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Blog Entry 12 of 44 Welcome to The Retroplex
I'm usually in full-blown reminisce mode anyway, so why not make the rest of you poor saps suffer along with me, right?

Here, you'll find no shortage (well...unless I can't think of any new material) of meaningless but ultimately harmless bits of ephemera covering the past 20 or so years of pop culture, and my occasional interactions with it. Whether you're into the iconic or the ironic, sooner or later, I'll probably get around to it.
Watch, as the hilarity ensues! Or, if you prefer, gawk like a shocked passerby witnessing a horrible accident!

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~TheRetroplex

Up, up, down, down, left, right, B+A, start

Contributed by: Jared Keller   on 8/11/2006

The title of this particular blog post contains the secret to life.

Long, happy life.

More specifically, it's the Konami code - a code built into any number of games created by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System back in the 80s.

Having trouble beating Contra? Bam. Enter the code, and PRESTO! You've got 30 lives.

The Konami code, then, in all of its hope of new beginnings, and its promise for a fresh start with each dawn that we greet, could be seen as a metaphor for our daily lives. Well...it could, if it's not important to you that your metaphors actually relate (in even the most tangential way) to real life, but I digress...

We're often told that the best time to learn is when we're young. Similarly, it's often said that our childhood influences and lessons tend to be a major factor in the decisions we make across the entirety of our lives.

Given that, I think it's appropriate to reflect back on some of the things that we learned as kids.

In no particular order:

1. "Knowing is half the battle"
Apparently, the other half is comprised of a mixture of equal parts superior firepower, and enemy incompetence. While the GI Joe team never specifically said as much, I think that we're safe in making that assumption based on Cobra's lousy performance in battle after battle. These losers couldn't shoot straight, they bailed out of their planes at the first sign of a Sidewinder missle, and man...they wore bright blue uniforms. Bright blue! In battle! Hello, camoflage?

- Life applicability: Learn a lot...then go out and buy many firearms.

2. Sometimes, it's important to yank out the cartridge, blow on it, and slam it back into the console.
I'm not really sure what I mean by this. As a kid, I was always amazed at how, when your Nintendo game just wouldn't work, you could rip it out, blow onto the contacts, and then slam it back in, resulting - very occasionally - in success. Regardless of how little sense it made, or how infrequently anything actually changed as a result, we did it over and over again. What's the lesson to take away? Not sure. While it might be that we should develop persistence, my bet is that it's either that our lungs occasionally exhale pure, undiluted magic, or that we should get used to performing meaningless tasks for no apparent reason. Hmm. On second thought, I think it's probably just that last one.

- Life applicability: Get used to futility. Just like the little "I wanna cross the street"-button at the intersection or your daily staff meeting, many of your life's tasks serve no functional purpose whatsoever.

3. It's possible, but not advisable to rhyme the words "cute" and "moot".
This, of course, happened in the Rick Springfield song "Jessie's Girl", and the English language has yet to recover fully.

- Life applicability: Like Jeff Goldblum says in Jurassic Park - "...your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Don't be like Rick Springfield; don't taunt nature.

4. Robots from the future usually mean trouble.
While I suppose that one could nitpick this statement, given the benevolence of Optimus Prime and his fellow Autobots, I'd have to counter with both Megatron, and the T-100. Just to be on the safe side, I'd recommend that, should you ever encounter a robot from the future, you give it what it wants (energon, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, a long-slide .45 mitt laser zighting, or Sarah Conner, etc.), and avoid eye contact.

- Life applicability: Keep a close eye on your household appliances.

5. Harrison Ford was much more fun before they removed his emotion chip.
C'mon. The dude was Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and...that one guy in Blade Runner. Han Solo! Indiana Jones! Blade Runner guy!

- Life applicability: Don't take yourself too seriously, and for Pete's sake, stick with what works.

More wisdom from the past to come, kids. Stay tuned.


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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
Submitted By: John Zwick
posted on 8/14/2006 @ 9:19:35 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Bill beat me to the Abacab, but there're other video game code bits in music. Lesser bits. A punk rock band borrowed the entire Konami Code sequence as their name. They go by "Up Up Down Down" for short. The Ataris had a song titled by the code. And my favorite cultural reference to it? In another video game, Gradius 3. The code was common knowledge if not yet hallowed gamer lore, so Konami made a little trick for their first shooter on the SNES. Enter the Konami code and your ship blows up. Suckers.
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Submitted By: Bill Boucher
posted on 8/13/2006 @ 8:53:05 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Abacab. That's clever. A Genesis song used as a secret code on Genesis.
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Submitted By: John Brandstetter
posted on 8/13/2006 @ 3:53:25 PM
Rated Blog Entry
A, B, A, C, A, B, B. That is the code to get the gory version of Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis. I was a total MK addict back in the day, but my mom wouldn't let me own a copy of MK2. I was able to buy the first one because it was rated MA-13 and, therefore, appeared less threatening than the ultra-violent sequel. Little did my mom know that a sequence of 7 buttons would open a world of blood, guts and uncensored fatalities. Finish him! Ahem... Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have any Nintendo stories. That was a little before my time.
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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jared Keller

Littleton

Jared Keller has posted 44 blog entries and 57 comments since joining on 12/1/2005. Jared Keller 's average blog rating is 5.
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