the Konami Code

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The button sequence up up down down left right left right B A, a cheat that became a cultural in-joke.

Kazuhisa Hashimoto added it while porting Gradius to the NES in 1986 because he found the game too hard to test, and it later became famous through Contra. Decades on, it is still hidden as an Easter egg in countless websites and apps that reward anyone who types it.

Also known as: Konami code, up up down down, Contra code

Sources

  • Kazuhisa Hashimoto, Gradius (1986)

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