Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the former Konami employee who created the Konami Code (Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A and start), passed away at the age of 61. In the NES home version of Contra (1988), the code allowed the player to obtain 30 free lives. The first game in which the Konami Code featured was 1985's Gradius.