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To celebrate 35 years of the Konami Code, a cheat created by the late Japanese developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto, Konami has released some lofi remixes from Gradius, the side-scrolling shooter Hashimoto’s cheat was designed for.
For the remixes, Konami dropped a 33-minute long video of lofi tracks from the game’s soundtrack. It shows a pilot chilling in space, playing some Gradius. And of course, it’s got that signature title most lofi mixes have.
The cheat–up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start–was written by Hashimoto, who came up with it in 1986 to combat Gradius’ difficulty. It functioned like a god mode, giving the player access to the game’s full range of power-ups. Konami learned of the code after launch but choose not to patch it.
Though the Konami Code was created for Gradius, it also appears in other Konami games. This includes some Castlevania titles like the PS4 entry Requiem, various versions of Contra, a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, and non-Konami titles such as Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Dead by Daylight. The Konami Code might even work while on GameSpot. Give it a try! Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.
Hashimoto worked at Konami for a number of years, first joining the company in 1981. Alongside Gradius, he worked on Gungage, ISS Pro Evolution, The Goonies, and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. He died in February 2020 at the age of 61.
