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Canada Programming The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

Canada Hid the Konami Code In Its Commemorative $10 Bill Launch (engadget.com) 78

Posted by BeauHD from the patriotic-surprise dept.
The Bank of Canada has hid a "Konami Code" Easter egg on its website celebrating their new $10 bank note. The Konami Code is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, allowing players to press a sequence of buttons on their game controller to enable the cheat. "The Bank of Canada's web team thought the Konami code [Easter egg] was a fun way to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation," Bank of Canada spokeswoman Josianne Menard told CTV news. Engadget reports: On top of being laden with anti-counterfeiting tech that makes it extremely difficult to copy (holograms, raised ink, color-changing images and polymer materials), the new ten is a who's who and what's what of Canadian history. It features Canada's founding Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, Agnes Macphail, first woman parliamentarian, and Indigenous peoples pioneer James Gladstone, known in his Blackfoot language as Akay-na-muka. It also shows Canada's prairies, the coastal mountains of British Columbia, the Canadian Shield, Atlantic coast, northern lights, Metis Assomption Sash, maple leaf and much more (no poutine, though). All of that is squeezed on the 152.4 x 69.85 mm note -- that's exactly 6 x 2.75 inches, because Canada uses the metric system but probably still buys its printing presses from the U.S. The Konami code is in keeping with Canada's tradition of doing cute, pop-culture things with its history.
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Canada Hid the Konami Code In Its Commemorative $10 Bill Launch More

Canada Hid the Konami Code In Its Commemorative $10 Bill Launch

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  • No posts yet? Did everyone actually rush to the page to try and enter the code?
  • But is there room for its Denomination?
    • Yes - 150 is displayed nicely in the middle of the transparent window! ;-)

    • If you had just looked at the picture you'd have seen that it's purple, i.e. it's a $10.

      (Sure, there's plenty of room for the denomination. It's there in large print twice on each of the front and back, spelled out in both languages on the front and there are multiple small "10"s on both sides of the bill as well as well as braille. But like I said, it's purple!)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )
        I'm from 'Merica. If it ain't green, it ain't money!

        Unless it's solid gold, I'm good with that, too. And once we're back on the gold standard, all will be right with the world.

        I jest, but it is increasingly disappointing, as someone from the United States, that we cling to the notion that paper currency must be of uniform size and color. Varying size and color by denomination is a sensible feature that 1) makes it easier to identify notes, particularly if you are blind and 2) makes it a lot harde

        • I like our colourful bills, very easy to identify - to the point that it's not even necessary to look at the number on them. I think I would find different sizes annoying - just try gathering up pieces of paper of different sizes and pile them neatly. Maybe different textures for the blind? (I just realized that my original statement about braille was incorrect. There are raised dots, but there are differing numbers of blocks of six raised dots.)

          The plastic seems durable, and allows for transparent areas.

          • When currency becomes a work of art, then people tend to adjust. I'm thinking that holders of this $10 bill will be inclined to not spend it, but just enjoy its beauty.

  • No (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 11, 2017 @06:16PM (#54217925)

    The note isn't that size because we buy printing presses from the US.

    It's that size because it's been that size since before the metric system was introduced to Canada and we aren't particularly interested in buying new wallets.

    Same reason why Canada still uses letter size paper. It fits our binders and filing cabinets.

    Also the same reason Canada still uses AWG (though the code books pretend we don't) and our lumber is sold by the inch (or foot). Etc, etc.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mark-t ( 151149 )
      A4 is only 6mm wider than Letter and about 2cm shorter. It fits just fine in North American binders as long as the holes are punched at the correct spacing.

      • so it's a quarter inch too wide and 3/4 of an inch too short; it's the wrong fucking size. fucking eurotrash frankenpaper!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mark-t ( 151149 )
          Actually I had the dimensions reversed but I only realized after hitting submit. A4 is slightly narrower and taller but it still definitely fits in most North American binders just fine.

          • being serious thing time, the extra length of 8.27 Ã-- 11.69 might be problematic in flexible binders which have rather tight dimensions, or what would happen if wanting to make copies from that to "standard" U.S. 8.5x11"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fiziko ( 97143 )

        And hole punches that size aren't for sale because the demand isn't there. There is no compelling reason for the market to shift. Starting from scratch, the A1/2/3/4/... system makes much more sense, and not just because folding A3 in half gives you A4, etc. Transitioning the entire country involves huge costs, so there's no great incentive to make the investment.

