HP 200LX - Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs

There are many easter eggs built into the HP 200LX. The known ones are listed as follows:

The Gallery Easter Egg

This easter egg is on the HP 200LX in the built in game, 'Lair of Squid'. During the startup screen of the game, if the user types the word 'gallery' ('gallerie' on a French palmtop; 'siegergalerie' on a German palmtop; 'galeria' on a Spanish palmtop) he/she is placed in a 'part' of the maze that contains photographs of the primary software developers that worked on the HP 200LX. The user may exit from this gallery by exiting through the door at the end of the corridor. The software developers in the photographs are listed starting from left to right, then left to right and so on as follows:

  • Andy Gryc
  • Pat Megowan
  • Everett Kaser
  • Bill Johnson
  • Lynn Winter
  • Susan Wechsler
  • Eric Evett

The last panel on the right of the corridor contains a thank you message:

“ Very special thanks to all the people in HP and all the companies that made this palm-top possible. The Felix S/W team ”

The photographs of the developers have been described as 'a-maze-ing'.

The 1st Self Test Poem Easter Egg

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing 14 times, to step through the various screens, the user comes to a screen of example text in the form of a limerick poem. The poem is as follows:

“ There once was this thing from HP

That fit in your pocket, you see.
A caveman would stare
And pull out his hair
And wonder, 'What could this thing be?'

 ”

The 2nd Self Test Poem Easter Egg

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing, then holding down while pressing 13 times, the user comes to a cryptic poem, relating to business issues faced by the software development team. The poem is as follows:

“ Felis Concolor

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum
When I encountered a group in search of a quorum.
They came from a city, The Burg On The Wire.
If I tried to describe it you'd call me a liar.
They wanted to charge me a really quite large fee
For the dubious pleasure of sharing their treasure.
"I'm a very Good man (Mark my words if you can),"
"But, the Dickens, I say, I simply won't pay!"
And with poetry, then, I proceeded to bore 'em
Then proceeded myself on my way to the Forum.

 ”

The 3rd Self Test Poem Easter Egg

This easter egg is in the HP 200LX self test mode. With the palmtop powered off, the user may press to start the self test mode, then cursor down to the display option. On pressing, then holding down while pressing 13 times, the user comes to an allegorical poem, about the history and future of the HP LX palmtops. The poem is as follows (note that the project names for the HP 95LX, the HP 100LX and the HP 200LX are 'Jaguar', 'Cougar' and 'Felix' respectively, and that 'Felix' was the first LX to include Quicken):

“ Nine lives has a Cat, and each Cat a name,

All of them different, none are the same.
Jaguar was first, it made quite a roar.
Cougar was next, oh, how it did soar.
Felix is third, my heart it does quicken,
Who knows what comes next, the clock is a tickin'.

 ”

The 'More Applications' Easter Egg

This easter egg is in the built in System Manager of the HP 200LX. This 'easter egg' is probably more of a development tool than an easter egg, but, in any case, the user may display the function by first pressing the blue key to start 'More Applications'. The user may then hold down while pressing 4 times, followed by once. As long as the key is held down, the user will observe columns of data about System Manager compliant (.EXM) programs registered with the System Manager, along with other arcane program information.

Undocumented application 'hexcalc' a built in, TSR by Stefan Peichl that includes HEX/DEC/ OCT/BIN conversions.

An emulation of the HP16C programmer's calulator.It provides arithmetical and logical operations in binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal. The program and its associated icon are:

  • D:\BIN\Hexcalc.exm, and
  • D:\BIN\Hexcalc.icn

The program can be added to the HP 200LX applications menu by adding an entry with the following fields:

  • Name: He&x Calc
  • Path: D:\BIN\Hexcalc.exm

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