Kazuhisa Hashimoto, creator of the Konami Code, has passed away at the age of 61. A producer and programmer who worked at Konami and developed the majority of his titles throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Hashimoto was most known for his contribution to the gaming world with the invention of the famous “Konami Code.” This 10 input-long code could be performed on controllers in certain games to grant access to cheats that would help players during gameplay. Hashimoto first created it during the testing phase of the port of Gradius to the NES due to the game’s severe difficulty.
Since its creation, the Konami Code has become a pop-culture reference in the gaming community. Hashimoto used the code again in sequels to Gradius and other subsequent releases, leaving its functionality in the game like a on-going Easter egg hunt, so that players could use it to their advantage. This led to other companies implementing the Konami Code within their own titles. Thirty years after its advent, modern games still employ the use of the Konami Code like in Rocket League and BioShock Infinite. It has risen further into relevance over time with references all over the place like Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, Apple’s digital assistant Siri, and even a Fischer-Price toy controller.
As reported by PlayStationLifestyle, Yuji Takenouchi, Japanese composer/sound designer and former colleague of Hashimoto, announced today his passing on Twitter. A rough translation of the post reads “Programmer Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the creator of the Konami command ‘up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, BA’, died last night.” As deaths of industry legends become more frequent such as Ralph Baer, Satoru Iwata, and now Hashimoto, it marks the end of an era in video games as we know it.
After its birth, the code was found more frequently throughout difficult games of the 3rd and 4th console generations. Several popular series to use the code (and require to enjoy for some people) were Contra, Castlevania, Gradius, and Life Force. Without the Konami Code to help give 30 lives in Contra, most people may never have beaten the game with the standard 3 lives given.
In a time where games’ difficulties can be custom tailored to everyone’s unique skill levels, and even have Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment systems that change real-time based on a user’s performance like in Mario Kart games, it is amusing to recall retro games that were nearly impossible to beat without developer implemented cheats. There is only appreciation for the man who, during his one life, gave us all extra lives to enjoy some of the hardest games of the ’80s and decades to come.
Next: Netflix’s Castlevania: 10 Easter Eggs Referencing Konami’s Video Games
Source: Twitter (via PlayStationLifestyle)
