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For tech enthusiasts and vintage computing fans, there's a special thrill in unearthing secrets from the past. That thrill became reality for engineer Doug Brown, who recently discovered a hidden message – an "Easter egg" – buried deep within the ROM of the iconic Apple Power Macintosh G3, a computer released nearly three decades ago.

Brown, known for his deep dives into retro computing hardware, detailed his discovery in a fascinating blog post. While examining the ROM (Read-Only Memory) chip from a Power Mac G3 "Beige" desktop model using a disassembler, he stumbled upon something unexpected: not just functional code, but a clear, human-readable piece of ASCII art.

The Hidden Tribute:

The Easter egg itself is a simple yet poignant creation. It spells out "Apple Computer" in stylized ASCII characters, followed by a list of names:

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    Apple Computer
        Timothy
         John
        Wesley
         Rick
         Marc
          Tom
         Brian
         Mike
         Greg
          Joe

These names are believed to be members of the engineering team responsible for the G3 ROM's development back in 1997-1998. It was a common, though unofficial, practice among developers at the time to leave subtle signatures or messages within their code, a digital "Kilroy Was Here" for those persistent enough to find it.

How It Stayed Hidden:

The Power Mac G3 was a powerhouse in its day, famed for introducing the PowerPC G3 processor and its significant speed boost over previous models. Yet, its internal ROM, a chip primarily concerned with low-level system initialization and hardware checks, wasn't a place most users or even many technicians would think to explore deeply with disassembly tools decades later.

"It's like finding a secret room in a building you've walked past for years," Brown remarked. "The ROM code does its job silently, booting the machine. Nobody needs to look at the raw assembly code unless they're specifically reverse-engineering or exploring, like I was."

A Blast from the Past:

The discovery offers a charming glimpse into the culture of Apple's engineering teams during a pivotal era. The late 90s were a time of intense innovation and challenge for Apple, culminating in the return of Steve Jobs and the eventual move away from the "beige box" era towards the sleeker designs of the iMac and beyond. Finding this small, personal signature from the G3 ROM team humanizes the immense technical effort behind these now-vintage machines.

Want to See for Yourself? You can read Doug Brown's full technical breakdown, including how he found it and images of the disassembled code revealing the egg, on his blog, Downtowndougbrown.com:
Finding a 27-Year-Old Easter Egg in the Power Mac G3 ROM

The Legacy of the G3:

While finding a working, original "Beige" G3 desktop today requires some hunting through online marketplaces or thrift stores (vintage units like this one can occasionally be found on sites like eBay or Amazon), they remain beloved by collectors and retro computing aficionados. Brown's discovery adds another layer of intrigue and history to this classic machine.

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Why It Matters:

Beyond the simple delight of the find, Easter eggs like this serve as historical artifacts. They preserve the names of contributors whose work was fundamental but often goes uncredited outside of internal documentation. It’s a small act of camaraderie and pride left behind in silicon, waiting almost 30 years for someone to appreciate it. Doug Brown's persistence has given a brief moment of recognition to Timothy, John, Wesley, Rick, Marc, Tom, Brian, Mike, Greg, and Joe – the Apple engineers who, quite literally, left their mark on the G3.

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