NES High Score Club Week #23 - Contra

[vdub_bobby]

Swords are for wimps who don't have large guns! Yes, it's time for Contra!

 

Post a score and let's get this thing rolling!

 

Please post any tips you may have - best tip gets 1 bonus point!

 

And if anyone has a link to the manual, please post it.

 

Note: Only scores achieved by playing a new game, from the beginning, will count - no continues and NO 30-life code! And no leeching: keep moving forward.

 

This week's competition ends next Tuesday (Feb 13) morning at approximately 8:00 am PST.

 

This week's standings:

 

1,539,700 HeckYesIDid (+10 pts)

907,500 gdement (+8 pts + 1pt for best tip)

803,600 vdub_bobby (+6 pts)

198,400 bust3dstr8 (+4 pts)

71,600 LarcenTyler (+2 pts)

34,000 MetalSlime23 (+1 pt)

 

 

Twin Galaxies High Scores

 

6,553,500 Tracy R Booth

 

Overall standings:

 

1. rjchamp3 (140 pts)

2. vdub_bobby (90 pts)

3. LarcenTyler (61 pts)

4. figgler (54 pts)

5. galaxy warrior (53 pts)

6. 8th lutz (51 pts)

7. Cybergoth (49 pts)

8. MetalSlime23 (41 pts)

9. mojofltr (40 pts)

10. nester (29 pts)

10. gdement (29 pts)

12. bust3dstr8 (21 pts)

13. Slayer (18 pts)

14. Malc74 (13 pts)

15. shadow460 (8 pts)

16. RJ (5 pts)

17. keilbaca (4 pts)

17. mightymage (4 pts)

19. MCHufnagel (2 pts)

19. remowilliams (2 pts)

19. Kami68k (2 pts)

22. BrianC (1 pts)

22. HeckYesIDid (1 pts)

22. NightSprinter (1 pts)

 

 

Game Info

 

Originally released in 1987 by Konami for the arcades, ported by Konami to the NES in 1988.

 

Other platforms: Amstrad CPC, C64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum, and...the Xbox 360? Weird.

 

Sequels/spinoffs: Super Contra (Arcade, 1988), Super C (Amiga, DOS, NES, 1990), Operation C (Gameboy, 1991), Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES, 1992; Gameboy, 1994), Contra Force (NES, 1992), Contra Hard Corps (Genesis, 1994), Contra: Legacy of War (PS1, Saturn, 1996), Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2, 2002), Neo Contra (PS2, 2004).

 

 

Tips

 

Me: Spread (S) is the best weapon, followed by Machine Gun (M) or Laser (L), whichever you prefer. Fire (F) is worse than your regular gun, avoid at all costs. Rapid Fire [R] will make all weapons (including your regular gun) shoot faster *except* the Machine Gun, upon which it has no effect.

 

gdement:

I noticed something odd about the level 2 boss. In one of my games I got to him with a rapid fire spread. The boss that time fired unusually fast - the difficulty was apparently ramped because of my weapon.

I think the rapid fire does make the machine gun fire faster. At least it seems that way to me.

There's 1 room near the end of level 4 which has only 1 small red button to shoot, and it's right in the middle where it's easy to hit. Hold back until you see the red guy show up, and you can get a spread weapon from him which will help on that level's very difficult boss.

 

Also, you can shoot the red square shield things from the prone position - you don't have to stand up until the shields are gone.

Edited February 13, 2007 by vdub_bobby

[vdub_bobby]

I canNOT play this in an emulator.

 

I'll start things off with a very weak: 37,000

[Lauren Tyler]

31,500

 

Man, playing without the 30-man code is so much harder (but more fun too if you think about it!)

[rjchamp3]

I have to see If I have this game

[Lauren Tyler]

When you focus on what you're doing and think before moving or shooting, you find you have a better chance of survival! For the first time, I actually made it to the second base on just three lives.

[vdub_bobby]

Stupid keyboard.

 

Can't get a decent score...

Edited February 9, 2007 by vdub_bobby

[gdement]

I love this game, it's probably the most played cartridge I own.

 

I seem to have a lot of trouble on levels 3-4. I played about 5 times before getting past level 4, but then it was smooth sailing to the end. 2nd time through I fell apart for some reason in level 5, and my game ended in level 6.

 

This game apparently gives a huge bonus when you beat it. I thought my score would be around 200k at that point, but when it restarted me on the 1st level my score was in the 700's.

 

907,500

 

=======

I noticed something odd about the level 2 boss. In one of my games I got to him with a rapid fire spread. The boss that time fired unusually fast - the difficulty was apparently ramped because of my weapon.

 

Rapid Fire [R] will make all weapons (including your regular gun) shoot faster *except* the Machine Gun, upon which it has no effect.

I think the rapid fire does make the machine gun fire faster. At least it seems that way to me.

