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Konami Code

The Konami Code

The Konami Code, known in Japan as the Konami Command (コナミコマンド, Konami Komando^?), is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, ^[1] although the code also appears in some non-Konami games.^[2] The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System ^[3] but was made famous in North America in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed the "30 Lives Code". While pausing the game or during the title screen, the player could press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller:

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A

The code was subsequently re-used in a large number of other games, and has found a place in popular culture as a reference to the third generation of video game consoles. It is also the only standard way to put a Palm webOS device (such as the Palm Pre or Palm Pixi) into developer mode.

Variations

The original version of the cheat code was designed for the NES controller. In many popular representations of the code, Start is added at the end of the sequence. Select is also sometimes inserted at the end of the code. The exact sequence varies from game to game, and has been adapted to fit the button layouts of different video game consoles. In mobile phone games by Konami, B A are substituted with 5 7 3 on the numerical pad, which is the goroawase pronunciation for "konami."

Also, if one were to enter it on Facebook, followed by enter, it creates a sparkle graphic whenever you do anything. To remove it, simply navigate away from the page,and when you come back it will be gone.

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 Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Finding the game too difficult to play through during testing, he created a cheat code which gives the player a full set of power-ups, which are normally attained gradually throughout the game.^[2] The code has continued to be present in Gradius sequels and spin-offs, including the SNES version of Gradius III, which actually destroys the player's ship upon entering the original code (however, substituting ← and → with the L and R triggers of the SNES controller powers up the ship), all the way through the most recent iteration of the series, Gradius V on the PlayStation 2, where the PS2's ✖ and ● buttons fill in for B and A, respectively.

The Konami code was introduced to many gamers in the 1988 NES version of Contra. Due to the game's difficulty, many Contra players became reliant on the cheat code, which increased the player's lives from 3 to 30 (9 to 90 including continues), to finish the game. The game's popularity made it renowned to an entire generation of video game players. This led to the code being used in many games and mentioned across popular culture.^[4][5][6]