Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Organization:
1: General notes
2: Weapon/bonus list
3: The Konami code
4: Level and boss advice, ranking.
1 General notes:
Contra is a twitch game. You get hit, you die. Most things you hit die on
contact too.
Your controls are simple, but there are a few quirks:
- If you are prone (i.e. on your belly) and you hit the jump button, you will
instead drop down to the next floor. There are some floors that don't let you do
this. This is a good thing, since there is nothing below them. Not all floors
have this safety feature built in. Do not drop yourself off the screen. You will
die. Also, do not drop if there is anything deadly directly above you. Dropping
makes you briefly stand up, and you will die.
- From a standing position, you can shoot in any of the eight directions except
directly down. To shoot directly down, you must jump and then press down and
shoot. As just pointed out, if you press down and _then_ jump, you will fall...
not what you intended in this case.
- You can swim in ordinary water in the Jungle (first level), but not in any of
the later levels.You cannot jump out of the water, but you can drag yourself out
at the waters' edge.
- The way to play and win is to play defensively: there is no time limit, and
there is no ammo limit. Dodge incoming fire more than you aim at enemies. Spread
and Fireball help since they make aiming nearly pointless anyway. Keep an eye on
incoming fire! Sometimes bullets can pass through what appear to be walls. They
are really just passing under ledges, and can get around and kill you. Bullets
do not move very fast, so you _can_ dodge them - and you must, or perish!
2 The Weapons:
You get these weapons (aside from the Rifle) by shooting anything that has a red
falcon insignia on it. There are flying football-shaped things and metal turret-
like boxes, only with a red falcon mark instead of a gun. once you have shot it
with its insignia showing, A letter surrounded by a pair of wings will pop
out.This indicates what weapon you will get (the letter for each weapon is shown
in parentheses below).
Rifle (basic): Not a _bad_ weapon, but try to get something better as soon as
possible. You can only have a few shots on the screen at once. You may want to
stay below the screen limit of bullets in case someone pops up behind you and
you need to take him out right away.
Machine Gun (M): There is rarely a reason to stop firing this. This can pump out
a lot of damage, but not all at once.
Fireballs (F): This is a powerful weapon, and wide, but slow. If troops might
run on screen, do not fire all of your shots at once, or you won't have any
firepower left for defense for about a second! Its width is good for hitting
things while you are prone, or things you don't have time to aim at carefully.
The Spread gun is better.
Laser (L): Produces a column of what appears to be flame. It is not long. To get
any range at all, you have to release the button. This is a very powerful
weapon. If you press the button, you will fire right away, so you will never be
caught without a defensive shot. On the other hand, the fire stream is narrow so
you might not be able to get one in exactly the right spot. This is worst in the
enemy bases, where the soldiers are very narrow.
Spread (S): Fires a spread of five bullets. This weapon is also subject to the
number of bullets limit, though the limit is higher. If you have too many
bullets on screen, the spread gun will fire fewer, so firing very fast gets rid
of much of the spread action. If you want to cover a lot of angle, fire at a
more restrained pace. This is also a good idea because you want to hold a shot
back in case someone jumps up behind you. This is usually the best weapon, since
you do not need to aim and it puts out a good deal of damage. The damage this
puts out gets extremely large when you get close.
Rapid (R): This speeds up any of the weapons a little. I do not know whether you
keep your old speed upgrades if you get a different weapon. In any case, Rapid
upgrades accumulate! If you are good, you will live long enough to accumulate
quite a few Rapid upgrades, and have much more firepower - your bullets will
cross the screen faster so you can fire again sooner, your laser's stream will
be longer, and your reactions to enemies showing up will be more likely to hit
before they can get a shot off. Rapid is good. It seems to have little effect on
Fireball, but that is because Fireball is driven by a team of slugs.
If you leave it lying there on the ground, a weapon upgrade will not go away.
This can be bad, if you need to walk where it is, and you already have a better
weapon. If that is the case, it can be worth your while looking for a way to get
around it - but don't kill yourself in the process! You might as well take the
lesser loss of a not-quite-as-amazing weapon.
3 The Code:
Though there are many other codes, this is the famous Konami code which works in
every Konami game I know of (except Blades of Steel, a hockey game). Here, it
gives you 30 lives:
As the splashscreen is rolling, press
up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,B,A,[Select,]Start
The select will make the game 2-player, with both players having 30 lives. If
you want to play a 1-player game, do not press select. If it doesn't work, make
sure you are releasing the pad for a moment in between pressing the pad in the
same direction
One major drawback to using the code is that you do not get any extra lives.
