Open Source

Take a look at OpenOffice game Easter Eggs

By // October 15, 2007, 12:26 AM PST

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  • By Greg Shultz

    While Microsoft may not allow Easter Eggs in their applications anymore, not every organization has followed suit. In fact, the developers of OpenOffice.org have put a couple of Easter Eggs in their project. Of course considering the sheer number of folks who have contributed to the development of OpenOffice.org, compiling a typical credits type of display would be impractical. However, hiding games in applications as Easter Eggs is a long standing tradition and you’ll find a couple of nostalgic games hidden in the Calc spreadsheet application. Let’s take a look.

  • Star Wars Game

    To access the first Easter Egg game, you’ll launch OpenOffice.org Calc as you normally would.

    You’ll then, select Cell A1, type the formula =game() and press [Enter]. When you do, the cell will display "say what?"

  • Star Wars Game

    Select Cell A1 again and type the formula =game("StarWars") and press [Enter]. When you do, a window titled StarWars Galaxy will appear in the middle of the screen and will prompt you to choose any one of five Heroes to be your player.

  • Star Wars Game

    Once you select a Hero, you’ll see a dialog box, which contains Germanic text that essentially congratulates you on your choice! Click OK to continue.

  • Star Wars Game

    You’ll then see a screen, again in a Germanic text, which identifies the enemies in each of the levels and provides the point values you receive for destroying each one.

  • Star Wars Game

    Once you begin playing, you’ll discover that the game play is very simple and while the game is called StarWars it actually mimics the early Space Invaders types of games. You can use your mouse to move back and forth and left button to fire. Or you can use the arrow keys to move back and forth and the spacebar to fire.

  • Star Wars Game

    As you eliminate all of the enemies in one level you move up to the next level.

  • Star Wars Game

    Once you defeat the first 4 levels, you encounter all of the enemies in one large group.

  • Star Wars Game

    If you completely exit out of the game and then attempt to get back in by typing the secret formulas, the cell will display “oh no, not again!” instead of launching the game.

  • Star Wars Game

    In order to play the game again, you’ll have to close Calc as well as close down the OpenOffice Quickstarter, which you do by right clicking on the OpenOffice icon in the notification panel and selecting Exit Quickstarter.

    Once you do so, you can launch Calc and start a new game session.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    To access the second Easter Egg game, you’ll launch Open Office.org Calc as you normally would.

    You’ll then perform a series of steps in order to format the game area. To begin, hold down [Shift] and select rows 1 thru 3.

    Right click on the number 1 and select the Row Height Command.

    Type 0.89” in the Height box and click OK.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    Select cells A1 thru C3, right click any cell, and select the Format Cells command.

    When you see the Format Cells dialog box, choose the Borders tab, select the Set Outer Border and All Inner Lines button in the Line Arrangement panel and then select 2.50 pt in the Line Style panel.

  • TicTacToe Game

    On the Background tab, select any color you want to use for the game area.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    On the Font tab, select any Font you like, leave the Typeface set to Regular, and select 40 as the Size.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    On the Font Effects tab, select a Font Color that provides a nice balance with the background color you’ve selected.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    On the Alignment tab, select Center from the Horizontal drop down and Middle from the Vertical drop down.

    Then, click OK to close the Format Cells dialog box.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    Select Row 4 and use the font size drop down to set the font size to 12.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    Select Cell A4, type the formula =game() and press [Enter]. When you do, the cell will display "say what?"

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    Select Cell A4 again and type the formula =game(A1:C3;"TicTacToe") and press [Enter].

    When you do, you’ll see the Tic Tac Toe game in the cells A1 to C3 that you just formatted. As you can see, you’re the X’s and the computer is the O’s.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    To play, just click a cell, type an X, and press [Enter].

    As you play, pay attention to the instructions and analysis displayed in Row 4.

  • Tic-Tac-Toe Game

    Most games will end in a tie.

By Greg Shultz

While Microsoft may not allow Easter Eggs in their applications anymore, not every organization has followed suit. In fact, the developers of OpenOffice.org have put a couple of Easter Eggs in their project. Of course considering the sheer number of folks who have contributed to the development of OpenOffice.org, compiling a typical credits type of display would be impractical. However, hiding games in applications as Easter Eggs is a long standing tradition and you’ll find a couple of nostalgic games hidden in the Calc spreadsheet application. Let’s take a look.

Related Topics:

Open Source Software Security Developer Enterprise Software Innovation

About 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.