Trials Evolution: The 100 Year Easter Egg
So, this started out as what was going to be another one of my “Searching for the Greatest of All-Time” series, as I was going to look for the greatest Easter Eggs in pop culture history. But then I found this and suddenly there was no contest. This IS the greatest Easter Egg of all-time. Period.
History of the World
Released in 2009, Trials HD marked the third entry in the Trials franchise, offering a unique blend of motorbike platforming and realistic physics in a 2.5D format. As players delved deeper into the game, they began noticing curious details tucked away in the background—enigmatic symbols, abstract artwork, and messages written in binary code and Roman numerals. These clues, scattered subtly throughout the game, gradually revealed a larger pattern. Each one pointed to key moments in the evolution of human civilization, such as the Golden Record launched aboard Voyager 1. Rather than just being decorative, these secrets were designed to spark interest in the achievements of humanity and encourage discovery beyond the game itself. Yet, as ambitious as this concept was, it would soon be eclipsed by what the next title in the series had in store.
The Evolution
When Trials Evolution launched in April 2012, fans were already primed for hidden surprises, thanks to the trail of Easter Eggs left by the previous game. At first, the secrets scattered throughout felt familiar—echoes of what came before—but uncovering them now demanded a sharper eye and greater persistence. The Easter Eggs consisted of:
A map of Lake Toba, a super volcano that erupted 74,000 years ago.
Ancient writings from the Indus Valley Civilization, a 5,000 year old script that is still undeciphered.
A carving belonging to the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey, widely considered one of the oldest known temples or ritual complexes in the world.
A carving known as one of the Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, located at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh, India.
The Arecibo message, an interstellar radio message sent into space in 1974 from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
A structure resembling the Clock of the Long Now, aka the 10,000-year clock, a giant clock currently being built inside of Mount Washington in Nevada that is designed to keep time for 10,000 years.
A portion of the Voynich Manuscript, an illustrated codex written in an unknown script and language that no one has been able to conclusively decode or understand but is believed to be a medical textbook.
Decoding the Unknown
Step 1: Image Overlay
The release of the Riders of Doom DLC in December 2012 marked a turning point. Scattered across different tracks were wooden signs etched with cryptic, fragmented phrases. Their oddly precise spacing hinted at something deliberate—an encoded message that could only be understood once all the pieces were assembled. After locating all ten signs, the true meaning remained elusive for several more months, though the solution surfaced far sooner than anyone had expected given the complexity of the puzzle.
VN-ZUDE XFQQPMV NJQM LLR UMQG VPGQQND
QILNLV DAYNW KNMOWUMJIMAH.
FWEIX XNP XNSL BVR HIELT MLTNKRSQAM.
SICG ZTWM EZX RUGY FGK WIFD QR LZS SQBT JITO.
BYFAGHX LZGSE QBVVR-
CH, FOOR, HD, PSYU, UC, LQWY, OMXM, LZHHG
Step 2: The Fibonacci Sequence
Hidden within the Moneyball skill game on the Circus track of the Riders of Doom DLC was a secret room—one that early players stumbled upon by entering a variation of the Konami Code: ↑↑↓↓←→←→AXAX. Triggering the code transported the player to a mysterious, empty 6x10 grid. Despite being discovered early, the puzzle within this space would remain unsolved for four years. It wasn’t until 2017 that Professor FatShady, known for his University of Trials YouTube channel, finally cracked it—thanks to a discreet nudge from the game’s developers. By maneuvering the ball to mark out the Fibonacci sequence across the grid, a hidden wooden sign appeared bearing the message: “Blaise de Vigenere: Naturally, in this case no mechanical disturbance of the system under examination can take place in the crucial stage of the process of measurement.” The quote, pulled from the famed Bohr–Einstein debates on quantum theory, subtly pointed players toward the use of a Vigenère cipher to decode future clues (or at least that was the intension).
Step 3: The Vigenère Cipher
Rewinding to 2013, some players managed to stumble upon the correct key through a bit of logical guesswork and brute-force deduction—completely bypassing the hidden room and unintentionally skipping an entire layer of the puzzle. When the Vigenère cipher was applied, the message revealed was:
IN-GAME MUSIC TO 0 FROM THE GAME OPTIONS
NATURE CALLS WITH SCORPION.
START AND PASS THE FIRST CHECKPOINT.
LEAP FROM THE ROCK AND STOP ON THE NEXT ROCK.
PUSH THE RIGHT STICK-
UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT
Step 4: Spectral Analysis
The decoded message turned out to be a precise set of directions—detailing a particular stunt to execute with a specific bike on a designated track. Following these steps triggered a hidden audio track to begin playing. Within the song’s lyrics was a cryptic clue: “Your ears may not catch them, You might have to transform them into visible form.” This line subtly pointed players toward using spectral analysis—a technique for visualizing the frequency content of sound. When the track was examined this way, a hidden message emerged, encoded in Morse code:
-.-. .... . -.-. -.- / ... --- -. --. / ... .--. . -.-. - .-. .- / .. -. / . .- -.-. .... / ... --- -. --.
