Up, Up, Down, Down…
Tonight was a good night, spending it with my family at my sister’s house to celebrate my nephew’s 11th birthday. It’s been a crazy past week, so spending a bit of down time with everyone was a nice way to spend the evening. There was pizza and cake and presents and games…everything you could want at an 11 year old’s birthday. (Really, that would be pretty darn good for this 34 year old’s birthday, too.)
The game that we wound up playing was Dicecapades. It’s not one that I had heard of before, but definitely one that I would love to seek out to add to my stash. Using a variety of dice — four-, six-, eight-, ten-, twelve-, and twenty-sided; dice with pictures; dice with playing card values; etc. — players have to engage in challenges ranging from math problems using the dice rolled to drawing a specified image to stacking specific dice in 30 seconds or less.
At one point in the game, the following trivia question came up for my dad: “What is the secret code for unlimited lives in Konami’s Contra videogame?” As everyone around the table gaped in utter confusion at the question, I just had to laugh. As I explained after my dad gave up, there is a certain type of geek, in my general age range, who will have absolutely no hesitation in reciting
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A [start]
For that particular set of geek, it’s not just a secret code for a Konami game; it’s a secret code of identification. If one of us hears another person recite that code, there’ll almost certainly be a shared glance and a knowing smile. It’s the inside handshake of the Nintendo generation.
How pervasive is this code to that set? Well, it’s got its own Wikipedia entry; there’s an indie rock band (now defunct) in Jersey that used it as their band name; G4 did a segment on it:
And most tellingly? There are t-shirts: 
So there you go. If you didn’t know this code before, now you do. And if you did already know it? Well, allow me to share with you a glance and a knowing smile.
And, of course, unlimited lives.
October 31st, 2010 at 10:26 am
Actually, I’d always added a “Select” before the “Start” at the end. I guess it wasn’t needed and didn’t screw up anything else because it always worked. Pop culture has since shown me the error of my ways
October 31st, 2010 at 11:32 am
I considered adding something about the [select] that’s occasionally counted as being in there… Have you ever seen that Dicecapades game? It’s ridiculously fun!
November 1st, 2010 at 11:01 am
No, I’ll have to check it out…