Tai Game Contra
Elvina Cannizzaro
Contra[a] is a run and gun video game developed and published by Konami, originally developed as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1986[5][6] and released on February 20, 1987.[7][8] A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various home computer formats, including the MSX2. The arcade and computer versions were localized as Gryzor in Europe, and the NES version as Probotector in PAL regions and France.
The arcade game was a commercial success worldwide, becoming one of the top four highest-grossing dedicated arcade games of 1987 in the United States. The NES version was also a critical and commercial success, with Electronic Gaming Monthly awarding it for being the Best Action Game of 1988. Several Contra sequels were produced following the original game.
Contra employs a variety of playing perspectives, which include a standard side view, a pseudo-3D view (in which the player proceeds by shooting and moving towards the background, in addition to left or right) and a fixed screen format (in which the player has their gun aimed upwards by default). Up to two people can play simultaneously, with one player as Bill (the blond-haired commando wearing a white tank top and blue bandana), and the other player as Lance (the shirtless dark-haired commando with a red bandana).
The controls consists of an eight-way joystick and two action buttons for shooting (left) and jumping (right). When one of the protagonists jumps, he curls into a somersault instead of doing a conventional jump like in other games. The joystick controls not only the player's movement while running and jumping, but also his aiming. During side view stages, the player can shoot leftward, rightward or upward while standing, as well as horizontally and diagonally while running. The player can also shoot in any of eight directions, including downwards, while jumping. Pressing the joystick downwards while standing will cause the character to lie down on his stomach, allowing him to avoid enemy fire and shoot low targets. When the jump button is pressed while crouching on a higher platform, the character will drop down to a lower level.
The player's default weapon is a rifle with unlimited ammunition that can be upgraded into one of four other guns. These can be obtained by destroying the pill box sensors and flying item capsules containing them, or by defeating the red-clad guards in the enemy bases. These consist of a machine gun that fires rapidly when the fire button is held down, a laser gun that shoots a powerful beam, a fireball gun that shoots its rounds in a corkscrew pattern, and a spread gun that shoots five individual bullets in individual directions. There are also two auxiliary power-ups that only appear in certain areas when the character is armed with his default gun: a rapid-bullets upgrade that increases the firing speed of the gun's shots and a barrier that makes the character invulnerable for a limited period. With the exception of the machine gun and the laser gun, each item comes in the form of a Falcon-shaped symbol marked with a letter representing its function (F, S, R, and B).
The player loses a life if their character (Bill or Lance) comes into contact with enemies or their missiles, fails to complete a base stage before the time limit, or falls into a bottomless pit. When that happens, the character will revert to his default weapon on his next life. After losing all lives, the player can continue by inserting more coins (if necessary) and pressing Start, but only up to three times. A second player can join in anytime, but if one player loses all of their lives, they must wait until the other player loses their lives as well to continue together.
The arcade version of Contra consists of seven stages (the number of stages and level structures vary in later versions). The first stage is a side-scrolling level where the player character is dropped into the jungle and must fend off the enemy's initial line of defense until he reaches the entrance of the first base, where he must destroy a large sensor to enter the base. The game switches to a 3D view for the second stage, where the player character must fight his way through a series of passageways inside the base before time runs out (a display at the top of the screen shows the map of the base and the time remaining). The player must destroy a generator at the other side of each passageway in order to deactivate the electric current preventing access. The third stage is set in the core of the base in a fixed screen, where the player must destroy the enemy's defense system in order to expose the final target, a giant eyeball that shoots fireballs.
Stages 4 through 6 proceed similarly to the first three stages. Stage 4 is a vertically-scrolling level where the player must jump their way to the top of a waterfall until reaching the entrance of the second base, where the player must destroy a large diamond-shaped sensor guarded by a defense system in order to clear the stage. Stage 5 is another 3D stage set inside another base, while Stage 6 is another boss battle, this time against a pair of heads that split into two images each. The heads can only be damaged when their split images align together.
The seventh and final stage returns to the side-scrolling format of the first stage, as the player fights through the enemy's final line of defense (which includes a hovercraft, armored trucks, and giant helmeted soldiers) while proceeding through areas such as a snowfield, an energy plant and a hangar, to eventually reach the alien's lair, where the regular enemy soldiers are replaced with otherworldly creatures. The player must fight a giant alien head that spawns larvae from its mouth before reaching the final target, a cardiac creature that must be destroyed in order to complete the mission.
The arcade game was released in three versions.[8] The Japanese and American versions are virtually identical, aside from the Japanese version using kanji characters to spell the game's title. However, the European version, titled Gryzor, only allows two players to play the game alternating rather than simultaneously.
Contra is set in the distant future of the year 2633 A.D., when the evil Red Falcon Organization have set a base on the fictional Galuga archipelago near New Zealand in a plot to wipe out humanity. Two commandos, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean[9][8] of the Earth Marine Corp's Contra unit (an elite group of soldiers specializing in guerrilla warfare), are sent to the island to destroy the enemy forces and uncover the true nature of the alien entity controlling them.[9]
The promotional materials for the US arcade version downplays the futuristic setting of the game, with the manual for the later NES and home computer versions changing the game's setting from the future to the present day and the location from Galuga to the Amazon Jungle.
Under license from Konami, Ocean Software produced ports under the title of Gryzor (the European arcade title) for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC, which were released in Europe in 1988.[10] The Commodore 64 version was released in North America under the Contra title. Ocean's ports were patterned after the original arcade version of the game. An IBM PC version was developed by Banana Development Inc and released in North America. This version was released in Europe under the Gryzor name.[11] The cover illustration of Ocean's Gryzor ports by Bob Wakelin was inspired by the upcoming film Predator starring actor Arnold Schwarzenegger .[12] The illustration was later used for the packaging of the NES version. The Japanese MSX2 version had an exclusive photo cover; despite that, Wakelin's illustration was used in the back cover. The other character was inspired by the 1982 film Rambo
Contra was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in February 1988. This version was produced in-house by Konami, and features several differences from the arcade release in order to better suit the NES's hardware.
The game can be played by one or two players, but due to the graphical limitations of the NES, Bill and Lance lost their individualized character designs. Instead, they are both depicted as shirtless commandos distinguished by the colors of their pants (blue for Bill and red for Lance). When one player loses all of their lives, they are given the option to use the other player's stock to keep fighting.
The power-up icons for the Machine Gun and Laser Gun were also changed and are now represented by letter-based falcon symbols (M and L) used by the other weapons. The Rapid Bullets and Barrier power-ups are also more common in this version, since unlike the arcade game, the flying item capsules now appear regardless of which weapon the player character currently possesses. The NES version introduces a seventh item that clears the screen of all on-screen enemies when obtained.
The NES version recomposes the seven stages of the arcade version into eight stages. Stages 2 and 3 were combined into one stage, resulting in the renumbering of the Waterfall level from Stage 4 to Stage 3, while Stages 5 and 6 were combined into the new Stage 4. The final four stages of the NES version (the Snowfield, Energy Zone, Hangar, and Alien Lair) are based on the different areas featured in the arcade version's final stage.
The level designs themselves are drastically different from the arcade version too. The two base stages for example (Stage 2 and 4), no longer have their mazelike structures, nor is there any time limit involved. The boss of the waterfall stage was also changed from a diamond-shaped sensor to an alien statue.
Contra was one of the early NES games to feature the Konami Code. Inputting the code at the title screen starts the player with thirty lives instead of the usual three. The cheat remains in effect when the player runs out of lives and uses a continue to retry a stage.
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