Cracking the Code: The Konami Code
We crack open codes, so you don't have to.

Cracking the Code is our look back at the history behind some of the most well-known codes and cheats out there. We look at what the developers were thinking, why the codes are special, urban legends, or anything else trivia-wise that makes the codes stand out.

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The Code: This code is in many different games, and every title does not use it in the exact same way, but the general description is to enter Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A—it sometimes works on the title screen and other times during the game.

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Few codes are as well-known as "The Konami Code." It has its own name, after all, which has been given to it by players over the years. The code is so well known that some games that utilize it are not even from Konami. If you ever wondered where it all started, look no further than the NES version of Gradius, released in 1986.

In an interview in issue 14 of Japanese game magazine Dorimaga, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who programmed the Famicom port of the game,

In Gyruss, the code written backwards (A, B, Right, Left...) will start you off with 30 lives.

recalls the origin: "The arcade version of Gradius is really difficult, right? I never played it that much, and there was no way I could finish the game, so I inserted the so-called Konami code (laughs)."

In that same interview, Hashimoto's co-worker Shigeharu Umizaki asks him to tell the story of where the code came from, and Hashimoto responds, "There isn't one, really. I mean, I was the one using it (laughs), so I just put in something I could remember easily."

So it may not have been the most creative process that came up with the code, but some of the cheats it spurred are quite the opposite. The majority of it's uses are to give you extra lives and power-ups, but a few games have special treats:

- In Cosmic Epsilon on the Famicom and Ordyne on the TurboGrafx-16, a message pops up when a player puts in the code that says, "I AM NOT KONAMI," to let players know who did not develop these games.

- In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, if you put the code in at the title screen, you will hear a shoutout from Snake—literally. He will simply shout when you finish the code, and that's all you get for entering it.

- In Mortal Kombat 3, the code will earn you a special shooter mini-game to play around with, which is one of the most random cheats out there.

- As if to mock players for taking the easy way out in Gradius III,

In Gradius Galaxies, the code gives you all the weapons in the game.

players who use the code will see their ship blow up. In the game, an alternate version of the code with the L and R buttons instead of the left and right directions gives the goods.

We put together a list of games that use the code or make reference to it (for instance in one game, the developers put in the code backwards—but we still count it) for your viewing pleasure. If we missed any, please drop us a line.

• Batman Returns (SNES)
• BeatMania (GameBoy)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
• Contra (NES)
• Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2)
• Cosmic Epsilon (Famicom)
• Fighter's History (SNES)
• Final Fight 2 (SNES)
• Gradius (Arcade)
• Graduis (NES)
• Gradius Galaxies (GBA)
• Gradius Gaiden (PS1)
• Gradius 2 (NES)
• Gradius III (SNES)
• Gyruss (NES)
• Kid Clown (NES)
• Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced (GBA) (Frogger, Time Pilot, Kung Fu, Rush n' Attack, Scramble, Gyruss)
• Life Force (NES)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2)
• Mortal Kombat 3 (SNES)
• NBA Give-N-Go (NES)
• Nemesis (GameBoy)
• North and South (NES)
• Operation C (GameBoy)
• Ordyne (TurboGrapfx-16)
• Racing Fighter (GameBoy)
• Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
• Smart Ball (SNES)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PS2)
• Tengen Tetris (NES)
• TMNT Fall of the Foot Clan (GB)
• TMNT 3: The Manhattan Project (NES)
• TMNT IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)
• Top Gun: The Second Mission (NES)
• Wario Ware (GBA)
• Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS2)
• Zombie Nation (NES)