RIP The Man Behind The Konami Code

The name Kazuhisa Hashimoto may be lost to some folks, but a majority of old-school gamers may know of his landmark contribution: the Konami Code. The person behind the world’s most famous cheat code has passed away recently. He was 79.

This announcement was made by his friend Yuji Takenouchi, a veteran sound designer for games.

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The Konami Code, which is “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start” has been used by gamers to unlock Easter eggs and cheat codes to stand a fighting chance against certain titles like the NES version of Contra. The code was created in 1986 during Hashimoto’s time working on the NES port of Gradius. Pulling off the code basically gave you every power-up for your ship. Throughout the course of history, the code has been used to unlock fun secrets and tidbits in Konami titles, as well as making a huge dent in pop culture.

You will be missed, Kazuhisa Hashimoto. Thank you for giving us something to get by these difficult moments in game life.