Konami Code
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Konami Code (also known as the Contra Code) is a cheat code that can be used in many Konami video games, usually giving the player a large number of lives or fully charging up the abilities of the character. The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System but was made famous in the Contra series. During the game, the player presses the following sequence of buttons on the game controller:
- ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
This is the original version of the code, designed for the NES controller. In many popular representations of the code, "Start" is added at the end of the sequence. This is because in many of the early occurrences of the code, "Start" had to be pressed before any effects of the code could be seen. In these cases, "Start" either started or unpaused the game. The exact sequence varies from game to game, and has been adapted to fit the button layouts of different video game consoles.
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[edit] History
The Konami Code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who was developing the home port of the 1985 arcade game Gradius, a scrolling shooter released on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Finding the game too difficult to play through during testing, he created a code which gives the player a full set of powerups, which are normally attained gradually throughout the game. Also, the code entered backwards would award the player 30 lives. For whatever reason, he did not remove the code when testing was finished. The code has continued to be present in Gradius sequels and spin-offs, including the Super NES version of Gradius III, which actually destroys the player's ship upon entering the original code (however, substituting Left and Right with the L and R triggers of the Super Famicom controller powers up the ship).
Arguably the best-known example of the Konami Code is in the 1988 NES version of Contra, where using the code increases the player's lives from 3 to 30. Due to the game's intense difficulty, many Contra players became reliant on the code to finish the game, earning it the title "The Contra Code".
[edit] Mentions in popular culture
Although the Konami Code was not the first video game password (that distinction belonging to "xyzzy" from Colossal Cave Adventure), it is probably the most well-known video game code. The popularity of Gradius and Contra has closely associated the Konami Code with the gaming era of the 1980s. Because of its popularity, the code has been repeated in countless video games. It has also been referenced in many different pop-culture contexts. Several bands, cartoons, TV shows, and even a professional wrestler have made reference to the code. As for music, both The Ataris and Deftones have songs blatantly entitled Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A, Start
[edit] See also
- List of Konami code games - A list of all known games where this code has an effect.
