Easter Eggs are "bonus" stuff hidden in the game for players to find. They are often for entertainment purposes or contain a reference to something.
This page lists all the known Civ3 easter eggs. As you can see below, Civ3 has more than 30 of them! Note that all the known easter eggs were added in original Civ3 or PTW.
| Easter Egg | Description | Reference to | How to find it? | Screenshot | Added in |
| Neo Tokyo | Japanese city name | From a popular Japanese anime | If you cycle through the Japanese cities, instead of "New Tokyo" to start the next round, it’s "Neo Tokyo". | – | Civ3 |
| Not Constantinople | Ottoman city name | The song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants. It came out in the 1950’s. The song was not originally by They Might Be Giants. It predates them by a number of years. (Lyrics) | Instead of "New Istanbul", it’s "Not Constantinople". | Screenshot | PTW |
| lol | Carthaginian city name | lol (laugh out loud) | It should be Iol, but the font makes it seem like lol. | – | PTW |
| Elvis Unit | Changes the flag unit(s) to Elvis | Elvis’s birthday | Change the date on your PC to Jan 8th 2004 (Elvis’s birthday), and start a regicide game (or mass regicide) or capture the flag/princess games. | Screenshot | PTW |
| JAIMO Unit | A hidden unit | Jeff Morris. The unit was name Jaimo to look like it might be something that would fit in the Medieval Japan unit set. | After you trigger the Elvis unit easter egg, look in your "extras" folder and you will find a "mystery unit" that wasn’t there before…"JAIMO!" 😉 | Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 |
PTW |
| Elvis Credit | A hidden pic of Elvis | Elvis | On the game’s credits screen, if you waited long enough it will show a pic of Elvis. | Screenshot | Civ3 |
| Sleep is for the weak! | A time-sensitive easter egg | Just one more turn… This is also a reference to the fact that the programmers were working all hours of the night and weren’t getting much sleep… | When you play PTW into the wee hours, there is a chance that your advisor will tell you "Sleep is for the Weak"! | Screenshot | PTW |
| Carrots | Weird science advisor message | This is one of Prof. Hathaway’s lines in the movie Real Genius (spoken to Mitch). | Your science advisor may tell you that "Compared to you , most people have the IQ of a carrot". You don’t have to be ahead in science for this to show up; it can show up anytime. | – | Civ3 |
| Revolution | Revolution message | From the Beatles song "Revolution" (Lyrics) written by Lennon/McCartnet | You say you want a Revolution? – Yes. You know it’s gonna be alright. – No. You can count me out. |
Screenshot | Civ3 |
| Berserk | Civ specific diplomacy response | Scandinavia’s unique unit | Scandinavia may say "Are you trying to make me go berserk?" in diplomacy. | Screenshot | PTW |
| AMANDA | Subliminal Message | Name of a Firaxis artist’s daughter. | On one of the forest terrains you can make out the name AMANDA. | Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 |
Civ3 |
| All your base are belong to us | End game message | A badly translated Japanese game called "Zero Wing" | You may see it at the end game screen where the defeated leaders say different things. | Flash | Civ3 |
| Military Advisor Movie | A short bonus movie which doesn’t appear in the game | Jeff Briggs / military advisor | You can find this short movie inside the Civilization IIIArtMovies directory. That movie is titled ‘security_briefing.bik". If you rename this file to ‘intro.bik" you will see the movie when u start the game. Another way to view the movies is by installing the free Bink player. | Screenshot | Civ3 |
| Random Map Size |
Hidden map size option |
– | In the menu where you select Map Size for a new game, if you click on an invisible button beneath the Huge Map size option button, you should hear the usual selection ‘click’ and the Random Map size option is selected. It doesn’t do much though because you can immediately tell what the map size is by looking at the number of opponent AI’s in the next menu. | – | Civ3 |
| Thunderfall | Scandinavian city name | Admin of Civilization Fanatics’ Center | Last city on the Scandinavian list of cities. You can see it in the Editor. | Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 |
PTW |
| Apolyton | Greek city name | Apolyton Civilization Site | Last city on the Greek city list. You can see it in the Editor. | Screenshot | Civ3 |
| Mingapulco | Aztec city name | Ming (Apolyton moderator) | Last city name for the Aztecs. Not listed in the editor. | Screenshot | PTW |
