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Twenty-five years after Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness launched for Nintendo 64, someone has discovered a new Konami code lurking within — and it’s a pretty useful one.
Found by two fans on the Castlevania 64 speedruns Discord server, this code unlocks all characters, plus their alternate costumes, plus a hard mode, on the spot. Previously, fans earned these unlocks after beating the game twice.

But wait, there’s more. The fans also discovered another two cheat codes very helpful to one’s playthrough, especially if it’s a speedrun. One code completely fills the player’s inventory, no matter what character they are using, and another only for the Japanese NTSC and PAL versions max out their weapons’ power and give them a max number of jewels. Players have since tweaked the game’s code to make them available in their versions, although some report minor bug issues.
YouTuber JupiterClimb has all of the details, including how to access the codes, the video above. But the content unlock code is pretty simple; it’s basically inputing the classic Konami Code (for Nintendo 64) twice at the game start menu.
See for yourself in this condensed video posted to X:

New KONAMI CODE discovered after 25 years!!
In Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, you can unlock all characters and costumes from the start: pic.twitter.com/ZkueeXCNeb
— JupiterClimb (@JupiterClimb) April 15, 2024

History of the Konami Code
Originally a development tool for the 1986 home port of Gradius, the Konami Code has been used  in console games (by publishers other than Konami, too) for nearly 40 years. Sometimes, it’s a developer secret and sometimes it’s used as a deliberate Easter egg for players to find.
Creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto, who died in 2020, said he used it because he hadn’t played much Gradius in the first place, and was having a tough time beating it when developing the home port.
Probably its most well known use came in 1988’s NES port of Contra, where it granted players 30 extra lives, indispensable for the notoriously challenging run-and-gun platformer.
Featured Image via Ideogram
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Fallout is, to put it mildly, having a bit of a moment. The success of the Amazon TV show has prompted a huge wave of players to install (or reinstall) the most recent Fallout game to continue to enjoy the unique ambiance of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Fallout 4 has seen a 538% increase in concurrent players on Steam since the launch of the show.
What’s that? Yes, Fallout 4, which came out in 2015, is the most recent Fallout game (Fallout 76, which is also seeing a boom in players, is more recent with a 2018 release date but is considered a spin-off rather than a main series game). Surely then, Fallout 5 must be due any minute?
When will Fallout 5 be released?
Bethesda keeps its cards close to its chest when it comes to release dates and game announcements. Last year during an interview for Starfield’s release, famed director of Bethesda Game Studios Todd Howard said that Fallout 5 would be “after Elder Scrolls 6, at some point in the future.”

It’s not a lot to go on, but it does at least confirm that another entry in the franchise is coming. It’s also a starting point for some deductions.
Now that Starfield is in the rearview mirror barring the regular updates to tweak and fix issues in the game, Bethesda can move their focus onto Elder Scroll 6. Last year it was confirmed by Spanish site Vandal (translated by Google) in an interview with Peter Hines, Bethesda’s head of publishing, that the fantasy epic is in early development, but it will still be years before we start hearing about it.
Information from the FTC vs. Microsoft lawsuit also shed some light on the status of the game, with documents showing that The Elder Scrolls 6 won’t be released until at least 2026. The filings also confirmed something long-rumored – The Elder Scrolls 6, and therefore probably future Bethesda games, won’t be available on PlayStation at launch.
We know the way that Bethesda focuses on their games one at a time that once focus shifts to Skyrim’s sequel, there won’t be much, if any, concurrent development of a new Fallout game alongside it. So several years until TES6 and then…several more until Fallout 5. Time to release that breath you’ve been holding, it is likely to be 2030 before we see a new Fallout game. Unless…
What about Microsoft?
It’s true that Microsoft now owns Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax. Is Microsoft content to let the opportunity of Fallout’s cultural resurgence pass them by, with no new game to capitalize on the hype? So far they’ve been content to let their acquired studios operate fairly autonomously, but surely someone there has noticed that they also own Obsidian, creators of the most popular Fallout spin-off, Fallout: New Vegas.
So while it will be years before we get a new main series Fallout game, there’s the outside chance that Microsoft will wield the power of its many acquisitions to create a spin-off. This is pure speculation.
So what do we actually know about Fallout 5?
Realistically, the only thing we can say right now is that Fallout 5 will happen. At some point. Probably not for the PlayStation. Bethesda is cagey at best and reluctant to give anything away about a game planned for so far in the future.
If you’re itching for a Fallout fix, reinstall Fallout 4. If you feel like you need to revamp the experience, check out the best Fallout 4 mods for console and PC to change things up as you like. And don’t hold your breath for Fallout 5 news.
Featured image credit: Bethesda
The post Fallout 5 release: What, if anything, do we know so far? appeared first on ReadWrite.

The latest version of Genshin Impact will soon be upon us – tomorrow in fact (April 24th) and as ever there will be a period of downtime for maintenance, which will hopefully go better than EA FC and Fortnite’s recent big maintenance updates did.
You can get ahead of the Genshin Impact 4.6 game though by pre-installing the hefty update before the server starts to take its regular battering when they come back on.
You may not know you can pre-load the update ahead of time, and if that is the case, we will explain how to do that for you here, along with giving you all the information need about how much storage space you are going to require as well as the times you can expect the game to actually be down while the update is complete at the server end.
When is the Genshin Impact 4.6 Update?
Starting at 6:00 UTC on April 24th we can expect the update to take between five and six hours if the usual format is followed. This means the gamer should be back online before midday UTC.
Genshin Impact 4.6 download size
There is nothing worse than having to grab a large download at the same time as millions of other players, no matter how good the servers might be.
There is a pre-installation resource package you can download to get ahead of the game and size-wise, according to HoYoLab, “The pre-installation resource package size for PCs will be between 28.72–36.2 GB. The pre-installation resource package size for mobile devices will be between 8.57–9.9 GB (the voice-over files installed will affect the size of the space required for pre-installation).
How to pre-install Genshin Impact 4.6
If you want to skip the above-mentioned download slog you can pre-install Genshin Impact regardless of what device you are playing on. Here’s how.
PC
Open the PC game client and look for the left side of the Launch button. You should see a Pre-Installation Function button which you can hit to pre-install your download.
Mobile
Again, launch the client either on you iOS or Android. At the bottom corner of the menu, you should see a Pre-Installation Resource Package option which you can select and start your download early.
The post Genshin Impact 4.6 – release date, how to pre-install, download size and downtime appeared first on ReadWrite.