odrakir.com

The sequence of keys on the image above is the Konami Code, and is probably the most popular video game cheat code of all times. Most games from Konami have almost always a cheat or a small easter egg triggered by this code, but the most interesting is the number of publishers besides Konami that still today include this code in their games, as a “nod”, a small tribute to the Konami Code.

The Konami Code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the developer responsible for the port of Konami’s Gradius for the NES in 1986. After finding the game very difficult to play during the tests, he created a code that allowed the player to have all power-ups that would normally be acquired during the game. When the final version of Gradius was released on the market, the code was included by mistake.

The code would only become famous in Contra for the NES. The difficulty of Contra was too high but with this code the player could have 30 extra lives and playing the game became a possible mission.

Even today, all iterations Gradius react to the Konami Code, each in its own way. For example, Gradius III destroys the ship when you load the code.

Today, Konami Code is more than a simple “cheat code” is a cultural icon of a generation. A generation of retrogamers easily recognizes and identifies the code, many are proud to recite in the code by heart 😀

There are references to the Konami Code / Contra Code in music lyrics, t-shirts and even in some sites like Digg and Google Reader, and it’s becoming more and more used, to a point that Konami Code Sites was created to track all sites that use this code. So, don’t forget to enter the Konami Code when visiting a site, you’ll never know what might happen. I’ll even give you an extra tip: 8-Bit Revolution is Konami Code enabled since 2007 🙂