| Shakespeare | Diplomacy screen background | Shakespeare | Elizabeth has a pic of Shakespeare on the wall. | – | Civ3 |
| Statue of Liberty | Diplomacy screen background | Statue of Liberty | Catherine has Statue of Liberty outside the window. | – | Civ3 |
| Hanibal’s Elephants | Diplomacy screen background | Hanibal’s famous elephants | Hanibal has elephant motif under poster ending LPS [alps with elephants] | Screenshot | PTW |
| Landscape Painting | Diplomacy screen background | Landscape painting | The pic in Koreas’s modern era is a landscape painting. | – | PTW |
| Portrait of Joan of Arc | Diplomacy screen background | Isabella appears to be the only leader to have a picture of another leader in his or her screen. | In the modern age version of Spain’s Isabella, there is a portrait of Joan of Arc in the background.. | Screenshot | PTW |
| Montezuma’s Dartboard | Diplomacy screen background | Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortéz | In the modern picture of Montezuma, there’s an old picture of a Spanish conquistador, Hernando Cortéz, on a dartboard, with various darts thrown at it. Cortéz led the Spanish forces against the Aztecs and conquered them. | Screenshot | Civ3 |
| Beer | An easter egg in the editor | notyoueither | In the editor help, there is an entry called "notyoueither" and when you open it up all it says "The beer was great thanks". It was added by Dan Magaha who made the help file. "notyoueither" is the nick of a public beta tester for PTW. | Screenshot | PTW |
Leprechaun Unit  |
Trigger codes to change flag unit if conditions are met. | St. Patrick’s Day |
Much like the Elvis Unit, there were some other special units Firaxis didn’t have time to make but the triggering code is still in there. Because of this, if someone makes a unit with a specific name they will show up as kings or flags (in regicide/capture the princess games) on certain dates. For this one, if there is a unit named "Leprechaun", the kings/flags will be replaced with this unit on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day). |
– | PTW |
| Zombie Unit |
Trigger codes to change flag unit if conditions are met. | Halloween | If there is a unit named "Zombie", the kings/flags will be replaced with this unit on October 31 (Halloween). | – | PTW |
| Santa Unit |
Trigger codes to change flag unit if conditions are met. | Christmas | If there is a unit named "Santa", the kings/flags will be replaced with this unit on December 25 (Christmas). | – | PTW |
| Culture Power |
Cultural Advisor Message | Star Wars | The cultural advisor can say "Culture is what gives our people power. It’s created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us." This is a reference to one of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lines in Star Wars, though he, of course, is referring to the Force ("The Force is what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us."). | – | PTW |
| Dumb Enemy | Foreign Advisor Message | One of Dark Helmet’s lines in Spaceballs ("Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."). | The foreign advisor can say (if you’ve met at least one other civ) "$OURCIV0 will always triumph, because $ENEMYCIV1 is dumb." | – | PTW |
| Nukes | Military Advisor Message | One of Ash’s lines in Army of Darkness ("Good? Bad? I’m the guy with the gun."). | The military advisor can say (if you have nukes) "Good? Bad? You’re the one with the nukes." | – | PTW |
| News Reporter | Domestic Advisor Message | This is a reference to one of the newscaster’s lines in The Kentucky Fried Movie ("Moscow in flames, missiles headed toward New York. Film at eleven."). | The domestic advisor can say (if you have a city in civil disorder) "$CITY0 in flames. Film at eleven." | – | PTW |
| Not supposed to be here | Trade Advisor Message | One of Dante’s lines in Clerks. | The trade advisor can say "I’m not even supposed to [be] here today!" | – | PTW |
| Hail to the King | General Advisor Message | One of Ash’s lines in Army of Darkness ("Hail to the king, baby!"). | Any advisor can say "Hail to the $TITLE0, baby!" | Screenshot | PTW |
| Psychedelic Editor |
Editor Easter Egg | – | Open the editor, press the ~ key. The ocean color will change, now try generate a map. The results have no actual effect on any map created and are not even saved with the map. | Screenshot | Civ3 |
The hunt for easter egg continues…
If you know a Civ3 easter egg not listed here, you can post about it here on the forum.