The Soapbox

Let's discuss Vidya Gaems

[gamedesign101]

In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, if you go to the title screen press Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right.  Then, hold A and press Start, you will be taken to the level select menu. From here you can access any level in the game, or put in another code to enter debug mode. This feature wasn’t ever broadcasted by SEGA and you wouldn’t likely stumble on it by accident, so why is it in the game at all?

The developers likely implemented this to make playtesting easier. If you’re a developer for the game who’s told there’s a bug on Mystic Cave level 2, then you’d ordinarily have to trek through 5 other zones just to play test that level and look for the bug. With games gating off content from the player until they complete levels/tasks, it would be inefficient not to have some way to bypass those gates to easily play-test a level. Being able to get there directly would make your job easier, so you and other programmers create a level select menu that is protected by a  password. If you don’t tell consumers about this feature then most will never find out about it, and those who do are likely fans who will have access to a new feature that allows them to go back and play their favorite levels.

[gamedesign101]

The Konami Code was first used in 1986 for the NES game Gradius. Developer Kazuhisa Hasmimoto was porting the game to the NES and he had trouble finishing the game, so he created the code as a way to easily play test the game. He forgot to remove the code after play testing, and it has appeared in dozens of Konami titles since. The code activated, practically, all powerups in the game, Gradius. In Contra, where the code is most famously used, it grants the player 30 lives to complete the game with, instead of the standard 3. In an interview from 2003, Hashimoto is quoted as saying:

“The arcade version of Gradius is really difficult, right? I never played it that much, and there was no way I could finish the game, so I inserted the so-called Konami code (laughs).”

He designed the Konami Code to appears as it does (Up Up, Down Down, Left, Right, B, A) because it was, "something [he] could remember easily."