If you grew up in the 1980s and played video games, you know the Konami Code. It’s very easy to remember. Kazuhisa Hashimoto, inventor of the Konami Code, said there’s a reason for that.
The reason was that Hashimoto needed an easy code for extra power-ups he could remember and then input while testing Gradius, a notoriously difficult shooter.
“Because I was the one who was going to be using it,” said Hashimoto (via Glitterberri), “I made sure it was easy to remember.” According to Hashimoto, putting the code together was like an entertaining program.
“‘How on earth am I going to be able to fit these passwords into the program?’” I’d ask myself.”
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, that’s how.
The code has since become a part of popular culture, including the ability to input it in a variety of tech devices and websites even, including Facebook.
The Nintendo Era [GlitterBerri]
Sam
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 8:27 AMThere’s actually (from memory) 3 variations of the konami code, though one was/is far more heavily used than others.
N3RD1001101
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 9:00 AMI remember using that code on the mega drive version of mortal kombat 3 on the mega drive to access a hidden menu :)
Tatsumaki
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 9:10 AMThough not nearly as widely used, I still have not forgotten the blood code for mortal kombat on Megadrive. abacabb…
thistler
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 10:17 AMI thought the blood code was the DULLARD code for megadrive. Down Up Left Left A Right Down. “Excellent”. We unlocked all the consoles in Melbourne MYER for the kids.
oggob
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 10:23 AMBoth right… the first is “just” the Blood code, it was entered when the text story started before the intro screen.
The DULLARD code was on the main title screen and was for the Debug menu, so not only the blood code, but you could make it one hit deaths, put the Test Your Might after every match, etc…
thistler
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 10:35 AMAh cool. Yeah, I vaguely remember now but we mainly used the debug one.
Vapor
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:00 PMUp, Down, Left, Right, A+Start
Todd
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:19 PMContra Konami code FTW.
ash
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 6:16 PMI still remember the minesweeper code… xyzzy enter shift… worked all the way upto win xp… stopped after that. well, either that or the target pixel just became too small to notice on my monitors…
Stu
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:09 AMI’ll always remember Doom 1′s clipping cheat:
Idspispopd
I am quite forgetful, but that’s one thing I see have memorised quite well. :)