is 
a car crashing, with glass everywhere. Freaks out some users. <grin>

But, without a doubt, some of the best Mac easter eggs are found in the 
help messages describing various system components.

MacsBug, the free low-level debugger: "This file provides programmers with 
information proving it was really a hardware problem..."

QuickTime, the video codec system: "Time. n. A non-spatial continuum in 
which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past 
through the present to the future."

Cheers,
Eric