Konami Code
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as the , is a cheat code that appears in many Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
video games, although the code also appears in some non-Konami games. The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius
Gradius
The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...
for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
but was popularized among North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n players in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed both the "Contra Code" and "30 Lives Code". During the title screen before the game demo begins, the player could press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller
Game controller
A game controller is a device used with games or entertainment systems used to control a playable character or object, or otherwise provide input in a computer game. A controller is typically connected to a game console or computer by means of a wire, cord or nowadays, by means of wireless connection...
:
Variations
The original version of the cheat code was designed for the NESNintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
controller. The exact sequence varies from game to game, and has been adapted to fit the button layouts of different video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s; mostly the and buttons. For example: any PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
controller, which uses shapes instead of letters, would be "
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the...
series, being input on the dance pad. In mobile phone games by Konami, they are substituted with on the numerical pad, which is the goroawase pronunciation for "konami."
History
The Konami Code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who was developing the home portPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
of the 1985 arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Gradius
Gradius
The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...
, 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 to give the player a full set of power-ups (normally attained gradually throughout the game). The code was present in the released Gradius after Kazuhisa forgot to remove the code. Players discovered and shared the code. It has been included in the other sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s and spin-offs, including the SNES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
version of Gradius III
Gradius III
Gradius III, known in Japan as , is a side-scrolling shooting game originally released for the arcades in Japan and Asia in . It is the second sequel to the original Gradius for the arcades following Gradius II, and was followed by Gradius IV. Gradius III was rereleased for the Super Nintendo...
, which actually destroys the player's ship upon entering the original code (however, substituting and with the and triggers of the SNES controller powers up the ship), all the way through the most recent iteration of the series, Gradius Rebirth
Gradius ReBirth
Gradius ReBirth is a shoot 'em up video game for WiiWare developed by M2 and produced and released by Konami. It is the latest installment in the Gradius series, and was released in Japan on September 2, 2008, and in North America on March 9, 2009 and in the PAL regions on July 3,...
on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, where the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
's and buttons fill in for and , respectively.
The code has been subsequently re-used in a large number of other games, and has found a place in popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
as a reference to the third generation of video game consoles
History of video game consoles (third generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer and Sega SG-1000...
. For example, entering the code is one of two standard ways to put a Palm
Palm OS
Palm OS is a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants in 1996. Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management...
webOS device (such as the Palm Pre
Palm Pre
The Palm Pre is a multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux based mobile operating system, webOS...
or Palm Pixi
Palm Pixi
The Palm Pixi and Pixi Plus are multimedia smartphones, developed by Palm, which was purchased in 2010 by HP. The device is viewed as a successor to the Palm Centro smartphone and was Palm's second webOS device, after the Palm Pre....
) into "developer mode", and the code is also present as an Easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
on a number of websites. The code is also used in a variation where Start is replaced with Up, Up, Up, Up for the command a PS3 user must use to reset their Netflix account on the Netflix application.
External links
- Video about the Konami Code from the G4G4 (TV channel)G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
TV show Cheat!Cheat!Cheat! is a TV show on G4 that provides cheat codes, strategies, and other hidden features for video games. The show is hosted by Kristin Adams , who replaced original host Cory Rouse in January 2005. After a nearly 18-month hiatus, new episodes of Cheat! began airing in December 2008... - List of websites with special responses to the code