Contra (arcade game)
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is an arcade game released in 1987 by the Konami corporation. The player controls a commando who battles waves of enemies including humans, machines, mutants and aliens to reach his ultimate goal. Much of the game's popularity came from its two-player simultaneous gameplay, which was an uncommon feature in video games at the time of Contra's release. While successful in the arcades, the game became and remained widely popular and remembered when it was ported to the Famicom and the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. The game has come to be known as the definitive run and gun type of shoot 'em up, and has established deep connections with geek culture.
Storyline
In the future, a meteor strikes Galuga, a (fictional) island off the coast of New Zealand, carrying with it a dormant alien lifeform. In 2633, the alien known as Red Falcon has emerged from hiding in order to conquer the world. Bill Rizer and Lance Bean travel to the South American island to stop the evil threat.In the early North American home versions, Bill was renamed as Mad Dog and Lance as Scorpian. The sci-fi setting was moved back in time to 1988 in the instruction manuals, and the setting was changed to South America, even though the futuristic presentation of the game stayed exactly the same.
Gameplay
The player's character is equipped with a semi-automatic machine gun with an unlimited amount of ammunition and can jump, move and fire in all four cardinal directions and all four ordinal directions. The protagonists can move and jump simultaneously while firing. Coordination of the character's movement is essential, as a single hit from any enemy, bullet, or other hazard will instantly kill the player's character and also discard the current weapon from the player's inventory. It is not unusual for the screen to be occupied with several enemies and dozens of bullets moving in different directions all at once in the game's five stages.
Multiplayer
Contra also features simultaneous two-player cooperative gameplay. Both players occupy the same screen and must coordinate their actions. One player lagging behind can cause problems for his partner, as the screen will not scroll onward. For example, a slow player can be fatal to his partner's attempt to complete a jump over a chasm. In the vertical levels, one player can scroll up far too quickly and inadvertently kill the other player in the process, as the other player would literally have the ground beneath him disappear.Levels and bosses
Contra has two different types of levels: scrolling and third-person. Furthermore, some of the scrolling levels are vertically oriented, while the majority scroll horizontally. The video game console versions had three additional levels. In the arcade version, the fifth level is an exceptionally long last level. The disparate elements of it were expanded in the console versions to form three additional levels.
- Stage 01: Jungle – Defensive Wall – (horizontal scrolling)
- Stage 02: Base 01 – Six turrets and alien gun – (third-person)
- Stage 03: Waterfall – Large Alien – (vertical scrolling)
- Stage 04: Base 02 – Six turrets and alien gun – (third-person)
- Stage 05: Snow Field – Robotic alien craft – (horizontal scrolling) (Ports only)
- Stage 06: Energy Zone – Large jumping guy – (horizontal scrolling) (Ports only)
- Stage 07: Hangar – Security system – (horizontal scrolling) (Ports only)
- Stage 08: Alien's Lair – Red Falcon – (horizontal scrolling)
Behind-the-player levels: The two Base levels take place in interior environments. Gameplay is shown from a behind-the-player third-person perspective, although all the gameplay mechanics are kept intact. Each level is composed of approximately five to six rooms. The goal of each room is to blow up the power-core which eliminates an electric field barrier that prevents the player(s) from proceeding. Initially, only a few enemies or stationary turrets are present. In later rooms gun emplacements must be defeated in order to uncover the room's core. Also Arkanoid like tubes will roll across the floor in different patterns, causing death to the player. Initial rooms only contain Powerups come in the form of a red soldier who will make repeated short jumps across the screen, from right to left. It is important to note the style of these stages was never duplicated in a later Contra game. The boss of each of these levels is the same; a six-cored boss that has a swarm of troops and turrets initially followed by an alien creature.
Weapon system
Special weapon power-ups can be collected to increase the speed, damage, or size of the player's shots. This can make for an easier time progressing through the game, but the caveat is that these power-ups are lost every time the player loses a life. Each power-up is represented by an icon, a red falcon. Most commonly powerups appear via flying 'baloons', but they also appear in fixed locations as metal boxes emblazened with the same logo. In the arcade version, the Machine Gun and Laser Gun are designed differently. The following is a list of Contra's power-ups as featured in the original game:
- Machine gun [M]: Allows players to fire repeatedly (rather than repeatedly pressing the button, as the default weapon requires).
- Spread gun [S]: Allows the player to fire five shots in an arc, which can be useful for dealing with large groups of enemies.
- Laser gun [L]: Will shoot a long laser that can take out many enemies in a row. However, only one laser can be on the screen at a time - the first will disappear when a new one is fired. Repetitive firing can create the same effect of a flamethrower.
- Fire Ball [F]: A gun which fires small fireballs in a corkscrew pattern.
- Rapid-fire [R]: Increases the firing rate of the player's currently equipped weapon.
- Barrier [B]: Will make the player invincible for a few seconds - though he can still lose a life by falling into a pit.
- Destroy all: Appearing as a grey falcon, this powerup acts as a super-bomb and will destroy all enemies on screen.
Ports
-->The original game was ported as Gryzor to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 by Ocean Software in 1988. It was also ported by Konami to the NES in 1988. This version is famed for its use of the Konami Code, and is sometimes wrongfully credited as being the first to use it (the NES version of Gradius was the actual originator of the code). The gameplay remained generally unchanged from the arcade game.
