Newly Found 40+ Year-Old VIC-20 Easter Eggs by Commodore Programmer Andy Finkel

[@jimmysnyder1]

Thanks Robin. I'm the Jimmy Snyder credited at the bottom of the list in the GORF game. I had no idea that Andy put my name there.

[@merykjenkins3274]

Of all of the ways to hide the Easter Egg, that Gorf method was the most ingenious. Using a peripheral that wasn't for the game as a pair of safe dials - how sneaky is that!! Perhaps you should have been wearing black leather gloves and had a stethoscope listening to the Vic 20. Thanks Robin, that was a great episode.

[@michaelditto]

I worked at Commodore in the Amiga era. Andy and Eric both were still there working on Amiga system software. I didn't know they had worked on games/apps in the earlier times. I remember working with Eric on Amiga keyboard drivers, and I think Andy was the most senior programmer and tech lead for Amiga OS releases. Commodore-Amiga by that time did allow engineers to get their names out there with technical publications for developers, etc. so both Andy and Eric were "famous" in the developer community.

[@VectrexForever]

Awesome video! I never expected to learn about Easter eggs in my favorite VIC-20 games forty years later. Congratulations on discovering previously unknown ones!

[@panthermodern64]

Just wanted to drop a comment to say how much I enjoy your videos. They scratch that nostalgia itch so perfectly.

[@PeranMe]

Awesome video as always, thank you for all the work you put in for our amusement!

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Robin, I love your super sleuthing!

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Fancy seeing you here. 😄

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

Hey out there in retro computerland! First of all I remember years ago that one of my relatives I think it was had purchased a game for me this was way back I was using a computer through the school because we needed a computer at at home and at that time it was way out the reach of most! The term needing computer was actual need to be able to be able to do any schoolwork! Later on my knob using Dragon dictate on newer machine However I remember that I had gotten a copy of a game I don't remember which one it was but I know that it was on the box that it just had the Apple version don't remember which model of the Apple computer it was either. However not only did it have the disc for the Apple but the discs for every single computer system the game was for or in the box with as well. By the way this game had no copyright protection whatsoever such as in the manual and you would be able to play all the way through! Or any other things regarding that sort of protection that you would need to be able to enter something or otherwise have the manual or any other gimmicky ones no decoder whatever. I had other friends that had different machines as well as as well as I donated the game just somewhere that had a Commodore 64. There was at least unsafe or five other machines besides the Apple that the disorder included for and so three or four other people got a fully functional game out of this. I was going to reformat the disk just use visited if could do I realized what was going on there might as well get someone that can use it! Really I was not supposed to be playing games on that school in the machine but I didn't buy the game myself so kind of stuck under the radar we told the people that got us that this as well but they didn't listen! Also I remember playing a Missile Command clone you could say it was one that was later in the computer generation I don't even remember what year or what generation of machine is was on. All I do know is did support three-button Mouse and the interesting thing is I don't think you'd call this an Easter egg but more of a Polish man or navy is an Easter egg hard to say. To give perspective here when using 2 button Mouse when you're playing you're able to use left and right Mouse button has to fire the missile from either side of the screen. Hit Riverview could do simultaneously but I think we're able to do so? However they warned you about the third Mouse button if you use that Mouse button randomly blows up one of your cities!!! The other thing that was sort of clever is when you count out how many missiles are left on screen it was shortened fingers for number missiles in cycling through their fingers to count number of missiles left either side which is pretty interesting to say the least! I wonder if anyone has written diversion of the Lemmings soundtrack for The Commodore 64 Sid chip as well that probably would sound pretty good I'd say if something like that would be on KZbin anywhere please give a link thanks. I don't even know if Lemmings ever lays for Commodore 64 not I kind of doubt it but is phospholipid may have this is the original Lemmings not the sequels

