SimCopter’s easter egg

An example of ®TMark and Jacques Servin's SimCopter easter egg. Screenshot of Maxis' SimCopter by ®TMark.

An example of ®TMark and Jacques Servin’s SimCopter easter egg. Screenshot of Maxis’ SimCopter by ®TMark.

Credit for the most hilarious invasive viral art in a video game has to go to ®TMark and Jacques Servin (eventually part of The Yes Men) for their modification to the 1996 video game SimCopter by Maxis. Servin was working at Maxis as a programmer on SimCopter, and he inserted a particularly spectacular easter egg into the game. Easter eggs (hidden surprise elements added to various forms of media like video games and DVDs) aren’t uncommon in video games, but they’re usually little jokes between programmers or friendly homages to other projects, all little bonus things that the game’s publisher probably wouldn’t object to. But Servin inserted a very different kind of easter egg into SimCopter. His easter egg was a political statement, a protest of sorts. There was a point in the game at which a bunch of women in bikinis were supposed to appear and start dancing around. Servin modified the game so that if the game was played on certain days, the women would be replaced with bunches of men in speedos and male police officers dancing around and hugging each other. The easter egg was caught within a few days of the game’s release, but some copies with the modification did make it into the hands of consumers.

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