CHECK SONG SPECTRA IN EACH SONG
When running a spectral analysis on each song on the Trials Evolution soundtrack, they were found to have a similar Morse code sequence:
.-- .-- .-- .-.-.- ..-. .. -..- . -.. .--. .- - - . .-. -. . -. -.-. --- -.. . ... .-.-.- -.-. --- --
www.fixedpatternencodes.com
Step 5: Data Mining
Upon its initial discovery, the website appeared to feature just a single visible image. However, a closer inspection of the site's CSS revealed a second, concealed background image layered beneath. When both images were overlaid in Photoshop and an exclusion blend mode was applied, a hidden Latin inscription surfaced—an excerpt from De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), a philosophical poem from the 1st century BC written by the Roman thinker Lucretius, exploring the nature of reality and the universe.
postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether
in gremium matris terrai praecipitavit;
at nitidae surgunt fruges ramique virescunt
arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque gravantur.
Lo, the rains perish which Ether-father throws
Down to the bosom of Earth-mother; but then
Upsprings the shining grain, and boughs are green
Amid the trees, and trees themselves wax big
And lade themselves with fruits; and hence in turn
The race of man and all the wild are fed;
Step 6: Substitution Method
After the poem's discovery, the website went dormant—its mystery lingering—until September 2013, when it suddenly sprang back to life. For 26 consecutive days, a new image appeared daily, each one depicting a notable scientist from history. The key lay in their surnames: the first letter of each formed a complete A-to-Z sequence of the English alphabet.
On October 9, 2013, the website shifted once again—this time rearranging several of the previously shown images into a deliberate sequence and presenting a prompt for visitors to decode. Through a basic letter substitution cipher, the hidden phrase was revealed: “BIG FREEZE WITH NO COMPLETE END”—a reference to one of the most widely accepted theories about the universe’s ultimate fate. Upon submitting the correct answer, the site updated for what seemed to be the final time, unveiling four distinct messages. Each one contained GPS coordinates, specific instructions, and a corresponding city—pointing intrepid solvers toward physical locations in Helsinki (Finland), Sydney (Australia), Bath (UK), and San Francisco (USA), where the next stage of the mystery awaited.
Step 7: Scavenger Hunt
Bath (UK): A small box was found behind the gravestone of Henry Herbert Hale under a tree.
Sydney (Australia): A similar box was found within a sandstone wall.
San Francisco (USA): Another box was buried underground.
Helsinki (Finland): Hometown of developer RedLynx, the coordinates pointed to the offices of Pelaaja, a Finnish gaming magazine. A player arrived and asked for the “metal plate” as directed, and the staff handed him not only the plate but also three historical documents dating back to the 18th century—records detailing a French land transaction. Among them was an illustration hinting at a more precise destination. Following the clue led to a nearby cemetery, where they unearthed a hidden container.
Each box contained a key and a plaque. Inscribed on the plaque was the message “It seemed like forever ago”, a quote most commonly recognized from John Green's The Fault in Our Stars – “It seemed like forever ago, like we've had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
Most importantly though was the message on the other side of the plaque:
Midday in Year 2113.
1st Sat in Aug
One of Five keys will open the box
Underneath the Eiffel Tower
Arrangements Have Been Made
This time, the message wasn’t wrapped in riddles, symbolism, or abstract clues. According to Antti Ilvessuo—Creative Director of Trials Evolution and mastermind behind the entire puzzle—something concrete is set to occur on August 5, 2113. In an interview with Professor FatShady, Antti made his intentions clear: “I made sure that in 100 years [...] that something happens exact time for people who have the key. I made sure... that's like, that's no joke. Happening in real world, 100 years exactly this location, four people with the keys and something happens.”
But there’s a catch: the commemorative plaque refers to five keys, and to this day, only four have been uncovered. Interestingly, Trials Fusion—released in 2014—features an achievement titled “The Fifth Key,” which involves using the Track Editor to locate and collect a hidden item within the Fusion universe. Yet, in that same interview, Antti stated unequivocally that the puzzle was complete and would not continue in any other title. As a result, many in the community believe that the achievement may not be part of a new chapter, but rather a quiet reminder: one final key is still out there, waiting to be found.
In a Kotaku article that accompanied his video interview, Professor FatShady posed one final question to Antti: did he have any closing thoughts for the audience? Antti's response was:
“We may all look back and see Portrait of a Young Man on old images. I outlived Raphael. Next step is to be there. Probably not. Make most of your End of time.”
If you are interested in more on this, be sure to also check out "The Trials Riddle" by SpeedTheWeeb on YouTube.
