Legendary Producer and Creator of the Konami Code Passes Away

Whether you gamed in the 80’s, 90’s or even the 2010’s, the chances are that you’ve heard of the Konami Cheat Code.  For many of us, this code was forever implanted in our minds as it was used for a vast number of classic Konami games such as Gradius, Contra, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Silent Hill and much more.  The code is that famous, that other games outside of Konami also used the cheat code with the likes of Bioshock Infinite, Fortnite, LittleBigPlanet 2, the list goes on and on.

Sadly, the creator of the Konami Code, Kazuhisa Hashimoto has passed away at the age of 61.  Hashimoto-san was also a talented producer/developer, who also worked on Gradius, Contra as well as the Metal Gear series with Hideo Kojima to name but a few.  The Konami Code was originally created to aid Hashimoto during the development of Gradius, due to NES port being so difficult, he created the code to provide himself with some much needed power-ups.

Konami shared the news of Hashimoto’s passing with a statement on their social media channels “We are saddened to hear about the passing of Kazuhisa Hashimoto, a deeply talented producer who first introduced the world to the “Konami Code”. Our thoughts are with Hashimoto-san’s family and friends at this time. Rest in Peace.”

I think you’ll share our condolences here at Push-Start where our thoughts are with all the family and friends of Kazuhisa Hashimoto, and we’d like to thank you for the 30 extra lives that you gave us in Contra and so much more.  Rest in Peace.