One day when Kazuhisa Hashimoto was play testing the NES version of Gradius, it became apparent that the game was just too hard. Of course Konami was just doing what any self respecting developer would do back in the day: making games too freaking diffiuclt. After all, Gradius was originally an arcade game and after you used up all your lives, you had to pop more quaters in there (this was how many companies got rich off games back then) if you wanted to keep playing. In order to give players a better chance at beating the game, Hashimoto invented what would be known in video games as
the secret to life, better known as the Konami Code. In the NES version of Gradius this code would give you full power ups. In other games such as Contra and Life Force, it would give you 30 lives, which for some players was the only way the aforementioned games could be completed.
I won't lie, I still relie on the Konami code to get me through old-school Konami games. Have you played the
third level of Life Force? For my money, it has got to be the most annoying fire-based stage in all of video games as there is no shortage of things out to get you. I've probably lost more lives in that level than any stage in the game.
If you still have to use this code, I don't think you should feel ashamed. Those players that brag about how they can beat old Konami games without the code probably had to use the code in the past. Not everyone is of the same skill level, and that's why the code exists.
One day when Kazuhisa Hashimoto was play testing the NES version of Gradius, it became apparent that the game was just too hard. Of course Konami was just doing what any self respecting developer would do back in the day: making games too freaking diffiuclt. After all, Gradius was originally an arcade game and after you used up all your lives, you had to pop more quaters in there (this was how many companies got rich off games back then) if you wanted to keep playing. In order to give players a better chance at beating the game, Hashimoto invented what would be known in video games as the secret to life, better known as the Konami Code. In the NES version of Gradius this code would give you full power ups. In other games such as Contra and Life Force, it would give you 30 lives, which for some players was the only way the aforementioned games could be completed.
I won't lie, I still relie on the Konami code to get me through old-school Konami games. Have you played the third level of Life Force? For my money, it has got to be the most annoying fire-based stage in all of video games as there is no shortage of things out to get you. I've probably lost more lives in that level than any stage in the game.
If you still have to use this code, I don't think you should feel ashamed. Those players that brag about how they can beat old Konami games without the code probably had to use the code in the past. Not everyone is of the same skill level, and that's why the code exists.
2 comments:
Life Force without the code would be nuts. I remember when Konami figured it'd be funny to have that code insta-kill you in Gradius 3. >>
Yeah, that was clever of them. Put in the old Konami code in the SNES version of Gradius III and you blow up. Use the L and R buttons in place of Left and Right and you're good.
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