Solving the Power Mac G3 ROM Photo Easter Egg after 27 Years

Software engineer Doug Brown has uncovered the long-lost method to trigger a hidden JPEG Easter egg embedded in the Power Mac G3 ROM—a secret photo of Apple’s development team that has remained inaccessible since the beige G3 era in 1997.

Background of the Power Mac G3 ROM

The Power Mac G3 Minitower launched in 1997 featuring a 233 MHz PowerPC G3 CPU, 1 MB of on-board ROM (later expanded), and a built-in SCSI controller. Apple embedded key resources—including legacy Mac OS 8/9 support, device drivers, and the SCSI Manager 4.3 binary—into the ROM chip. While Pierre Dandumont documented the raw JPEG data in 2014, no one knew how to activate the image on the hardware.

Reverse Engineering Process

Using Hex Fiend and Ghidra

Brown physically extracted the ROM chip from a vintage G3 board and created a binary dump. He loaded the dump into Hex Fiend, applying Eric Harmon’s Mac ROM template to map out resource forks. In the HPOE resource, he found the complete JPEG byte stream corresponding to the team photo.

SCSI Manager 4.3 Hook Identification

Next, Brown imported the ROM image into Ghidra for static analysis. He located a Pascal-string table in the PowerPC-native SCSI Manager 4.3 code containing entries such as “.Edisk,” “secret ROM image,” and “The Team.” Following cross-references, he identified a branch instruction that, upon matching a RAM disk named “secret ROM image,” would call a write routine to output the HPOE data into a file named “The Team.”

Easter Egg Activation Method

1. Open the Memory control panel in Mac OS 9.0.4.
2. Enable the RAM Disk extension and restart.
3. Double-click the RAM Disk icon on the desktop.
4. From the Special menu, choose Erase Disk.
5. Type secret ROM image into the format dialog and confirm.
6. Locate and double-click the generated file named “The Team” to view the hidden photo in SimpleText.

Historical Significance and Steve Jobs’ Influence

This ROM Easter egg continued to function through Mac OS 9.0.4 but was disabled in version 9.1, coinciding with Steve Jobs banning unauthorized code in firmware upon his return. It stands as one of the last undocumented Apple Easter eggs from the pre-Jobs-return era, reflecting a brief window of skunkworks creativity at the company.

Comparison with Modern Firmware Easter Eggs

Today’s firmware often employs UEFI with signed drivers, Secure Boot, and encrypted partitions, making hidden features far harder to embed and trigger. In contrast, classic Mac ROM allowed raw resource insertion without signature checks, enabling simple JPEG Easter eggs without impacting boot integrity.

Expert Opinions and Technical Insights

“Embedding JPEGs in ROM requires precise alignment and robust boundary checks to avoid corrupting critical boot routines,” explains Dr. Sandra Lee, lead firmware architect at Acme Semiconductor. “Brown’s use of Ghidra illustrates how modern reverse-engineering frameworks can unlock decades-old hardware secrets.”

— Dr. Sandra Lee, Firmware Architect

Conclusion

Doug Brown’s revelation not only solves a 27-year-old Apple mystery but also showcases the enduring appeal of firmware exploration. As hobbyists and security researchers continue to probe legacy platforms, such discoveries bridge historical ingenuity with contemporary best practices in hardware security.