News
Konami Code Creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto Passes Away
posted on by Alex Mateo
Konami Kukeiha Club member and video game composer Yuji Takenouchi, or TECHNOuchi, revealed on Twitter on Wednesday that Kazuhisa Hashimoto, creator of the Konami Code, passed away on Tuesday. He was 61.
Hashimoto was a producer who worked on the NES version of Konami's Gradius game, which launched in 1986. Hashimoto found Gradius too difficult during game testing, so he added a code that would grant the player power-ups. The cheat code became known as the "Konami Code." Konami has since used the same specific button combination (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start) in many of its games, including the Contra, Castlevania, Dance Dance Revolution, and Metal Gear game series. The code has different effects in each game.
Sources: Konami's Twitter account, TECHNOuchi's Twitter account via Hachima Kikо̄
