Yao Ming: A True Konami Gamer

As a kid growing up, I used to watch a lot of cartoons like the Transformers, Visionaries, Dino Riders, and Ghostbusters back then. After cartoons, I shifted my attention to reading Marvel Comics like the X-Men penciled by Jim Lee and the New Warriors. But before I veered away from comic books, I used to play my Zelda Nintendo Game and Watch a lot. After that, I also got to convince my dad to buy me the original Gameboy haldheld device during one of his business trips in Hongkong. I still vividly remember that we bought it in a Watson’s outlet. During that time, I got into playing video games so much and one of the best video game creators back then was Konami. In my mind, Konami always creates the best video games in the market.

The games they make always became fan favorites. Great titles like Contra, Gradius, Parodius, Castlevania, and their franchise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are known to many gamers to this day, and Konami developed all of them. The games they were made always unique, fun, and often let the game players explore secrets and surprises hidden within those gaming gems.

Aside from the great games, Konami also created a unique cheat code, also known as the Konami code. Almost every hard core gamer knew about this code because by implementing it on Konami games enables different positive results like cheats, bonuses, certain advantages, etc. Level skips, multiple power ups all-at-once, infinite lives, you name them. It’s still at the top of my head. You press the following buttons on the control pad: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start.

No wonder a guy who’s of my generation, the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming, would know of this code. He probably spent a lot of time playing Konami games back then, when he wasn’t practicing his basketball skills on the court. Yes, Yao is indeed an intelligent man and have good memory. It’s truly one of the best memories of childhood that gamers like us will cherish.

(via Yahoo! Sports)

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