    • You haven't gotten a new wallet since the 1970's...
      Are ya loonie?

    • Re:No (Score:4, Funny)

      by CanadianRealist ( 1258974 ) on Tuesday April 11, 2017 @08:52PM (#54218813)
      We use letter size paper because we use it to write letters. Who ever heard of someone writing an A4?

  • Why did they include Agnes McPhail and not Emily Murphy?
    Emily Murphy was the first female magistrate in the entire British Empire.
    She was also the one who got the court ruling that women were declared to legally be "persons" under Canadian law.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      "Why did they include Agnes McPhail and not Emily Murphy?"

      Seems like a weird thing to nit pick about.

      Maybe because she advocated Eugenics and compulsory sterilization?

      Or maybe because she's one of the Famous Five, and was already present on the 2004 to 2011 Fifty?

  • The L'Assomption sash pattern is not Metis (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Quietti ( 257725 ) on Tuesday April 11, 2017 @06:27PM (#54217971) Journal
    The l'Assomption sash pattern was brought by Acadians to the town of L'Assomption QC when they were deported from Acadia by the Brits. It was indeed widely adopted by the Metis later on. In modern times, that particular pattern, know as lightning and flames, has become the emblem of the Lanaudière region.
  • It's not hidden or an Easter egg if they fucking blab about doing it. Easter eggs are things programmers sneak in that no one finds or notices. This reeks of some inane committee decision on how to appear hip but comes off kitschy because it was a deliberate marketing stunt.

    If you wanted a useful story why not ask users about fun Easter eggs or secrets they've stumbled across over the years. Instead we get this TMZ-esque shit.

  • Rendering (Score:5, Interesting)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Tuesday April 11, 2017 @06:40PM (#54218047) Homepage

    I was actually much more impressed with their 3d rendering of the $10 bill on their web site than with the code being there. Their renderer at first I thought was just a nifty spinning flat texture, pretty simple. But if you spin it faster, force is applied to the bill and it starts to bend. A little less simple, but it visually and feels quite nice. Plus the rendering of the holographic material actually looks quite nice on the page, too.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Celebrate the birth of Canada with a cheat code from a Japanese company. Yep, sounds like stupid gamers to me.

      • The Canadian Economy is almost entirely shipping raw materials to American factories, and banks that support shipping raw materials to American Factories. Seriously, that describes 49 of the top 50 Candian companies. There's nothing Canadian and memorable to put on the bill. Were you expecting a "Little Mosque on the Prairie" reference?

        • Which bugs me no end. By population we're 1/10th the size of the USA. We have ports on both coasts, rail infrastructure between, and international airports.

          There's no reason we can't process more of our own raw materials into final product and a larger share of the economic benefit here.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mark-t ( 151149 )
      I can only assume that the surgery required to remove that stick from your anal cavity was unsuccessful. How unfortunate that you appear to have become acclimated to it.

    • I got a chuckle from it. It's the kind of silly thing Google would do (though Google would be smart enough to be paid by the company selling the game).

      The thing is, a national currency isn't supposed to be funny and cute, it's supposed to be reliable, steady, trustworthy. Other countries hold $4.5 trillion in USD as their "rainy day funds" because they trust the US dollar, they have confidence that the US government isn't going to play games with the currency. This is essentially an interest-free loan to th

  • Very nice idea that bring attention too that historic milestone.

  • because Canada uses the metric system but probably still buys its printing presses from the U.S.

    Or maybe, just maybe it's the entire infrastructure of automated bill-handling equipment, including vending machines?

    But I'm sure it will grief some neatfreak crack dealer who feels compelled to store giant mountains of bills in his metric utility room—no wait, Canada still uses two-by-fours (for which neither dimension is a round number in any system of measurement) and 16" stud centers.

  • Meh. They should have a cheat code on the note itself. Punch it in and it doubles in value, or something,

  • Canada's government is hemorrhaging money, and now they are wasting money on designing new commemorative money.

  • It must be the code they use to print infinite money/debt!

  • I know what the cheat code is: Show me the money [ign.com].

  • Canada's currency is already the world's dorkiest, with its plastic material, transparent windows and holograms everywhere.

    Yeah because using the polymer that much of the world is transitioning to due to its far better durability, and anti-counterfieting features like windows and holograms which have proven widely successful elsewhere and were invtended elsewhere really makes Canada's currency "dorky".

    Hey engadget if you want to capture a viewers attention, not starting with an insult and an incredible display of ignorance would be a good start.

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