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

I remember back in the day also playing it an old Atari game I only think I knew one person that had had it and I don't remember the title or anyting. There were a couple Easter eggs and just some things rather interesting I think it was even a rudimentary password sister on this one I know there was at least one other that had a way of doing this. But part of this game or most of it was like a wild West sort of game. And under certain conditions if somehow you could get on the horse backwards and if you do this you'd hear the tune to the old gray mare! And also if you went into the saloon at the right time or under certain conditions one of the few different Snippets of a piece of music with play on the player piano I do remember one was Entertainer another was she'll be coming round the mountain and I'll be working on the railroad what's another. The only one I remember otherwise was Camptown Races although that might have been in another part of the game I think there was a place where you can place a bet on a horse perhaps but I might have this confused with a different game but I do know for a fact somewhere in the game Camptown Races. It wasn't I don't think the full piece but it was at least a good clip of the all of the above songs. Also there was a game that I don't know if I had this one or not it was rather interesting it did use the dot matrix printer sometimes is it output device four texts but not only that you have some options including a sound option but enabled you to use a printer to play sound I don't know if this was something one off regarding only that game itself using this technique but it was different and novel to say the least. And in sometimes would even use the PC speaker is addition to the printer and it actually was quite different but still interesting to say the least but did sound lot better than just PC speaker back in the day

[@AndyHewco]

Interesting topic. Would like to hear more discoveries you find in the future. I stumbled on the credit screen in omega race back in the 80s by chance and I never knew how it had happened until more recent times thanks to the Internet. It looks like Andy got his name about quite a bit. He made some great things at Commodore and Omega Race in particular blew me away when I first saw it.

[@camelid]

Had a Votrax cartridge, on a VIC 20. we used it for a video production unit of a church for missionary TV shows with an expansion port and extra RAM. There was a blind fellow who wanted to help out - we set up a Peavey multi-channel audio mixer using optoisolators across the level overload LEDs, wired to the keyboard. F1 toggled a stopwatch to read aloud elapsed time. As each channel went into overload and started flashing the LED, the Votrax announced the channel number. Each channel was labeled in braille so he could find which one needed its level reduced. I wrote the software, a friend helped with the hardware implementation. Had to learn “votrax” though, it was very mechanical sounding due to being phoneme based synthesis.

[@8_Bit]

Very cool to hear about these early accessibility uses, thanks for the comment!

[@enderjed2523]

Was it the SC-01 or SC-02?

[@camelid]

@@enderjed2523 that was 40ish years ago. Your guess as good as mine. :)

[@enderjed2523]

@@camelid By the production units alone, it was more likely to be an SC-01.

[@3vi1J]

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me coming back to this channel! Great stuff. I had no idea the same guy created/ported all those different games.

[@AureliusR]

Yay! A VIC-20 video!!! I love when you feature the VIC-20 :D

[@AureliusR]

And it features the only 2 cartridges I own -- Adventure and Omega Race! woohoo!

[@BTM86]

VIC-20 cartridges are so cool looking, and fun to collect!

[@ForaPhil]

Amazing treasure hunting in the 8 bit binary jungle! Hats off to Robin!

[@francoisleveille409]

A long while ago I modded that biorythm BASIC program to support dates above year 2000.

[@andyfinkel3198]

Very nice video, great to watch. It really brings back memories!

[@manicminer4573]

Much respect to you Andy!

[@jessragan6714]

Whoa, Andy Finkel? Hey Andy, was any work done on the VIC-20 version of Wizard of Wor? It was on the back of the system box but it sure wasn't in my VIC-20.

[@flyingcat0]

@@jessragan6714 Jeff Bruette would remember better than I would...

[@fourthhorseman4531]

Great video! I wish I still had my childhood Vic20 and all those great old games.

[@iRDaBrit]

Did he make Mission Impossible too? I remember being stuck on this text adventure for MONTHS. There was one room with a chair in it. I sat down in the chair and I couldn't move anywhere else. None of the usual N, S, E, W commands worked. I gave up trying and then about a year later I tried it again and something made me type "Get Up" and it worked!

[@MurderMostFowl]

Lol… I sympathize. It took me quite a while to figure out a similar part of HHGTTG ( after being beamed up to the Vogon ship ). I was stuck for months and months. I would just replay and bang my head on the table every time.

