NES Flash Drive Uses Konami-Level Security

An NES controller converted into a flash drive uses Konami-level security.

Every day there's always news of a cool USB gadget that makes regular store-bought drives taste as boring as boiled chicken. Today we spotted a converted NES controller, created by "one man shop" ProtoDojo, called the Retro GamerDrive. According to the website, the "developer" came across the old console collecting dust in the garage and decided to create a few projects with the hardware rather than selling the system on eBay.

"At first, I simply wanted to turn the controller into a flash drive and be one of the thousands of videos and blogs of people turning everyday objects into external memory, but ever since I got my first arduino working, I’ve been itching to do something different," he said. "I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to add a security feature that required someone to enter the classic contra “30 lives” code before they could access the data?"

That's right: to unlock this flash drive, users must be know the infamous "Konami Code," a cheat code that appears in many Konami games (and some non-Konami titles). Although the NES version of Contra made the code famous (aka the "30 Lives Code"), it originally appeared in Gradius for the NES back in 1986. The Konami Code is now also used to put a Palm webOS device into developer mode.

"In practice, I’m not sure if this security feature is practical, but it’s pretty fun!" he said. "There’s nothing like entering the classic Konami code on the original NES controller!"