Tag: NES

The Goonies on NES – A Childhood Treasure
Growing up, one of the most-played games of my childhood was The Goonies on the NES. At the time, I had no idea it was connected to a movie. To me, it was just this mysterious little game with unforgettable music and fun gameplay. Even now, whenever I hear that chiptune intro theme, I’m instantly brought back to being seven or eight years old, sitting in my living room with my cousins, taking turns until we finally beat it.

Konami developed and released the game in 1986, based on the 1985 movie. The strange part is that while the game came out on the Famicom in Japan, it never got a normal NES release in North America. Instead, many players only ever discovered the sequel, The Goonies II. But for me, this first game was the one that left a mark.

Controls and Objectives

The beauty of The Goonies is how simple it is to pick up and play. You move Mikey with the D-pad, jump with A, and attack or place bombs with B. Each level has a clear goal:
- Collect three keys to unlock the exit.
- Rescue a captured Goonie hidden somewhere in the stage.
- Survive enemies like bats, skeletons, rats, and of course the Fratellis.
That’s it — no long cutscenes, no walls of text, just pure action.

This is also why it feels perfect on the Miyoo Mini’s 2.8-inch screen. The game doesn’t rely on lots of text, so there’s nothing tedious to read. The NES’s simple A and B button layout matches the Miyoo Mini perfectly, making the game feel like it was made for handheld play.

The Nostalgia Factor

When I was a kid, I used to think the rats in this game were actually the size of children. They looked so huge and scary to me on the TV screen. Looking back, the graphics are pretty basic, but the way the game combined its music, enemies, and level design made it feel larger than life.

The difficulty also felt enormous at that age. What seems like a simple loop today — jump, bomb, collect, rescue — was one of the hardest games I had ever played as a kid. But that’s part of what made it so special.

And of course, what I remember most isn’t just the game itself but the feeling around it: the old TV buzzing in the living room, my cousins sitting beside me, all of us determined to beat the game together. That memory is what makes The Goonies stand out among all the other NES platformers.

Final Thoughts

Although there are many NES platformers that are just as good, or even better, The Goonies will always be one of my personal favorites. Not because it’s the most polished, but because it carries so many of my childhood memories.

I haven’t played The Goonies II, but for me, this first game feels just right. And playing it today on my Miyoo Mini is enough to keep that nostalgic spark alive. The Goonies is just one of many great platformers on the NES — but for me, it’s one of the most unforgettable.
12th Sep 2025
30 Lives Later: The Konami Code and My Contra Memories

If you grew up gaming in the late ’80s or early ’90s, chances are you’ve heard of the Konami Code. For many of us, it wasn’t just a cheat code—it was a rite of passage. And for me, it all started with a bottle of Coke, two packs of bubblegum, and a little red Famicom.

The Coke-and-Gum Deal That Changed Everything

Weekends at my house always meant Contra. My cousin and I would play for hours, but there was one problem—he was two years younger, and his hand-eye coordination was terrible. He’d blow through his two lives in minutes, then respawn using mine, and before long we’d both get wiped out at the dreaded waterfall stage.

This was the pre-internet era, when game secrets were traded like playground currency. One afternoon at a local “computer shop,” we noticed this one kid tearing through Contra like he had an infinite number of lives. No matter how many times he went down, he just kept coming back—calm, confident, unstoppable.

Naturally, we had to know his secret. After some bargaining, he finally agreed to share it—if we paid up. Our final offer? One cold bottle of Coke and two packs of bubblegum.

After our transaction, he pulled out a tiny folded scrap of paper covered in pencil marks. It read:

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

Turning Contra into Dark Souls?

We were broke after the bribe, so instead of playing at the shop, we sprinted home and fired up the red Famicom. After a few failed attempts, we finally nailed the input, and suddenly there it was—30 lives staring back at us on the screen.

In that moment, Contra wasn’t the same game anymore. It stopped being a careful, punishing platformer and turned into absolute madness. We weren’t just trying to beat levels—we were seeing who could pull off the craziest stunts or rack up the dumbest “epic death.” Looking back, it felt like we’d turned Contra into the Dark Souls of dumb fails, and the funny part there was we loved every minute of it.

From Test Tool to Gaming Icon

The Konami Code wasn’t meant to be legendary. Developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto originally created it in 1986 while testing Gradius on the Famicom. He added extra lives to make debugging easier and forgot to remove the code before release. Konami decided to leave it in, and before long it became a running tradition in their games.

Contra made the code famous, but it popped up in all kinds of Konami titles—Castlevania, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Metal Gear—and later escaped gaming altogether, appearing in websites, TV shows, and even Fortnite.

A Cheat Code That Became a Memory

Decades later, the Konami Code is more than a set of button presses—it’s a piece of gaming history. For retro gamers, it’s a badge of honor, a reminder of a time when secrets spread by word of mouth, scraps of paper, or in my case, a Coke-and-gum trade.

For me, the Konami Code will always bring back that memory: two broke kids, a red Famicom, and the day we discovered that 30 lives could turn a tough-as-nails shooter into the most fun chaos we’d ever had.

2nd Sep 2025