Tech & Work

More software rivalry Easter Eggs revealed

By · October 31, 2007, 11:50 PM PST

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  • By Greg Shultz

    While battles between software companies usually take place in the marketing arena, some of these battles have been waged in Easter Eggs hidden away in software. In this gallery, I’ll take a look at the Easter Egg battles waged by Borland Quattro Pro against Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 and the battle waged by Jasc Paint Shop Pro against Adobe Photoshop.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    Back in the mid 80’s Borland was riding high with a set of successful DOS-based applications, such as Sidekick, Turbo Pascal, and SuperKey, just to mention a few. Guided by their fearless leader, Philippe Kahn, the company grew and of course launched other successful products including the Quattro Pro spreadsheet program.

    To set the stage for this Easter Egg, it’s important to know that the folks at Lotus feared competition in a quickly evolving spreadsheet software arena and to protect 1-2-3 decided to scream copyright infringement and sued Borland. As such, Lotus and Borland were enemies. Of course, Microsoft’s business tactics made enemies throughout the software industry, including Borland.

    When Borland launched Quattro Pro for Windows, they figured that based on the past successes, they stood as good a chance as either of their competitors to make it big in the spreadsheet field and so Borland developers buried a taunting Easter Egg in Quattro Pro for Windows 1.0.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    To access this Easter Egg, you launch Quattro Pro for Windows 1.0 as you normally would.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    You then type any text you want into a cell. I choose the word Microsoft, just to build up the suspense!

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    You then pull down the Data menu and select the Parse command.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    When you see the Data Parse dialog box, you click the Create button. You then immediately click the Edit button.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    When the Edit Parse Line dialog box appears, you hold down the [Shift] key and press the ? (question mark) key three times.

  • Borland Quattro Pro vs Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3

    As soon as you let up the [Shift] key, a menu from the Cafe Borland appears on the screen. As you can see, it lists the lunchtime special as Philippe's favorite and it is described as Microsoft Liver Pate with Fava Beans on a bed of shredded Lotus flowers.

    Evidently, Borland thought Quattro Pro for Windows was going to eat Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 for lunch.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    While the battle for supremacy in the graphics application market may not have been as publicly fierce as in the spreadsheet market, the folks developing the Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop graphics applications for were definitely angling for the lead in any way possible. Of course the most notable competition was in the number and complexity of each successive version’s feature set. If one developed a new feature, the competitor’s next version would also include that feature, but with a little tweak that would make it a better.

    Of course this feature by feature competition evolved to include Easter Eggs. When Adobe Photoshop 4.0 included a new Easter Egg, Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5.0, responded with a very taunting Easter Egg that definitely signified its intent to do battle.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    The Easter Eggs in this battle were hidden in the About dialog boxes of each application. It all began in Adobe Photoshop 4.0 that contained a normal looking About dialog box.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    However, if you hold down the [Alt] key while pulling down the Help menu and clicking the About Photoshop command, you will uncover the program’s Easter Egg. The story behind this Easter Egg reveals that during the development of Photoshop 4.0, the developer’s code name for the product was Big Electric Cat, which eventually became the product’s mascot.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    When Jasc heard about the Big Electric Cat Easter Egg in Photoshop 4.0, they embedded their own Easter Egg in Paint Shop Pro 5.0. At first glance, this appeared to be a normal About dialog box.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    However, if you hold down the [Ctrl] [Shift] keys, the double click the screen, and then type paintshoppro, you’ll see Jasc’s answer to Adobe’s Easter Egg. Here, Jasc’s new mascot, the Atomic Dog, holds Big Electric Cat in its mouth.

    Clearly, Jasc was implying that their new Paint Shop Pro version was going to eat Adobe Photoshop for lunch.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    While the developers at Adobe were aware of the Atomic Dog Easter Egg, they chose to more or less take the high road rather than directly attack the Atomic Dog in their version 5 Easter Egg. While in development, Photoshop 5’s code name was Strange Cargo and while the new code name was a part of the Easter Egg, the Big Electric Cat was still present—you can see cat’s face on the top of the crate.

    However, there is more to this Easter Egg than meets the eye. If you type the word burp, the crate will open slightly, and the Big Electric Cat peeks out. If you then type Udo, the cat’s name, it will meow.

    The subtle inclusion of the Big Electric cat and the meow could be construed as Adobe’s way of tauntingly responding “See, we’re still around!” Furthermore, the use of the keyword burp, to get the cat to peek out could be construed as a way of implying that the Big Electric Cat actually ate the Atomic Dog for lunch.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    In version 6 of Paint Shop Pro, Jasc’s developers uncharacteristically used the same Atomic Dog image in their Easter Egg; however, as you can see, they did increase the size of the image. Regardless, the message is still clear.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    In version 6 of Photoshop, which was codenamed Venus in furs, the Big Electric Cat reappears, but more prominently than in the previous Easter Egg. Again, this could be seen as a subtle, yet taunting response.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    In version 7.0 of Paint Shop Pro, Jasc’s developers, again choose to use the same Atomic Dog image in their Easter Egg. It might be, that the developers were working so hard to keep up with Photoshop that they didn’t have time to create a new image of the Atomic Dog.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    However, the licensed version of Paint Shop Pro 7.0 did contain another Easter Egg. To access this one, you have to create a new image that is 1022 by 817 and then place the Antique Marble picture frame on the image. You then use the Eraser tool to erase the white background and reveal this picture of the Jasc team.

    Maybe this was intended to be a show of force. However, it was the last Easter Egg to appear in Paint Shop Pro. Version 8 didn’t include any Easter Eggs and Jasc was soon bought by Corel.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe’s developers continued to place Big Electric Cat in their Photoshop Easter Eggs. In version 7, you can see Udo the cat’s face in the shadow underneath the eye.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    In Photoshop 8’s Easter Egg, you can see Udo the cat’s face in the shadows to the left of the eye, under the words Dark Matter.

  • Jasc Paint Shop Pro vs Adobe Photoshop

    In Photoshop 9’s Easter Egg, you can see Udo the cat’s face right underneath the rubber duck.

    It definitely appears that the Big Electric Cat outlived the Atomic Dog. As to who won the battle for graphics application supremacy, that story has yet to be written as both products are alive and well, sans the battling Easter Eggs.

By Greg Shultz

While battles between software companies usually take place in the marketing arena, some of these battles have been waged in Easter Eggs hidden away in software. In this gallery, I’ll take a look at the Easter Egg battles waged by Borland Quattro Pro against Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 and the battle waged by Jasc Paint Shop Pro against Adobe Photoshop.

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By Greg Shultz

Greg Shultz is a freelance Technical Writer. Previously, he has worked as Documentation Specialist in the software industry, a Technical Support Specialist in educational industry, and a Technical Journalist in the computer publishing industry.

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