The Konami Code

Anyone who grew up with Nintendo is familiar with the Konami Code. Every child has memorized the infamous cheat code. The sequence-UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, B, A, START could make a player virtually invincible in Konami-published Nintendo games. It first appeared in the game Gradius, but it rose to prominence in the game Contra. It has also appeared in series such as Castlevania and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among others.

The code was, in essence, a cheat. It gave a player 30 extra lives in Contra. In Gradius, a player obtains nearly all of the available powerups. A man named Kazuhisa Hashimoto created it. He was working on Gradius and wanted a shortcut to make testing the game easier for himself. He created something simple to remember but impossible for a casual player to guess, and thus the code was born.

Before the game was released, the code was meant to have been removed. But it was left in the game by accident, forgotten during its development. It went on to become one of the most iconic parts of early gaming and is still used in many games even today.

Year: 1986

Founder: Kazuhisa Hashimoto