Sim City 2000 Easter Egg - Programmer's Message (Special Edition)

Uh...whats it supposed to say? I'm not hearing anything except for the "Reticulating Splines" thing that I always hear. Yes, I do have the special edition.

Are you thinking of the "I can't get enough" egg? (Its on eeggs.com but its given the wrong description.) Just asking.

What on Earth does 'Reticulating Splines' mean? If you have The Sims, you can see at the startup at the bottom of the screen it says 'Reticulating Splines'. What the hell is this?

I believe that somewhere at www.thesims.com that reticulating splines (also used in The Sims) is something used to make the terrain randomly.

Reticulating splines is also used in Simcopter, but I don't know what it means.

From what I remember, the "reticulating splines" message is a nonsense phrase. It was put in the world-loading as a joke by the programmers, and became a part of the Sim game lore.

Well, if that's the case, then the programmers have a really bad sense of humour. That woman's voice is really annoying too. Oh, and, although it's not an egg, check out the "help" thingy - that's funny. But you've probably already seen it...

Spline (n) - a function that is defined on an interval, is used to approximate a given function, and is composed of pieces of simple functions defined on subintervals and joined at their endpoints with a suitable degree of smoothness Reticulate (v) - to divide, mark, or construct so as to form a network In other words, they are using a reticulated spline to form the terrain.

Reticulating splines has to do with much more than terrain. The Sims uses them and there is no terrain to randomize. They're the core of the whole game, no matter which sim you're playing. Reticulating Splines: Constructing network based functions that are defined by divisible intervals while approximating said network and composing it of pieces of simple functions defined on subintervals and joined at their endpoints with a suitable degree of smoothness. -- Will Wright (from http://simz.gamenation.com/) The network is how everything in the sim interacts with everything else in the game in simulated real-time.

I just learned, by reading Section 1 of my calculus textbook for this coming school year, that "splining" is the joining together of simple lines and curves into a more complex and longer shape. As brf said (refer to the first comment attached to this egg), the words "reticulating splines" most likely refer to putting together a bunch of little lines to form the terrain.

This isn't an egg, that person always says: "Reticulating Splines" even without doing what you say.