However, most fans consider the NES version to be superior due to its extended length by breaking the arcade's final level into three separate stages. It also benefited on a horizontal screen, which allowed a wider view of the playing field (the arcade game used a vertical screen instead).
Contra and its successors were heavily influenced by the action movies of the time, in particular Rambo and Aliens. The cover for the North American version of Contra resembles the cover for Predator. In the game, the character Bill is also a slightly transformed copy of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lance a slightly transformed copy of Sylvester Stallone.
Differences between arcade and home versions
- Screen orientation: The arcade version was designed as a conversion kit; one arcade machine able to use several different ROM sets. Vertical kits sold much better than horizontal kits. Thus, the arcade version was left in vertical orientation, while all console and home versions utilize a horizontal orientation. The vertical orientation does not give the player much time or room to react, and thus increases the difficulty slightly.
- Difficulty: The Nintendo versions of the game are much harder than its arcade counterpart, due to a combination of a horizontal screen orientation and bosses that do not take as much damage. The last boss on the Nintendo version takes twice as much damage before succumbing.
- Graphics and sound: The arcade version boasts much richer, colorful, and more detailed graphics. The same is true with the sound aspects, as the YM2151 sound chip allowed rich sound.
- Third-person levels: The Nintendo versions have longer interior levels.
- Waterfall level: In the arcade version, this level is shorter and has a slightly different boss.
- Levels 5-8: In the arcade version, there are only five levels. The last level is especially long. Upon conversion to home console, the elements of the last level were expanded to create three levels.
Japanese releases
In Japan, third-party developers of Famicom games were allowed to use their own custom chips, in addition to the standard ones given by Nintendo. This was in contrast to North America, where only Nintendo's first-party mappers were used. Konami took advantage of this situation by developing the Video Resource Chip (VRC) series of mappers for the Famicom. Contra made use of the VRC2 chip; its added effects are noticeable in comparison to the American NES version, with the presence of animated backgrounds with palm trees and snowfalls. The Famicom version also included additional cut-scenes between stages; a map displaying the player's progress and extended opening and ending scenes. These included a secret message after the closing credits, which served to narrate the game's storyline to the player. In contrast, the North American version had no in-game narrative at all.
Konami also released an MSX2 version of the game in Japan. While this version included several new stages, it has been criticized by fans. People have derided this port for its watered-down gameplay, addition of a health bar, lack of scrolling, limited number of enemies displayed simultaneously on-screen, substandard graphics, and most commonly, the lack of a two-player mode. The level structure of this port is also different from the original. There are many additional levels that are not present in the other version; four 3D view levels instead of two, two vertical scrolling cavern levels, two volcano levels, an enemy base (also with vertical scrolling), and another alien lair. However, the hangar zone from the original is not present.
European and Australian releases
The early console versions of Contra (and sequels to the console versions) were released as Probotector in Europe and Australia. In this version the two main characters (and many enemies) were changed to robots - despite the fact the original arcade version was released uncensored under the Gryzor title in those territories. One reason may be that Konami was concerned about worry over violent games in Europe; another theory is that they feared Germany's so-called "Bundesprüfstelle", an institution that watches newly released media to possibly forbid the selling of a game. In the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of games in which people are killed in order to progress (e.g. Rambo III), were added to an index that meant they were not allowed to be advertised or displayed in stores, and they could be only bought on request by people over 18 years old. Relegation to this index would have meant commercial disaster. Contra: Hard Corps for Mega Drive (known merely as Probotector) was the last Contra to be released under the Probotector label, while the next one in the series, Contra: Legacy of War, became the first one to remain as a Contra game.Legacy
The arcade version was followed by one sequel: Super Contra, in 1988.
The first level theme in the NES port of Contra remains one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music ever created. In the early 2000s, several bands starting performing live and studio renditions of the song. Minibosses covers the song along with several other classic tunes such as the theme from Metroid. A band has recently formed and started touring called Contraband; two of the members of the band play the NES version of Contra in a speed run fashion, while the other members of the band perform a live rendition of the song. A projector screen showing the gameplay action is superimposed on stage. [link]
Konami Code
The famous Konami Code that allows the player to receive 30 lives per continue goes as follows: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.
This code has become part of gamer culture, and is featured on t-shirts and in various songs, including the bands 8-Bit and YTCracker. The NESkimos also did a song that involved shouting the Contra Code. As listed above, Contra was not the first game to feature this famous code; it was actually the NES/Famicom port of Gradius, despite popular belief.
- In 8-bit's rap tribute to Nintendo games entitled Zelda the following lines referenced the game:
- "Whip in Contra/tear it apart/up up down down left right left right B A and start/"
External links
- [The Contra HQ]
- The [Contra Database]
- [Contra] at KLOV
- [Contraband - The Contra Cover Band]
- [Notes on the graphical design of Gryzor for the Amstrad CPC by artist Mark Jones]
- [Contra in 13 Minutes and Super C in 16 Minutes video walkthroughs]
- [Japanese page with information on the VRC2 chip and other Famicom/NES mmc's]
- [Contra Strategy Guide]
| Main series: Contra (arcade game)>Contra | Super Contra | Operation C | ' | ' | | Neo Contra |
| Retcon>Retconned games: Contra Force | ' | ' |
| See also: Run and gun > Konami | List of Konami games |
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