We all know it

The Konami code is one of the most famous video game cheats of all time, but how did it come about? According to a translated chat between Konami's Kazuhisa Hashimoto and Shigeharu Umezaki, it all started with the NES port of Gradius.

Hashimoto, the code's creator, explains:

I had one guy under me, and he played through the coin-op version. 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. laughing

Hashimoto's code is legendary now of course, spawning more t-shirts than there are bullets in Gradius. The full interview at GlitterBerri is worth a read.

[source glitterberri.com]