Original Xbox Easter Egg Revealed After 20 Years

An extremely well-hidden Easter egg in the interface for the original Xbox has been revealed, thanks to an anonymous leaker. The method to unlock the secret is so obscure there's very little chance it ever could have been discovered without a tipster.

Kotaku reports that the newly uncovered Easter Egg is similar to an existing one that has been known for a while, and both have the net result of letting you trigger a hidden credit sequence for the Xbox dashboard team. That other, known version involves ripping an audio CD and naming it "<<Eggsβox>>". The new version is also performed by ripping an audio CD, but in a slightly different manner.

The steps to unlock this secret credits roll are described below, though keep in mind this is for the original, 2001 console.

1. Go to "Music" and insert an audio CD
2. Select "Copy," then "Copy" again, then "New Soundtrack."
3. Name the soundtrack "Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" It will fill the entire field, so just keep pressing "y" until it stops and then replace the last one with the exclamation mark.
4. Wait for the rip to complete and then go back to the main menu.
5. Go to "Settings" and then "System Info."

If you've performed all the steps correctly, you'll see the Xbox dashboard team credits. Sure, it's a slightly different way to see a credits sequence that we've already known about, but wild that this particular way of seeing it has remained hidden for so long.

"I decided to share now as it’s been 20 years, and I thought it would be cool if people knew this actually existed," the anonymous source told Kotaku. "I know many sites like to track these types of things and all the people on that list no longer work for Microsoft. I also thought if I didn't do it now it would never likely happen. It had been so long I couldn’t even remember the trigger! I had to connect the Xbox up and try out several things to be sure."