[@GadgetUK164]

Excellent video =D Great to see all these easter eggs!

[@manicminer4573]

Brilliant work! Thank you! Loved watching this! I knew I had heard the name before. A. Finkel is the first named author on the VIC20 Programmer's Reference Guide.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Robin puts the Easter bunny to shame.

[@fitfogey]

This is great stuff Robin. Super cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@Carlos_Rodrigo]

These findings are so cool ! Please let Adrian Black from Adrian's Digital Basement, know about this. Awesome !

[@kidsforcode3052]

What a nicely researched episode! Congrats!!

[@RavenWolfRetroTech]

Nice work! I'm glad to see there are still secrets to be found and people out there finding them!

[@aresaurelian]

This is so cool. That paddle thingy is so familiar. Genius.

[@yeoldestuff]

Very interesting video, thank you Robin. That Easter Egg in Gorf is very sneaky - what an ingenious way to hide it!

[@BG101UK]

Fantastic! I'll be checking this with my Sargon II Chess cartridge once I've gone over the potential dry joints on my VIC. It works but since I had it open earlier to show my mate (as an accompaniment whilst watching this) and spotted some potential issues, it's a good time to address them, encouraged by viewing your video!

[@EdwardianTeaChest]

@08:19 That's a novel way to hide an Easter egg in a BASIC program - appending it to the end of the program as a machine code routine so that it doesn't appear in the BASIC listing.

[@MrMegaManFan]

I had one of those Vic six packs as a kid. It used to frustrate me how long it took to load a tape game. Playing Omega Race was so much more satisfying- pop in a cart and book. I screwed around with that biorhythms one a lot though!

[@eugenetswong]

Thanks, Robin.

[@qfragger]

Ii learnt to type playing pirates cove and adventure land. I remember the family huddled around our TV playing pirates cove, I was 10 yrs old. Thanks for the video.

[@wmason1961]

Vic 20 was my first computer. There was an offshore radio station that broadcast vic 20 programs on occasion. Record off the air and run them. It was a lot of fun. I can't believe that something I bought new is now an antique collectable. God, I feel old.

[@AlexanderKurtz]

Very cool and infomativ as always. thx for showing it to us.

[@StevesRetroGaming]

Another great & FUN video - Makes me want to go out and search for more Easter eggs

[@TastyBusiness]

I used to have a Votrax Type n Talk. I wasn't using it, so I passed it along to another friend. Never thought to try using it with a VIC-20, that's for sure.

[@merman1974]

Brilliant video! Interesting to see the summary of Andy Finkel's career, and funny/infuriating to see that numbering glitch on the Scott Adams adventures. And cool to see that Omega Race cheat for VIC-20 too.

[@Asterra2]

When I was like 7, I made a little game on my Vic-20 called Mexican Jumping Beans. It was a platformer Pac-Man clone. You controlled a disembodied head that could hover upwards and then glide downwards, and the objective was to eat all the "beans" (single pixel dots) scattered around the level. A line of birds flew overhead, constantly trying to lay egg projectiles to kill you. Every level had a temporary invincibility item in the form of a sombrero. I was reminded of this little game because I had hidden an "easter egg" of sorts. In the final level, you could get stuck in a trap with no way to escape, but I included a way out: The joystick button, which normally did nothing, would change one of the ceiling blocks of the trap into a breakable wall-the type which could be worn down by the birds' egg projectiles. The sneaky part was that the level's sombrero power-up was located inside the trap, and if you were too hasty and picked up the sombrero before converting the ceiling panel to breakable, you'd run out of the sombrero's power before the eggs broke through, and then trying to exit would result in your death due to no longer having the invincibility to survive a hit from the still-falling eggs. I was kind of proud of that little game. It had an intro screen with music, and even had two-color graphics, such as an egg + yolk whenever an egg would splat. It's just too bad that the Vic-20 was far too slow to enable acceptable performance from something programmed in Basic.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Great times. I so wish My c64 and disks where not stolen 30 years ago. Had so much of my 11 yearold self programing in them disks.

