Spend lives · play with them
Every controller here has a story. Earn one with lives and play the code with it.
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA began in 1986 as a Konami programmer's private shortcut, became the "30 lives" code in Contra, and escaped onto the web. Four moments, from a test cheat to a signature hidden on sites everywhere.
The controller you pick is the one you play with: on a touchscreen it becomes your on-screen pad, and its picture sits next to your name on the boards. Tap Use it to switch to one you own, or Buy to unlock a new one with lives.
Everything you find, kept
Everything you uncover in The Code is kept here. Code and codex are the same word, from the Latin for a block of wood people wrote on.
Pay what you want
It keeps the game free and the studio map growing. It buys nothing in the game. Lives are never sold.
Fastest codes · longest chains · most lives
Every run earns 30 lives, +1 for each extra code in a chain (up to +30), +10 under a second.
Keyboard vs mouse vs touch vs controller
This is a test. The rules, the scores and the map may change or be wiped at any time.
Which way of playing is best? One world, four sides. Every life you spend paints a square for your side and pulls the bar your way. The 16 regions are named after places in classic games.
Loud, precise and proud of it. The input computers were born with, and where most people first typed the code into a browser.
Point, click, conquer. It started as Douglas Engelbart's wooden box in 1968 and became the sharpest aim in gaming.
The side in everyone's pocket. Glass has no buttons, so every tap is a little leap of faith.
The side the code was born on: a Famicom pad, 1986. Thumbs on the d-pad, a little help from aim assist and no apologies.
The Code · you've been recruited
Keyboard vs mouse vs touch vs controller. Which way of playing is best? Every life you spend paints one square of the world for your side.
Your side is whatever you enter the code with. Enter it here, on a keyboard, with a mouse, a finger or a gamepad:
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
Player
Up to 8 characters. It goes on the scoreboard and every square you paint.
You spent all your lives in the Input Wars.
CONTINUE?