You remember the ol' Konami Code, right? In case you've forgotten, it's:

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

And it's used in lots of Konami-branded games.

Like the arcade game compilation Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced, which has five old-school arcade games for you to test your mettle in. Complete with original graphics and sound!

But, go to the title screen of your favorite game and put in The Code and you'll hear a sound

And when you start the game, behold!

Better Graphics for you! And this works for all the games in the compilation.

Except for Rush 'n Attack, the graphics stay the same, but you get more lives to play with

Which is probably more useful in that game anyway.

Life Force is the sequel to Gradius, so you might assume that our old friend the Konami Code would also work with this game.

And you'd be right.

Normally, you start the game with three ships.

But, if you go to the title screen.

Put in the famous button sequence

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

And then begin your game, you'll have increased your fleet tenfold

And if you have two players, hit Select before Starting your game to give both of you the battalion of ships.

And good luck! You'll need it!

It's been a while since we talked about the ol' Konami Code. But it makes appearances in more than just video games, believe it or not.

Take Google's RSS reader, cleverly named Google Reader. If you log in, you'll see the sites you're following on the left-hand side. If you put in the Konami Code (using the arrow keys for the directions and the A and B keys for A and B):

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Then your background will turn into this:

What's the significance? Probably nothing other than at least one of the people working on the Reader is a video game fan. And that, in itself, is pretty awesome.

I've been thinking about Zombie Nation lately (no, not that Zombie Nation, the other one). It's pretty tough, but you have one secret weapon up your sleeve... if your character had sleeves, that is.

When you run low on health

Pause the game and put in the ol' Konami Code, even though Konami had nothing to do with this game

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start

Unpause, and you'll have full health!

But, beware, this can only be done one time across all of your continues, so make sure you really need it before you do it.

You might remember that Contra was one of the myriad games that the famous Konami Code works on.

So you might logically deduce that the code works on its sequel, Super C as well.

So you go to the title screen

and put in the code

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start

And nothing happens. It turns out that the famous code doesn't actually do anything in this game.

But!

While you're at the title screen you could press instead

Right, Left, Down, Up, A, B, Start

Then you'd have 10 lives to work with instead of 3

Which isn't as helpful as 30, but I'll take what I can get.

Also, if you have two players, you might want to hit Select before you hit Start. That way you both can benefit.

It's Konami code time again! You know, that mysterious code that is in a ton of games, and rumored to be in a ton more?

Well here's another one.

In Contra, you take one of two shirtless commandos up against an army of alien invaders. Don't let the title screen fool you, they take those tank tops off when they head in to the field of battle.

But, while you're looking at the title screen, after it finishes sliding in from the right and before the music stops playing, put in the ol' Konami Code.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start

If you're playing with two players, you might want to press Select before you press Start, so you both get some love.

Done correctly and quickly enough and...

30 lives! Which is great since your guys are incredibly fragile. Which you would think might make them a poor choice for going up against a few thousand heavily armed (and armored) foes, but maybe they like a challenge?

Gradius 3 is a whole lot like the first Gradius game. So you might think that you can use the old Konami Code to get a munitions boost like you did in the earlier game. So you pause the game, put in the code

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

and notice how you get all the powerups, just like before, only when you unpause the game:

Your ship explodes!

Harsh.

I guess it's kind of an acknowledgment of the old code or something.

But, you can slightly modify the code. Instead of pressing Left and Right on the control pad, you can press the L and R shoulder buttons on the controller.

Up, Up, Down, Down, L, R, L, R, B, A

Which will have a similar effect as the original code did for the original game.

And, just like the original code, you can only do it once per credit, so choose wisely.

Gradius is pretty tough, mostly because your ship can only take one hit before it explodes. You can collect these orangey powerup things, though, and make your ship more maneuverable, get extra firepower, and get some shielding up.

But there's an easier way.

Just pause the game anywhere

Then put in the Konami Code:

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Then unpause the game and you'll have some speed powerups, some Options (those orange things following you around), missiles, and a shield.

Just make sure you don't lose once you put the code in, since you can only do it once per game.