[@emmettturner9452]

I questioned my sanity when I bought some Commodore-brand paddles at the flea market years ago since I already owned so many Atari paddles like most players prefer. I can now claim that it wasn’t stupid. :)

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Thanks for sharing! Loving the Easter egg finds!!

[@MaidenAriana]

What greath sleuthing! Excellent work Robin!

[@D0csavage1]

In the end Commodore is history 😔yet the programmers Easter Eggs live on decades later, fossil style. A company I worked for were subcontractors to IBM and Compaq but when we won a contract from Commodore to assemble Amiga's the Managing Director had an ear to ear grin when he toured the production line. Nostalgic moments for him perhaps.

[@MichaelDoornbos]

10:07 I think you get 1000 extra bonus points for the ToysRUs clearance tag. 19:10 The VIC-20 doesn't have limitations. It's more than any growing boy needs. Sprites are for sissies. 25:50 Well now I'm modding my Atari Paddles to go down to 0 on a 6560/1 ;-)

[@bobbobson4069]

Dear Robin, I enjoy watching all your videos because they are informative and I learn a lot of new info on retro computing. Your latest vid on Easter eggs was particularly interesting. You mentioned (and I was astonished to learn this) that programmers to 1980s games were not usually mentioned and credited! I was gobsmacked! Not even mentioned? It's like a book being published with the author not being mentioned! I was born in 1974 and I grew up in the 8-bit era (I owned a C64) but at the time I never thought about these issues. I would be fascinated if you could do a video about how game programmers were treated at the time (I am aware that you produced games yourself). Take care and keep up the brilliant documentary-style videos! Kind regards, Marius Gudonis (originally from the UK, now living in Poland)

[@pintlesspace]

Thanks for the info! I only have 3 vic games abd gorf us one if them. as a note my atari paddles did work to trigger the easter egg

[@MindFlareRetro]

Dang! You are the retro easter egg master. Andy Finkle really is a legend, eh?

[@bsvenss2]

Hi Robin. I hope you haven't missed _Commodore Amiga Chips - Dave Haynie, Andy Finkel, Stephen Edwards_ on _Vintage Computer Federation_ KZbin channel, released 15 hours ago.

[@DavidYoud]

Wow, just on a hunch of where easter eggs might be, you found a basket full! Yet again, I'm reminded that this is my favorite youtube channel. BTW, if you want to see Scott Adams's Adventureland in BASIC, check out "The Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures".

[@jim_64s8-bitprojects5]

What a fun video! I now want to check all my carts with the commodore + shift + whatever combinations!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

There is also one in Mac OS 8.6. Hold down a magic key combo and select the "About this Mac" from the Apple menu and it shows a video of the Apple R+D bldg.

[@darthbukowski6894]

I love playing Voodoo Castle. My cart has the sys note on it, I saw yours did not. Must have been a later release.

[@VectrexForever]

I tried the Gorf easter egg with my Atari paddles and it works! So it is possible with those paddles as well.

[@superx9619]

I remember I got a Vic20 for Christmas in 1982. It came with Avenger and Pirates Cove. When I popped in Pirates Cove I was so angry. I was like wth is this?? Words?? I tossed it aside and maybe a year or so later gave it a chance and I got hooked on it. I remember discovering "Say YoHo" 😁😂

[@redmartian]

Great find! Andy Finkel!

[@catfishkempster]

I remember the first time seeing part of the easter egg screen on Omega Race when a friend partially pulled the cart out when the game was on (we were 10 years old - he didn't know better), and the whole thing through a coincidental pushing of the right buttons at the same time

[@shelby3822]

I don't recall that 'previously saved game' note on my Scott Adam games but could just be my memory

[@LeonardCrassman]

Andy Finkel was a rockstar name for me when I was a kid.

[@projectartichoke]

I really enjoy your videos! They're always interesting no matter the subject. This one is terrific. Keep up the great work sir!

[@GarryGri]

I was tidyin out the loft 2 days ago and came across that Scott Adams adventure game manual lying in the rafters! It was dusty but still in good condition 😁

[@naderhumood]

What a cool video Sir.Thanks v much , I like it.

