The iPod Has An Easter Egg, You Can Play Breakout

by , 3:40 PM EDT, October 26th, 2001

If you thought the Easter Egg Era at Apple was over, you were wrong. MacityNet..it is reporting that Breakout, the classic game written by Steve Wozniak (and technically Steve Jobs) for Atari before the founding of Apple lies hidden in Apple's new MP3 player. From MacityNet.it:

Even inside a little device like iPod you can discover a surprise!

Keep the button in the center of Jog pressed for more than few second and you'll start with an old fashioned game that has a lot in common with Apple's history: Breakout!

There you go! You can use the jog to move the racket and play while you listen to your favourite songs and even in dark room thanks to the backlighted LCD.

We checked with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus, who has a review unit of the iPod, to see if this was true, and he confirmed it. He told us, however, that MacityNet.com left out an important step. You must be in the About screen when holding down the menu button to find the Easter Egg. He also told us that the game was "very playable" with the jog wheel. Thanks, Bob!

There are additional photos of the iPod at the MacityNet.it Web page, so check it out for yourself.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Could there be a more appropriate Easter Egg for the iPod? It's a "breakthrough device" (according to Apple), so why not have a Breakout game? Seriously though, this should indicate rather strongly that the iPod is capable of doing more than just being an MP3 player. Once the hackers (in the literal sense, not the bastardized use that word enjoys today) get a hold of it, who knows what they'll find.

One other note: it has long been rumored that Steve Jobs put a stop to Easter Eggs shortly after his return to power at Apple. The proof of this would apparently be seen in the dearth of Easter Eggs since that time. So was this Easter Egg in the iPod officially sanctioned? Check the Help Wanted ads from Apple next week to be sure. If you see something like "Wanted: Systems Engineer wanted to work breakthrough new device..." :-)

We hope that is not the case, because this is such a cool little addition for the iPod!

MacityNet.com Article