KonamiThe man who created the world’s most famous cheat code has died.
Kazuhisa Hashimoto, most known for creating the Konami Code, passed away at the age of 79, according to a Twitter announcement by his friend Yuji Takenouchi.
The announcement, roughly translated into English, reads: ‘Programmer Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the creator of the Konami command ‘Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Left and Right BA’, died last night. We pray for the souls.’
コナミコマンド「上上下下左右左右BA」の生みの親であるプログラマーの橋本和久さんが、昨夜、亡くなられたとのこと。ご冥福をお祈りいたします。
— TECHNOuchi ♓️🅰 (@TECHNOuchi) February 26, 2020
The Konami Code – which some gamers will know simply as up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A – has been used by gamers to unlock Easter eggs since it was developed in 1986.
It first came into fruition during the development of Konami’s flagship scrolling shooter Gradius, after Takenouchi realised it was too difficult to play.
However, he actually forgot to remove the infamous code, and soon gamers realised that if you paused the game and entered the code, every power up became theirs.
Hashimoto considered removing the cheat, but developers worried it would break the game – so the cheat code remained in place.
RIP Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the creator of the Konami Code.
May he enjoy his full power ups and 30-lives in heaven.https://t.co/00cniK6BPu
— HF (RMDL) (@RMDL_Comic) February 26, 2020
Speaking about the creation of the code in 2003, Hashimoto said, as per Nintendolife:
I had one guy under me, and he played through the coin-op version. That one’s really tough. I hadn’t played that much and obviously couldn’t beat it myself, so I put in the Konami Code [laughs].
Rest in peace, Kazuhisa.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.