De website Cracked.com heeft in dit artikel zes glitches uit de video game historie gevonden die per ongeluk er voor gezorgd hebben dat we nu oa Easter Eggs en Combo's in games hebben. Onze favoriet is tevens de nummer één, en de ekte ekte gamers snappen dan ook wel waarom.

#1.A Programmer Sucking at Games Gave Us the Konami Code

If you've played Gradius you don't need us to describe it. If you haven't, we can describe it in one word: LASERS!


The game and all of its sequels are known for being bastard hard. At any one time, it is perfectly possible for there to be dozens of individual danger zones on the screen. By danger zones, we of course mean areas on the screen you'll die instantly and make you have to start again, without any of the power-ups you just busted your ass unlocking.

This wasn't an isolated thing and you weren't the only one who sucked: Kazuhisa Hashimoto, one of the guys who helped freaking create the home port of the game, couldn't play it. After watching his ship explode endlessly during play testing, he eventually thought, Screw this, I'm the programmer! and created a code -- a simple set of button presses to give himself a full set of power-ups, no doubt laughing to himself as he played back through the game.



So why are we calling it a glitch? He accidentally left the code in the game when it was released.

That code is what is now famously known as the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A). It's a string that old-school gamers know by heart (they should -- it was the only thing that let them get even half way through Contra). Not only did the code make it into Konami's subsequent releases, but the code has been somewhat of an Easter egg in dozens of other games from other developers. In Resident Evil 2, it gave you infinite ammo; in Quake 4 it completed all your objectives for you; and in Tony Hawk 2 it let you unlock Spider-Man.

And after that, the code started leaking into the real world, becoming a bona fide pop culture phenomenon. Just try entering it here (we really don't want to spoil the surprise, just trust us). Dozens of other websites have implemented Easter eggs when you enter the code -- our favorite is probably the Marvel.com version, in which a tiny rodent wearing a Deadpool mask would leap onto the screen and berate you for it.

The only really disappointing thing is nothing happens if you enter it on the Konami website. Amazing, considering even ESPN used it to make rainbow unicorn farts all over their homepage.