8Bit File

I let the screen saver run for quite some time and different names just kept on flying across the screen in a random order. The names appeared on the screen long enough for you to read each one. In addition to listing their own names in the 3D Text screen saver Easter Egg, the Windows NT 3.51 developers decided to create a Rock/Music version. To see this Easter Egg, you type Rock or Music in the Text box in the 3D Text Setup dialog box. You can almost imagine an e-mail going out to all the developers asking them to send in the name of their favorite rock bands.

I’m not sure how many rock bands’ names appeared in this Easter Egg, but the screen saver just kept on pumping out names of bands—some that weren’t familiar and some that were very recognizable. More often than not, if the band’s name included a color, the text would appear in that color. As you can imagine, beer would find its way into many of the Windows NT 3.51 developers’ off duty activities. With that in mind, it not hard to see how beer would find its way into a screen saver Easter Egg. To see this Easter Egg, you type Beer in the Text box in the 3D Text Setup dialog box.

Chances are that the same e-mail that asked the developers to submit the name of their favorite rock band also asked them to submit the name of their favorite beer.

When this screen saver is running, a bewildering array of beer names float over the screen. I counted close to 100 different beers before I lost track. In Windows NT 4.0, the developers also hid their names in the 3D Text screen saver Easter Egg. To see this Easter Egg, you begin by accessing the Screen Saver tab in the Display Properties dialog box. You then select the 3D Text from the Screen Saver drop down list and then click the Settings button. When you see the 3D Text Setup dialog box, you type not evil in the Text box. You can change any of the other settings as you wish.

Unlike the previous credit screen Easter Eggs, the screen saver versions must have been extremely rewarding in that each member of the team got to have an individual spotlight. Of course, the names are easier to read if you disabled the Spin Style effect. By the time Windows 2000 was released, the only screen saver Easter Egg in the operating system was hidden in the 3D Pipes screen saver and was called simply Teapots.

Once the screen saver activates, you just have to sit back and watch it. At random times and places, you’ll see a teapot appear as a pipe joint. Here you can see a single teapot.

While one teapot per image is the most typical rendition, occasionally, you’ll see more than one. Here I captured an image of two teapot joints