A new easter egg for the original Xbox Dashboard has been revealed after almost 20 years

Original Xbox logo
Original Xbox logo (Image credit: Microsoft)

What you need to know

  • The original Xbox has been out for nearly 20 years, but it's apparently not out of secrets yet.
  • An ex-developer for Xbox finally shared an undiscovered easter egg buried in the original Xbox Dashboard.
  • If you activate the easter egg, a new credits scene is added to the Xbox's System Info menu.
  • There's also apparently one more easter egg for the original Xbox and its boot animation that has yet to be discovered.

The original Xbox is going to turn 20-years old in 2021. In fact, Xbox and Halo are already beginning their celebration of 20 years. Even after all this time, however, it seems the original Xbox isn't entirely out of secrets to divulge with the games community. A developer that previously worked at Xbox revealed the details for a previously unknown easter egg with Kotaku. You can check out a video from Kotaku below detailing the new easter egg.

The newly discovered easter egg shares some similarities with an already-known easter egg. Here's how the new easter egg works:

  1. Boot up your original Xbox to the Dashboard
  2. Head into the "Music" section
  3. Insert an audio CD of your choice
  4. From the CD screen, select "Copy" twice
  5. Select "New soundtrack"
  6. Name the soundtrack "Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
  7. Wait for the CD to finish ripping
  8. Head back to the Xbox Dashboard and go to "Settings"
  9. Head to the "System Info" page
  10. There should be a new screen listing the "Xbox Dashboard Team"

The other easter egg had you name the soundtrack

&lt;<eggsβox>&gt;</eggsβox>

instead, and immediately displayed a credits reel before restarting the Xbox.

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It's absolutely fascinating that a new easter egg for the Xbox Dashboard could be discovered after all this time, but we're apparently still not done. In 2017, Seamus Blackley, often considered to be the "Father of Xbox" revealed that an easter egg related to the original Xbox boot animation had yet to be discovered. We're hoping that it's not going to be another 20 years before this (possibly) final easter egg is discovered, but look how long it took to find this one.

If you're feeling nostalgic for the original Xbox, you can remember it by using The Original dynamic background for the Xbox Series X|S, which was just added. The new background adds a splash of the past to the advanced Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, which have come a long way since the release of the original Xbox. Or you can skip all of that and play some of the best Xbox games and enjoy how far gaming has come in 20 years.

Zachary Boddy
Staff Writer

Zachary Boddy (They / Them) is a Staff Writer for Windows Central, primarily focused on covering the latest news in tech and gaming, the best Xbox and PC games, and the most interesting Windows and Xbox hardware. They have been gaming and writing for most of their life starting with the original Xbox, and started out as a freelancer for Windows Central and its sister sites in 2019. Now a full-fledged Staff Writer, Zachary has expanded from only writing about all things Minecraft to covering practically everything on which Windows Central is an expert, especially when it comes to Microsoft. You can find Zachary on Twitter @BoddyZachary.