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

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.

Comments

No

[Anonymous Coward]

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:No

[CanadianRealist]

We use letter size paper because we use it to write letters. Who ever heard of someone writing an A4?

The L'Assomption sash pattern is not Metis

[Quietti]

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.

Rendering

[darkain]

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.