Amateur Sleuth Mystery: CRE Easter Eggs
Instead of a weekend puzzle, I have a REAL Nancy Drew mystery for you to solve! It’s something I’m working on solving, too.
For many years, I have seen discussions on the message board as well as seen emails come in that question about the Easter Eggs in The Creature of Kapu Cave. Now before you jump to any specualtions, keep in mind that “Easter Eggs” can be actual artistic eggs in your inventory as shown in this image, or they can simply be a fun item or reward or reference in the game, like spotting a Koko Kringle sticker in Alibi in Ashes or something.
However, I need your help in defining the Easter Eggs in The Creature of Kapu Cave! Are you ready for the challenge?
Based on my research in the Her Interactive archive files and notes, here is all I have gathered:
Clue #1 – The Early Design Notes
These are the notes our designer gives to the production team to write the code for an Easter Egg to be entered into the game. Today, we have a different designer, so I can’t ask the previous person about this.
Clue #2 – The Trinkets Exist!
All of the “trinkets” listed above match the code names in the game code:
- Dashboard Hula
- Coconut Monkey
- Mini Ukulele
- Totem Key Chain (shown above)
- Unlucky Rock (shown above)
The first three trinkets you can purchase at the souvenir stand, but the Totem key chain and unlucky rock APPEARS in the Immersion Center environment folders… so I suspect they are prizes from playing Wiki Tiki and winning.
Wiki Tiki: I tried researching how to beat the game each time, but it looks like it is a randomly generated game… so all you need to do is keep trying…? Can anyone confirm that you can get these two prizes from the game?
Clue #3 – The Lockers
As mentioned in the design notes above, there may be silly Easter Eggs (like the banana) in one of the lockers. I forget which one…
Note: all of the locker combinations are located in the computer in the lab. SPECIAL Note: Locker #16 has a different combination than what is listed in the game. The correct combination is 2-7-6-4 and I can confirm that this works because I tried it. 😉
Clue #4 – The Real Egg
I jumped into the archived code and found that there really is a blue Easter Egg that jumps into your inventory at some point. Sadly, I couldn’t find how this is earned. Perhaps the code wasn’t written for the egg? Perhaps there is a special way to get this egg? I don’t know, but I do know that it is hiding in the code of every one of your games. I took a screenshot of this, it’s the first egg image above.
Clue #5 – The Award
According to the official strategy guide, one of the Sassy Detective awards is this:
Super Snooper: You found at least two hidden items in the game!
So this must mean both Easter Eggs mentioned in the design notes above, right?
The Mystery Task List:
- Find out how to earn the Totem Key Chain and Unlucky rock (by playing Wiki Tiki?)
- Purchase all three souvenirs at the stand
- Open all of the lockers at the Hilihili Research lab
- Get that blue Easter Egg into your inventory
- Report findings here on the blog
Alright, who is going on an investigation with me?
-Little Jackalope
I’ve gotten the key chain and rock before from playing Wiki Tiki.
Great, thanks for confirming!
Little Jackalope, you are truly what they define in the dictionary as AMAZING! I’ll get to work on it after I have work tomorrow! Do you think you can find the lost codes for the other games that don’t have easter eggs, and maybe they might have one? Like Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon or The Secret of Shadow Ranch?
I just finished replaying DED, so starting up CRE to search for these things sounds like a great idea to me!
I recently finished replaying DED, so starting up CRE to search for this sounds like a great idea!
Cool!!! I’m so replaying CRE now LOL 😛 I’ll report my findings XD
Wow LJ! This is awesome! And what great timing too! On the message boards, myself and two other users are doing a Group Play of CRE to try and find if there are Easter Eggs. We’ve been discussing possibilities the last few days. I have gotten the trinkets before, and I can confirm they were from Wiki Tiki. My trick is to save the game right as the screen is about to shift over to the prize slot. Then you can reload a bunch of times until you get one of the two 😉 But that blue Easter Egg is very interesting! I really hope we can all find a way to access it! Wouldn’t it be so cool to find an egg now after all these years! 😀 Anyways, this is such a cool blog post to see after thinking through what could possibly trigger the egg, especially since you can help all the fans with your availability to the archives and such.
That sounds like a great tip; saving you game right at the switch screen to the prize, maybe I’ll try that later!
Oh man, this sounds so exciting! I have been reading older posts on the CRE Game Discussion page on the message boards and I have been taking notes on them and your posts. I love how HeR Interactive are awesome at hidden things and Easter eggs! So cool!
can’t you just look at the code? find out what the variable for the egg is called and do a ctrl+f for that in your code? sorry if that’s oversimplification lol but i don’t get why you can’t just look at the actual game code…it’s not like we have access to that! 😛
The code is much older and a bit different than what we use now. There are actually several steps to get into this one…
Sounds like fun! Count me in!
It’s been a kind of busy weekend, so I haven’t had a ton of time to work on finding the Easter eggs. I did discover, though, that you do get the Totem Keychain from the Wiki Tike game, and, although I didn’t win it this time, I’m pretty sure that I got the Unlucky Rock from the game sometime in the past.
