Konamideveloper Kazuhisa Hashimoto, and the creator of the world-famous cheat code, has passed away. In an announcement on Twitter, friend and formerKonamicolleague Yuji Takenouchi shared the news of Hashimoto passing late February 25th, 2020. Takenouchi added that he hoped that Hashimoto will, “keep making games in heaven.”
Joining Konami in 1981, Hashimoto had a hand in developing games likeSnatcher, Gradius, Life Force,andISS. In 1985, while working on porting the popular gameGradiusonto the NES from the arcade version, Hashimoto realized thatthe game was too hard. In an effort to help speed up the testing process, Hashimoto developed what is now more commonly known as the “Konami Code.” By putting in the series of, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start” Hashimoto was able to make the game easier and achieve all power-ups.
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In 1986 whenGradiuswas released the code was never removed as developers feared that deleting it would break the game. The code caught on and became popularized throughContra, a notoriously hard game. Entering the code into theContrastart screen would give players 30 lives, as opposed to the typical 3, and became known as both the “30 Lives Code,” and the “Contra Code.”
Since then the code has been used in several games likeMetal Gear Solid,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,Castlevania, and evenDance Dance Revolution. But the code doesn’t appear only in video games. There are several references in TV shows, movies, and even websites. The code was even found inan old Fisher-Price toy controller that would sing “You win!“There’s no denying that the legend of the Konami Code still lives on in more than just the games of yesteryear.
Hashimoto’s passing comes as yet more terrible news forKonami as it has been struggling with a recent dip in global salesand having to cancel several events due to the outbreak of the recent Coronavirus. With the remake ofSilent Hillclose at hand, it is possible that Konami will pay some kind of tribute to Hashimoto in the game. Hopefully, the Konami Code will be implemented in the horror game just to make things a little easier for players.
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