[@jmpattillo]

The Scott Adams games were so much fun.

[@dimensiongamer534]

This video was a great watch, cheers!

[@logiciananimal]

I find it interesting that Commodore used distinct hardware for the paddles vs the joystick. Apple II (for example) makes them the same - playing Little Brick Out with a joystick is an ... interesting experience. I wonder if the "won't go to zero" might rather be in the computer rather than the joysticks?

[@DarrenLandrum]

I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but in Voodoo Castle, if you go to the room with the pot (as in a cooking pot) and tell it to "smoke pot", it'll reply with "That's illegal." Don't know if this counts as an Easter egg, but I always found it funny.

[@aceJacek]

What I miss from "Loan calc" easter is explanation from where the BY ANDY FINKEL string was pulled by the syscall

[@willallen7757]

Robins Eggs.

[@BTM86]

Good one!

[@Greg_Huff]

Seeing those Vic20 carts one by one like that almost gave me a stiffy

[@chromosundrift]

Paddles to zero is the original knobs to eleven.

[@jovmilos]

Went on the amazon to look for that on the edge book, OMG it's so ridiculously expensive

[@TheRetrospective]

Very cool video again. So interesting to l „sherlock holmes“ on the case of Finkel‘s easter eggs. 🌸

[@mistermark8755]

THANKS FOR THAT

[@RyanSmith-pf7ci]

Wow you are VERY good at Omega Race, I've always been awful at it!

[@8BitNaptime]

Quite envious of your intact cartridge boxes. The few I got from eBay arrive crushed.

[@mikewillms8953]

Hey Robin. I loved playing Avenger as a kid. Recently I was trying to add some trainer code to the game and came across a disabled easter egg on the title screen. $A386 is coded as BPL $A393 which will always branch as the AND #$02 before will always clear the NEG flag. If it is changed to a BNE then the LEFT SHIFT, RIGHT SHIFT, C= combination should show the easter egg. Have a look!

[@8_Bit]

Thanks Mike, Avenger is a great game! And yes, it's got the easter egg from Professor Matsuoka in it, as does his other VIC-20 game, Poker. I found out about these back in 2020 and never did get around to making a video about them. I should do that sometime, thanks for the reminder.

[@plgDavid]

Wow. As I dont return the right values when requested paddle values in my VIC-20 emulator, I see the credits screen all the time. I as havent played gorf on real HW in a while thought that was the default. Great vid

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

I'm surprised that other industries, where a lot of talented people contributed to the creation of their product, haven't done similar things. For example, the automotive industry certainly has a large number of very talented people who have developed, tested and built every component of a car. I'm sure they would love to be acknowledged for their contributions. I imagine the reasons are that the manufacturer wants people to associate quality and/or technical achievement with the brand rather than with a person or persons. Same excuse the software companies used to employ too...

[@rottmanthan]

i have some vic 20 tapes i have not tried yet since getting them, i do know some of them need the spring loaded pad glued back on. but thats easy.

[@EdwardianTeaChest]

If you're planning to make another video of miscellaneous Easter eggs, here's one that you may want to consider including. On the high-score table of the C64 game Jammin' by Taskset, enter an expletive and see what happens. If you examine the program you will see that it recognises quite a few words, albeit mostly truncated or misspelt to fit into 3 letters.

[@teachme325]

Excellent work! The best part is the song at the end!!! hahahaha Thank you for remembering, Robin! Hey, can I have Denial added to my name in the patreon roll?

[@8_Bit]

Haha, yes! :) Can you edit your name however you want it shown in your Patreon account? That way I'll get the name right as I dump all the names out of the Patreon spreadsheet they send me. If I have to do it manually I'll forget. Thanks :)

[@setSCEtoAUX]

29:09 Is "wik" a reference to the swedish credits at the beginning of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Nerds never change. (Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?)