I can confirm that you get the keychain and the lava rock you mentioned from the Wiki Tiki game. It seems like you have a better chance of getting them if you win a bunch of times in a row, from the research I’ve done and posted on this thread of your message board: http://community.herinteractive.com/showthread.php?1181940-The-Keychain-And-The-Rock&p=7355305&viewfull=1#post7355305
P.S.: Thanks so much for posting this! This is a great mystery for us to solve while waiting for LIE! 😀
Ooooooooh fun challenge! Right now I’m playing The Captive Curse, but soon I’ll try to put Kapu Cave on my computer and do some investigating with you! Sounds like fun! 😀 (That is one mysterious Easter Egg… 😉
*On another subject*
I had an idea for a video, so I thought I’d run it past you to see what you think. I think an interview with the game cover artists would be super! I myself would LOVE to know how they design a game cover and how they come up with ideas. You could (maybe) show early sketches (if that’s what they do) of a past game cover or show that cover in its stages of making. Just an idea for you and/or Dahlia!
*ALSO* I painted two oil paintings of Nancy a while back. I was wondering if you could post them here on the blog. Could you tell me the email address I should send them to? What should I mention in the email?
That sounds like a cool idea for a video! I’ll save that idea in case we decide to make that. 😉 You can email your pictures to feedback@herinteractive.com but be sure to mention Little Jackalope in the message! 😀
Thanks for the info, LJ! 😀 Glad you like my video idea too. 😉
I’m pretty sure that there is an egg at one of the dead ends when playing as frank swimming near the end of the game. Also when you do the Hawaiian flag colors with shave ice.
Unfortunately, my sister owns that game on digital download- BUT as soon as i get a chance i will go to her house and try to do everything on the mystery task list. this should be really fun!!!!
-NANCYGEEK
I bought all the trinkets, opened all the lockers, and got the two prize trinkets from the Wiki Tiki game but no egg and no egg award. I’m wondering if it’s because I bought the trinkets as Joe so when I switched to Frank and got the prize trinkets I didn’t actually have all 5…
I tried opening all of the lockers at the Hili Hili and nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
I’m on the case! While I don’t yet know if the two shown trinkets are won in Wiki Tiki, I have figured out a nearly fool proof way to beat the game. It works best if you start with Ahi, as the computer tends to begin with Pohaku. In the next round it will likely try to beat you with Ahi, so choose Wai. Sometimes this will result in a tie, and if that’s the case, follow in the next round with Pohaku since the computer usually sticks with Wai. From this point forward, figure out what you should choose next by figuring out what the computer would use against your most recent attack, and then choose its corresponding attacker. For example, if you chose Pohaku and beat Wai, then the computer will likely follow up your attach with Ahi, in which case, you should choose Wai as it defeats Ahi. Hopefully that makes sense; it works 95% of the time, and the key is winning the first round. Good luck, and I’ll report any other findings here to the blog!
ok so have you done the summer selfie contest before??? just asking!! thanks
Well, I’ve opened all the lockers in the Hilihili five times each, and inputted every single employee code with Level 3 access into the computer in the greenhouse thing, but haven’t come up with any Easter Eggs. Surprise, A. and Banana, A. Were both dead ends; I opened Banana, A.’s locker 10 times and nothing popped, and Surprise, A. didn’t have a locker, so I put the employee code into the computer in the greenhouse several times, but nothing came of that either. As for the trinkets, I’ve played Wiki Tiki so many times that I’ve lost count, but I’ve only ever gotten the shark tooth, however I will keep trying. Things aren’t looking good so far, but I will follow this mystery through!
Could you pretty please look into SHA next?? There’s rumored to be an egg hidden in that game as well but we never heard any confirmation or denial of this from HeR. I think someone found an award that says easter egg on it.
I opened all the lockers in the Hilihili five times each and the one assigned to Banana, A. ten times and came up with nothing. The employee Surprise, A. didn’t have a locker, so I tried typing his code into the computer in the greenhouse, among others, but still came up with nothing. I’m stumped.
I have fore questions why did you call it sassy dective and what was the first game to have awards. Also why do you not tell in the guide how to get the and what is the first game to have eggs as I really want to find some but cant.
Secrets Can Kill Remastered has one =)
Hey I have an idea for a video!! I love it when y’all make nancy drew challenges!!! I like trying them to see how much I really know about them!! I also think it would be fun to special games like ask questions about a certain thanks and if you do that can you try the silent spy??
Thanks,
Audrey_joon
About a certain game sorry
Hey Little Jackalope! I’ve always loved the little things the devs hide in the games. This one has continued to elude me! However, I did notice that the egg you have pictured here. Isn’t that the same one from Danger by Design?
Have you opened all the lockers? Maybe the Easter egg has something to do with the lockers (if it’s blue)
Hello V, opening all the lockers does not give you the Easter Egg, I’ve tried. You can see my last attempt when I played The Creature of Kapu Cave this last month on Twitch. 😉