GLaDOS
GLaDOS easter egg. Demo site: https://glados-egg.github.io/glados
Activate with Konami cheat code:
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → b a
A terminal will appear:
A game based on Portal's GLaDOS, with its own mini-games, can be played and won. The winner gets 'cake'. This project is probably best described as an attempt at humor.
Add this easter-egg to any webpage by adding these lines to the html of your page.
It goes right above the </head> tag of your page:
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.1.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://glados-egg.github.io/glados/main.js"></script>
Spoilers:
WANT A HINT?
The 'help' and 'credits' commands are good for clues.
Chess game is just the basic strategy game with simple 'AI' moves. A mini-game for fun whether you win or lose, just like 'help game' says.
Global Thermonuclear Warfare game can't be won. A mini-game just for fun, just like 'help game' says..
Pacman game was never built, just like 'help game' says.
The 'apply' program will never go past the 2nd step - whether you're applying for the first time, or resuming a previous application. That's because applicants are no longer accepted after 2009, just like 'credits' or 'help apply' says. Its only purpose is to get you to trigger error messages, just like 'help apply' says.
While tinkering with GLaDOS, you might notice some interesting error messages. If you produce enough errors, one or more error messages will hint it actually DOES something. Almost like an error message could have value, just like 'help game' says.
Typing in the right command leads to the ending where it actually tells you that "you've won". Claim your prize! ;)
"HOW SHOULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT?"
Just by playing the game as intended. The credits and certain error/help messages tell you that you're wasting your time when attempting the application process because it closed quite a few years ago on an interesting date in 2009. It also promises cake to the winner, but GLaDOS occasionally tells you this is a lie. When you win the game, you'll realize the lie was technically correct because software cannot give actual cake to a human, but it's still effectively true because GLaDOS can give a human something they can exchange to purchase actual cake. The 'apply' program is really just an error-message generating exercise to get you to notice something odd about some of the messages everytime you fail. Then again, they're all fairly odd now that GLaDOS is doing mere MS-DOS duties.
If you note the "help" system, it gives you all the commands. You can type 'help chess' and learn it's only a mini-game in GLaDOS just for fun. One of the other games was never built because the programmers quit because they wanted to write more valuable error messages, and another game has no actual winnable outcome (a War Games mmovie reference ala Matthew Broderick).
The error messages eventually (randomly) suggest that you don't know what the error numbers do. Not what they 'mean'; what they 'do'. Errors can actually DO something? So type in those numbers. Wait. You get told you win, but wait a bit longer. You get your all-so-precious piece of icing-covered pastry! Those numbers at the end of the cake are directly related to the date that AI participant applications stopped being processed. That is the date that btcoin began, which is the virtual and anonymous currency you can trade for other things of value. The obvious string of characters at the very ending is your 'key' to claim your 'cake'.
If a slice of cake costs about five, maybe something worth the same amount can be accepted by the winner to exchange for a rewarding slice of cake from their local purveyor of pastries? (Yes, I'm just giving the winner a bitcoin wallet and its key to take, which is loaded with about five Canadian dollars, which is the equivalent of you getting your precious cake. Anyone can see if that wallet is claimed yet on the blockchain. You didn't think I would lie to you about the cake, did you? What DID GLaDOS tell you?)
EVEN MORE SPOILER:
Don't feel bad, this was intentionally made hard. Read the rest of the spoilers above. The date the 'credits' and 'help apply' refer to is Jan 3 of 2009 which is the date that bitcoin became a thing. I can't give you a slice of cake through software, but could I give you enough bitcoin to buy a piece of cake? The cake image that displays when you win displays a btcoin wallt address. You can ask a friend who knows how a computer bitcoin works, and they can help you claim that wallt. Those 34 vertical letters starting with a 1 (wallets usually start with 1 or 3 and are 26 to 35 chars long) are the address of the coin wallet, and you can see that I depositd about five canadian dollars worth of bitcoins into that wallet when I made this game. The key to the wallet is obvious when you play the game and win it. Now that you have that 'key' and accepted your winnings, you can afford to buy yourself or a friend a nice piece of cake, eh?
I JUST WANT TO SEE BEHIND THE MAGIC CURTAIN PLEASE:
When GLaDOs appears, type in anything. An error appears and suggests you use 'help'.
Type in 'help'. A list appears.
One listed option suggests you type 'apply'. Type 'apply'.
Type in anything. An error appears. Keep trying / failing until you see an error message suggesting that the numbers in an error code can also DO something. "...Let's be honest. Neither one of us knows what those numbers do..." There is a 1 in 4 chance of getting that error, and someone playing the game honestly is almost certain to come across that error.
Type in the "valuable" error code that the programmers left behind, '4 8 15 16 23 42'.
You are told you've won. A cake eventually appears. The characters at the end of the cake image are a bitcoin wallet address containing about five dollars in Canadian currency. Its key is shown directly below. I'm intending for you to import that wallet into your own wallet, or cash it, and then you'll have enough funds for buying an actual slice of cake for yourself - because you're a winner!