Super Contra Cheat Code Unlimited Lives

[Carmina Piette]

Whilethe game was loading, if you pressed the following combination of buttons on your controller you would be rewarded with 30 lives: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start. It was the ultimate cheat code and it allowed me and Jon to beat Contra every time.

The most prominent false cheat code is debt. Can I afford this purchase outright? Nope. But with debt? Of course! It could be a car, a house, a Peloton (No judgement; I just bought one. It was either that or a whole new set of pants), or Christmas gifts. Used wisely, debt can be helpful. But too much debt, committing too much of our future earnings to things we buy today, can be ruinous.

The Konami Code was first used in the release of Gradius (1986), a scrolling shooter for the NES[11] and was popularized among North American players in the NES version of Contra. The code is also known as the "Contra Code" and "30 Lives Code", since the code provided the player 30 extra lives in Contra. The code has been used to help novice players progress through the game.[10][12]

The Konami Code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who was developing the home port of the 1985 arcade game Gradius for the NES. Finding the game too difficult to play through during testing, he created the cheat code, which gives the player a full set of power-ups (normally attained gradually throughout the game).[2] After entering the sequence using the controller when the game was paused the player received all available power-ups. The code was meant to be removed prior to publishing, but this was overlooked and only discovered as the game was being prepared for mass production. The developers decided to leave it there, as removing it could result in new bugs and glitches. The sequence was easy enough to remember for testers and simultaneously sufficiently hard to enter accidentally during the gameplay for unsuspecting users.[citation needed]

The Konami Code was thus included in the series' other sequels and spin-offs, with some key differences. The code has been subsequently re-used in a large number of other games and other computer programs.

The Konami Code (コナミコマンド, Konami Komando?, lit. "Konami Command") is a special combination of buttons that appears in several Konami games. It was widely popularized due to its inclusion in the NES home version of Contra (1988), where it allowed the player to obtain 30 free lives. Since then the code has become part of popular culture in general, even appearing in many non-Konami games and diverse media, such as clothing, advertisements and non-gaming related software.

The code was first used in the 1986 release of Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System but was popularized among North American players in the NES version of Contra, for which it was also dubbed both the "Contra Code" and "30 Lives Code", because of its nearly necessary use in the game.

The Konami Code was created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who was developing the home port of the 1985 arcade game Gradius, a horizontal scrolling shooter released on the NES 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 still present in the released version after Hashimoto forgot to remove it. Players discovered and shared the code. The Konami Code was thus included in the series' other sequels and spin-offs.[1]

The original version of the cheat code was designed for the NES controller. The exact sequence varies from game to game and has been adapted to fit the button layouts of different video game consoles, mostly the A and B buttons. For example:

Perform those button presses in the right sequence, and you'll unlock cheats that help you win. But recently, the code has grown into a wider pop-culture reference, and you might be curious about how it got started. Let's take a look.

The first-ever game to feature the Konami Code was Gradius for the NES, published by Japanese third-party developer Konami in 1986. If you pause the game and enter the code, it activates several helpful power-ups.

Gradius is a difficult game, and the inventor of the Konami code, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, said in a 2003 interview that he created the code to make play-testing the game easier for him. (Sadly, Hashimoto passed away in February 2020.)

The Konami Code became legendary thanks to another Konami game called Contra, released for the NES in 1988. This run-and-gun shooter features great graphics and satisfying co-op play, but it's punishingly difficult. Entering the Konami Code at Contra's title screen just before starting the game gives the player 30 extra lives, which helps non-experts live long enough to at least play past the first stage.

Cheat codes that let you get more enjoyment out of a game were a big deal in the late 1980s, at a time when each NES game retailed for around $40 apiece (about $87 today, adjusted for inflation). Many kids received only a handful of new games per year; if you got stuck with a game that was too difficult to play, it could be a frustrating situation.

Luckily, hint books and magazines often came to the rescue. Nintendo Power, a widely-distributed video game magazine owned by Nintendo itself, introduced Contra's Konami Code to a large American audience as part of its "Classified Information" column in its first issue in 1988, and gamers never forgot it.

As a general rule, games that use the code on non-Nintendo systems (such as Sony PlayStation) need a minor modification to the Konami Code. Substitute that system's cancel or confirm buttons for B or A. For example, in the U.S. on the PlayStation, O is commonly cancel, and X is commonly confirm. So the PlayStation-style Konami Code would be Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, O, X.

Because a generation of gamers grew up with the Konami Code memorized, it makes sense that the code has become a wider pop culture reference in recent years. It has been printed on t-shirts and merchandise and referenced in films like Wreck-It Ralph. A recent Fisher-Price baby toy called the Game & Learn Controller also supports the code: When input, the lights flash, and a voice says, "You Win!"

Around 2013, a version of the Netflix website allowed users to access a hidden settings screen by inputting a modified version of the Konami Code on their remote controls. And on several prominent websites (hint, hint), entering the code can activate an Easter egg.

The sequence was easy enough to remember for testers and simultaneously sufficiently hard to enter accidentally during the gameplay for unsuspecting users. However, as with many cheat codes of that time, the developer just forgot to remove it from the final release, and soon after curios gamers discovered it. The secret knowledge quickly spread by word of mouth, and by the time Contra was released, the code became almost a tradition.

Contra was not an easy game even with the extra cheat lives, but with the standard three required no less than a perfect walkthrough was needed. Any other gaming platform allowed you to have as many lives as you had quarters in your pocket, but the strict and unforgiving NES gave you only three attempts. Probably the first users to discover the sequence were the desperate NES players, uncontrollably mashing the buttons after yet another death.

Some players believe that this is the only code that will grant you in-game perks. Here Contra is again to blame for the misconception. The confusion was caused because of the two-player mode required to press SELECT after entering the code to grant thirty lives to both participants.

After the code was featured in the Nintendo Power, it solidified its place in video gaming history. The cheat sequence survived several console generations, and still works in more than 100 Konami games. What is even more surprising, other developers caught on and decided to integrate the code in their projects.

In the North American version, Bill and Lance were called "Jimbo" and "Sully", respectively. They were referred to as being descendants of Mad Dog and Scorpion from the NES versions of Contra and Super C.

Taking advantage of the then new technology provided by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, The graphics in The Alien Wars was improved to such an extent as to be visually comparable to the original arcade versions of Contra and Super C. The level design is more complex, and provides more opportunity for interaction than was possible in previous Contra installments. For instance, players can grab on to poles and navigate them in a monkey bar fashion, climb walls and ladders, destroy buildings and scenery, and commandeer tanks.

Unlike its predecessors, there is no cheat code that extends the amount of lives. Instead, the player can select the number of lives to start with - three, five, or seven are the available choices. The amount of continues is adjusted according to the difficulty level (which also determines the durability of enemies). In the Japanese version, however, the player has unlimited continues regardless of difficulty, and has also cheat codes that allows to choose stage and access to a sound test mode.

If the game is finished in normal or easy mode, instead of the ending, the player sees a message requesting him to try a higher difficulty. In addition to the more powerful and numerous enemies, in addition to more aggressive and resistant bosses, on hard mode the last boss has a final form not present in the other modes. After defeating this form, which you must do while escaping the collapsing alien base, the true ending is finally revealed.

Once a metropolis, the city has quickly become the center of the conflict. In the later parts of the level a plane bombs the zone with napalm bombs, covering the floor with fire. This part involves platform jumping where an incorrect jump will usually result in instant death.

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