Almost for as long as video games have existed, there have been cheat codes. Of the mysterious controller combinations, none are more famous than the Konami Code. It was first introduced in 1986 with the release of Gradius, the side-scrolling spaceship shooter, on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Its true rise to fame came with 1988’s Contra; where it granted players 30 lives and was forever immortalized. The code would go on to appear in numerous other games by Konami and other manufacturers.
Since the ’80s the code has continued to pop up in a variety of places and, of course, the internet is no exception. Several popular web sites, including Facebook and Digg, have easter eggs that show up on the page when the code is entered. Konamicodesites has a listing of known sites that respond to the code. It’s good to see a staple of gaming’s history has more than 30 lives.