[@ScottHiland]

Came here to say this, I can't imagine that it was anything but an MP reference. IF SO WAS IT THE FIRST PYTHON REFERENCE IN A VIDEO GAME? :D

[@SimonJustesen]

Andy was very productive. I never owned a VIC20 but I’m pretty certain I played “Car Chase” (or a clone) on the C64 😀

[@desiv1170]

When we get to The Oasis, I call Robin to be on my Gunter team! First to the egg; first to the key!!! ;-) Great vid!!!

[@TheDrugOfTheNation]

I had that Biorthythm program: for years afterwards I assumed that, because you could do it on a computer, that meant it must have a solid scientific basis. Thankfully I overcame that mentality before social media came around!

[@scottpaul7427]

I actually enjoyed playing Vic Load Calc as a kid :)

[@DerykRobosson]

I left several easter eggs in AmigaOS 3.5 applications that I worked on.

[@satan3959]

I completed Adventureland, but I completed the original 1978 version on the TRS-80. No real difference in the games though other than the bg colors. There is a graphic version of the game for the Commodore 64, as well as the original text based version)

[@JasonZChristie]

Amazing find!

[@williamsquires3070]

I wonder why the ML program in the loan calculator had such a long NOP-sled? Maybe, there’s more to this? Does any other code in there write to addresses in the range 0x1BB4-1BB9?

[@8_Bit]

I think he just NOP'd out that area before the actual (legit) ML routine; either he didn't know how many bytes he really needed and just picked a nice safe number, or he really liked it starting at that $1BAD address and padded it out to there. There might be more to it but that's all I saw so far. That loan calculator is available on Zimmers dot net if you want to download it, by the way.

[@michac3796]

Great endcard music. 🖖

[@ThomasBates_AZ]

At 14:56, Adventure is even spelled wrong on the TRS-80 version. :)

[@bobsbarnworkshop]

The apostrophe after the S in Pirates’ Cove is a grammatical way to indicate many Pirates! If it was before the s it would indicate possession by a pirate, so it is correct!

[@allwaizeright9705]

I was 1 shot away from becoming SPACE AVENGER on the ARCADE CAB..

[@NozomuYume]

You did the video on the Star Battle easter egg. Maybe do a search in all the other HAL Laboratory games?

[@8_Bit]

Yeah, there's actually quite a few more (disabled, as in patched out) easter eggs in the HAL games that I haven't got around to making a video about yet. Some of them are pretty neat.

[@stefanmarinescu5086]

Amazing. Like archeology

[@GameHerbert]

Compared to "Mortgage calculator", Gorf looks pretty advanced

[@rafaellima83]

How the hell those 40 years old tapes didnt demagnetized during all this time?

[@facastello]

I work as a software developer and in all companies that I've worked so far I was never allowed to put my name anywhere in any software products, and users are only aware of the company name as it appears on the "about" or "credits", developers are never individually mentioned. I guess things haven't changed much in the software industry since the 1980s in that regard...

[@SteveGuidi]

Weird -- not sure why the Atari paddles couldn't produce a zero value in your program. They do use a larger potentiometer (1M vs 500K in C= paddles), but it looks like the program checks for the zero-resistance state, which must be the same in both cases (fully clockwise). If it was checking for the max-resistance state, you would only have to turn the paddles 1/2 way through their rotation to get to 500K-ohms. Maybe the cables and connections from the potentiometer in the Atari paddles to the VIC joystick port are introducing a non-trivial resistance that prevent it from being read as zero.

[@merykjenkins3274]

It's probably just the way the resistance coil and wiper is set up to ensure the lowest resistance without falling off the edge and going open circuit, plus there would be a length of resistance wire from the terminal to the start of the coil. On an Atari coil, that tiny length would have twice the resistance of a Commodore coil. Just my thoughts, I could be wrong tho (often am!!).

[@bazodee2]

Norristown commodore building looks similar to mos technologies building in west chester. Was that a commodore thing or pensylvania architects just desing them like that?

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

Humm.... Interesting that nobody caught that "AF..." error in either version before publication.

[@leodf1]

LOL. It wasn't as frivolous as 'sticking it to the man' or 'taking a little pride'. It was in case the employer tried to screw them over.