Easter egg

An easter egg is a message that is hidden or otherwise not immediately evident and is meant to amuse players and often used by the designers to refer to influences, development jokes, pet characters, previous works, or preferences.

Swastika
In released versions of Doom prior to V1.4, E1M4: Command Control contained a swastika design on the floor of one room, presumably as a homage to Wolfenstein 3D. Alpha versions of this level, dated April 2 and May 22, 1993, included the same room, but did not have the swastika design. The swastika was removed in V1.4 of Doom. The presence of a swastika would have caused Doom to be banned in Germany, and not just restricted to adults due to the game's graphic violence.

NIN Reference
E4M1: Hell Beneath includes the letters "NIИ" in a part of the level, a reference to Nine Inch Nails, the American industrial rock band. Also, id software's next game, Quake, would feature sound and music by the band's frontman, Trent Reznor. Additionally, ammunition for the nail-gun and super nail-gun –a crate of nails– would be inscribed with "NIИ" on each of its faces.

Romero's head
In MAP30: Icon of Sin, after the player teleports into the huge room with the head of the final boss, a strange, unintelligible noise is played. This is stored in the Doom2 wad file as DSBOSSIT, and if reversed it becomes a voice saying "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero". The voice is shifted down in pitch and is that of John Romero himself.

In the same level, John Romero's severed head on a stick features as the main boss creature, although the head is hidden behind the face of the final boss, and can only be approached with the noclip cheat. The player must indeed kill it in order to win the game.

Secret levels
The secret maps, MAP31: Wolfenstein and MAP32: Grosse, resemble E1M1 and E1M9 from Wolfenstein 3D. Both levels include Wolfenstein textures and SS Nazis that attack the player. In MAP31, SS Nazis take the place of soldiers and Demons are found in place of the dogs.

A Cyberdemon is in the place of Hans Grosse in MAP32; the name of this map also comes from Hans Grosse's name.

In the last room in MAP32 there are four Commander Keens hanging on ropes. They must be killed in order to exit the level.

At the beginning of MAP32, the message "You'd better blaze through this one!" is displayed; Billy Blaze is Commander Keen's real name.

Final Doom
Two of the wall textures in Team TNT's TNT:Evilution, CR64HBRM and METAL-RM, have large blood stains which spell the name "Romero", a reference to John Romero.

There is a hidden room in MAP17: Processing Area next to the room containing the blue key that can only be accessed by using the noclip cheat. Several Demons are inside and will teleport out once the key is collected. In this room the player can see "Tom" and "NIИ" in large, glowing blue letters on the north and south walls respectively.

Doom 64
In Doom 64, if a player dies and waits several seconds, messages will start to appear at the top of the screen every once in a while, usually taunting the player (e.g. "HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!", "LOOK AT THOSE DEMON FEET!", etc.).

Doom RPG

 * See Entrance (Doom RPG) and Geek culture references in Doom RPG.

Fan-made WADs
Plutonia 2 contains a hidden level, Chocolate, which cannot be accessed except by the level-warp cheat or the various source ports' console level-warp commands. Its name reflects its status as an Easter Egg.

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
Attempting to use some of the cheat codes from Doom and Doom II in Heretic has negative effects on the player:


 * IDDQD results in instant death with the message "trying to cheat, eh? Now you DIE!"
 * IDKFA takes away all the player's weapons, except the staff with the message "Cheater - you don't deserve weapons!"

Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Quicken results in instant death.
 * Like the Heretic Easter egg, in the demo version of Hexen the cheat codes from Heretic in Hexen has negative effects on the player:

Rambo takes away all the player's weapons.


 * The first hub's secret level Bright Crucible features a puzzle involving the Heart of D'Sparil. D'Sparil was the final boss in Heretic.

Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel

 * In the Locus Requiescat level, the larger tombstones will give funny messages from the game developers if "used" by the player.

Strife - Quest for the Sigil
There is a sound wave in VOICES.WAD named SUR4A1 that sounds like a bunch of people yelling "surprise!!".

Chex Quest
Chex Quest contains many levels leftover from the original 3-episode Doom albeit trimming to 5 levels.

The texture CEMPOIS has a blackboard and in the bottom right-hand corner of said board, is the equation: √2 = chuck. Charles Jacobi was the Art Director/Lead Artist for Chex Quest.

A secret room in E1M2 contains pictures of all the people that worked on Chex Quest.

In Chex Quest 2, E1M1 is titled HHH International Spaceport. This is a reference to the HHH (Hubert H. Humphrey) Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota where the Vikings play.

Microsoft Excel 95
In Microsoft's Excel 95 spreadsheet program (included in the Microsoft Office 95 office suite), there is an Easter egg that is a homage to Doom. 

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
In Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, typing IDDQD or IDKFA shows a picture of the Pitfall staff.