Konami developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto, and the creator of the world-famous cheat code, has passed away. In an announcement on Twitter, friend and former Konami colleague 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 like Snatcher, Gradius, Life Force, and ISS. In 1985, while working on porting the popular game Gradius onto the NES from the arcade version, Hashimoto realized that the 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.
In 1986 when Gradius was released the code was never removed as developers feared that deleting it would break the game. The code caught on and became popularized through Contra, a notoriously hard game. Entering the code into the Contra start 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 like Metal Gear Solid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Castlevania, and even Dance 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 in an 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 for Konami as it has been struggling with a recent dip in global sales and having to cancel several events due to the outbreak of the recent Coronavirus. With the remake of Silent Hill close 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.
Sources: IGN, Mental Floss