Kazuhisha Hashimoto, the legendary videogames coder and developer who created the ubiquitous Konami code, has passed away. He was 61.
Hashimoto’s former colleague Yuji Takenouchi broke the sad news on Twitter on 27 February.
In the tweet, the composer notes Hashimoto’s passing and says he hopes the developer continues to “keep making games in heaven.”
For those not aware, once the code (up up, down down, left right, left right, B A, start) was entered in any game by Konami, it would provide the player with things like extra lives.
Hashimoto first implemented the code in the NES version of Gradius, which was found to be too difficult for most players during playtesting.
“I hadn’t played that much and obviously couldn’t beat it myself, so I put in the Konami Code,” Hashimoto said in an interview about the code.
“Because I was the one who was going to be using it, I made sure it was easy to remember.”
The code has a life beyond games, however, as a pop cultural artifact. It has been included in websites, films, cartoons, and even a bank promo.
Putting the code into the Bank of Canada’s website (launched to mark the introduction of a new $10 note) caused confetti to fall on screen.
A toy controller issued by Fisher Pikel for children has a special sound effect that can only be activated by putting the code in.
The code also works on Buzzfeed.
