If you have been playing Contra on the Family Computer (or NES) game console during your younger days, you must be familiar with the 30 Lives Code.

Contra (we used to call it Rambo) is a relatively hard game for a beginner so in order for us to beat the game, we have a cheat that makes our standard 3 lives become 30. The cheat code can be activated by pressing the following sequence of buttons on your game controller at the game’s title screen:

UP – UP – DOWN – DOWN – LEFT – RIGHT – LEFT – RIGHT – B – A

That’s officially named as the Konami code. So called because it appeared in many video games done by Japan-based Konami.

It was actually first used in 1986 for the game Gradius which will activate all powerups except for Speed Up, Double, and Laser.

It has since been used for many games; some of which are not produced by Konami and in other game consoles like the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Playstation and Xbox. The most notable games where it can be activated are Castlevania, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dance Dance Revolution, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Half-Life 2 and Mortal Kombat 3.

Check out the full list from Wikipedia.

The Konami Code is also not limited to video games as it can be discovered as an easter egg from various web sites.

The most famous one is from Facebok. If you enter the Konami code on Facebook and press the Enter key, a lens flare effect appears anytime you click, scroll or type anything.

Here’s a screen shot from my Facebook page:

If you want to see other Konami Code-powered websites, check out the full list at konamicodesites.

You have to enter the Konami Code though before you can access the site.

Neat eh?

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Tags: contra, easter egg, facebook, konami code, video games, wikipedia

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