The first known video game 'Easter egg' hid a programmer's name inside a 1979 Atari game, because the company refused to credit its developers.

1979

Warren Robinett tucked a secret room reading 'Created by Warren Robinett' into the game Adventure, reachable only by finding an almost invisible pixel and carrying it to a specific spot. Atari discovered it after release but decided that re-manufacturing the cartridges would cost too much — and hidden surprises quietly became a gaming tradition.