The legendary Konami code came about because Gradius was too hard for one of the guys making it. Katsuhisa Hashimoto was on the team of four responsible for the NES port of Gradius, and he recalled adding the code in a 2003 interview just translated by GlitterBerri. "I had one guy under me, and he played through the coin-op version," Hashimoto said. "That one's really tough. I hadn't played that much and obviously couldn't beat it myself, so I put in the Konami Code."

The code uses its familiar, now-iconic pattern for ... convenience. "Because I was the one who was going to be using it," Hashimoto said, "I made sure it was easy to remember. The game took around half a year to develop, and, at the time, putting the code together was like an entertaining puzzle. 'How on earth am I going to be able to fit these passwords into the program?' I'd ask myself." The solution to that puzzle may have led to your successful completion of Gradius, Contra, or countless other Konami games.

[Image: DefunctGames]