Sure, you will have more lives at your disposal than you could get by points
(barring stupid waiting tricks, which will take hours), but with points it is
possible to get as many as eight lives. Beginners and intermediate players will
probably have to use the code in order to even see later levels.
4 The Levels:
Stage 1: Jungle
Rating: medium-easy, easy boss
- As the game starts, you have the option to jump off the cliff into the water.
The water doesn't kill you, but if you can stay on the cliff you can get
powerups sooner.
-When crossing the bridges, jump BEFORE the last moment so you land before the
bridge segment blows up. Yes, you cannot hop in this game, only jump full
height. If playing two player, you should either agree to split up, or be
coordinated in this regard.
-The area immediately after the second bridge is very dangerous. A spread
upgrade comes flying by, too... You can do much better if you do not try to
destroy the turret, and just kill the sniper, get the spread and get heck out of
there.
-Look out for snipers hiding behind the ferns.
-When jumping over gaps, being forward is more important than being high.
-The turrets that are all gray can turn all the way around. Also, you can't
shoot them from a prone position with your rifle. Fireball and Spread can shoot
them from a prone position, though if you are very close, spread will pass
underneath.
-The turrets that have the red ball have a limited fire arc, and you can shoot
them from a prone position.
**Boss: A couple guns and a sniper.
Kill the sniper who's standing on the roof. From the top of the hill, shoot at
the turret if you haven't already killed it (jump above it and fire down from
your jump, then step aside while it shoots). Finding a good place to shoot the
blob-bomb guns can be annoying. There is a ledge directly across from them, but
the one closer to you can occasionally hit you there. It's a good spot, but if
you see a shot come too close, back off (DON'T jump. Since you are ducking, that
will make you fall.. directly into the blob).
Stage 3: Waterfall
Rating: medium, medium boss
- Don't fall off the bottom. This is especially a hazard in the two-player
version, where one player advancing can make the other player who is sitting
still 'fall' off the bottom by having the bottom of the screen come up to meet
him.
- Destroy the gun emplacements as soon as you see them. Just keep an eye out for
soldiers walking in the side.
-The moving platforms move _exactly_ as fast as you do when you're jumping. You
won't catch up to it if you're chasing it.
-There is no time limit, no ammo limit. Study the pattern, plan what you're
going to do.
**Boss: Mechanical/Demonic-looking Head and arms.
Arrive in the center. Dodge the first volley of the arms' fireballs when they
come, and run to one side. Shoot randomly to the sides to wipe out one arm at a
time. When the arms stretch out towards you, rack on them, but be careful if
they haven't fired recently - they can still shoot fireballs at you! Once one
arm is gone, stand on that side and shoot at the other arm. Once both are gone,
it should be trivial.
Stage 7: Hangar
Rating: difficult, very easy boss
- The music is from the first level? After last level, this is boring.
- If you do not have spread or flame, you can easily take out the shield gunner
towards the beginning WITHOUT crossing into his fire line... he fires quickly
and it is nearly impossible to get right in front of him. On the other hand, you
may just go underneath him and brave the dangers of the mechanical arms. This is
a good reason to be careful to get the flame from the flying pod!
- Take the high ground when you can. The low ground is almost always more
dangerous.
- Spiky walls pop up in front of you several times. Step onto new platforms with
hesitance.
- Most importantly, when under the mechanical arms, don't freak out!!
- Leaving the building does NOT mean you are home free. There are more shield
gunners and soldiers coming from opposite sides. This can be killer.
- You can be run over by the mining carts. This is extremely embarrassing. Note
that the mining cart does not need to be in motion for you to get run over!
-Mining carts passing through each other in opposite directions can switch you
off, making you jump to remount! I recommend wiping out all unneeded mining
carts. They take only a few hits.
- There are two platforms you cannot get to except by standing on a mining cart
and jumping off of it. The first is a bulletproof; the second (immediately
after) gets you high enough to make a jump much more easily It may be impossible
from below. Certainly I have never made it.
**Boss: Grenade launchers and suicide-squad soldiers.
Stand to the far left. When soldiers come out, shoot them all right away.
Arrange to be in mid-air when the MIRVs land. When you jump to dodge the MIRVs,
shoot the pod above the door. That's about it.
I have heard that you can also stand at the far right, and not have to worry
about the soldiers coming out at you, but this boss is sufficiently easy that
this should be unnecessary.
And-can you believe? After you've done all that, they have the NERVE to start
you all over again! It's even harder this time...