[gdement]

Something I noticed from playing earlier:

 

There's 1 room near the end of level 4 which has only 1 small red button to shoot, and it's right in the middle where it's easy to hit. Hold back until you see the red guy show up, and you can get a spread weapon from him which will help on that level's very difficult boss.

 

Also, you can shoot the red square shield things from the prone position - you don't have to stand up until the shields are gone.

 

====

[edit: nevermind - I could have sworn this wasn't stickied earlier, but I guess it got fixed already]

Edited February 10, 2007 by gdement

[rjchamp3]

I love this game, it's probably the most played cartridge I own.

 

I seem to have a lot of trouble on levels 3-4. I played about 5 times before getting past level 4, but then it was smooth sailing to the end. 2nd time through I fell apart for some reason in level 5, and my game ended in level 6.

 

This game apparently gives a huge bonus when you beat it. I thought my score would be around 200k at that point, but when it restarted me on the 1st level my score was in the 700's.

 

907,500

 

=======

I noticed something odd about the level 2 boss. In one of my games I got to him with a rapid fire spread. The boss that time fired unusually fast - the difficulty was apparently ramped because of my weapon.

 

Rapid Fire [R] will make all weapons (including your regular gun) shoot faster *except* the Machine Gun, upon which it has no effect.

I think the rapid fire does make the machine gun fire faster. At least it seems that way to me.

 

 

Nice F...... score man

 

 

I figured Ill sit this one out

[MetalSlime23]

Here's a score just to get me on the board. I really suck at this game:

 

 

 

Wow. For some reason my score didn't capture in the picture. It was 34,000, give or take a few hundred.

 

Edited February 11, 2007 by MetalSlime23

[vdub_bobby]

Here's a score just to get me on the board. I really suck at this game:

 

 

 

Wow. For some reason my score didn't capture in the picture. It was 34,000, give or take a few hundred.

 

The same thing happened to me earlier. The score blinks on that screen so you have to time your screenshot just right.

 

Anyway, I finally got my gamepad working with the emulator (my brother has our copy of Contra so no real hardware this week ).

 

162,200

[Cybergoth]

Hm... this one ain't working with my crappy Joypad. It casually gets "phantom" readings, which are killing me way too often in a game requiring such a high level of precission. Seems I'll have to buy me a copy.

[gdement]

Hm... this one ain't working with my crappy Joypad. It casually gets "phantom" readings, which are killing me way too often in a game requiring such a high level of precission. Seems I'll have to buy me a copy.

 

Yeah, you really need quick and short touches on a D-Pad in this game. Emulation is pretty disadvantaged because of the controls. Thumbsticks are too slow, and most PC D-Pads are more clumsy to use than the NES pad. Trying to play on a keyboard would just be hell.

[vdub_bobby]

Hm... this one ain't working with my crappy Joypad. It casually gets "phantom" readings, which are killing me way too often in a game requiring such a high level of precission. Seems I'll have to buy me a copy.

 

Yeah, you really need quick and short touches on a D-Pad in this game. Emulation is pretty disadvantaged because of the controls. Thumbsticks are too slow, and most PC D-Pads are more clumsy to use than the NES pad. Trying to play on a keyboard would just be hell.

Yeah, my gamepad is way too sloppy/loose for this game. Still doing alright though, got to the mother brain last night but got lazy and died:

241,400

 

 

Hope to beat it tonight.

[tmont]

I don't normally like playing games for high scores, but Contra is fun, so I did. I don't have a screenshot, because I couldn't steal my roommate's camera because I couldn't find it (selfish piece of crap). But the final score was

 

1,539,700

 

I got bored after the second time through, and I had about 15 or so guys in reserve. I guess the TG record-holder played through about 10 times to get a score of 6 million. I played for about 40 minutes, so the world record probably took 4-5 hours. That's a lot of Contra.

[bust3dstr8]

 

 

198400

 

 

This is the first time I have play Contra solo in years....much easier.

Edited February 13, 2007 by bust3dstr8

[vdub_bobby]

I don't normally like playing games for high scores, but Contra is fun, so I did. I don't have a screenshot, because I couldn't steal my roommate's camera because I couldn't find it (selfish piece of crap). But the final score was

 

1,539,700

 

I got bored after the second time through, and I had about 15 or so guys in reserve. I guess the TG record-holder played through about 10 times to get a score of 6 million. I played for about 40 minutes, so the world record probably took 4-5 hours. That's a lot of Contra.

I was wondering if you would join us this week.

 

But darn you for beating my score!

Edited February 13, 2007 by vdub_bobby

[vdub_bobby]

803,600

 

Finally beat it! And then died like a chump on the waterfall level 2nd time around - but in my defense, it was late and my fingers were tired.

[vdub_bobby]

And we're done! Good playing, everyone.

[tmont]

I was wondering if you would join us this week.

Heh. I was pretty sure I could blow all of you out of the water, but that wouldn't be very nice. Actually, I was just curious how long the record-holder had to play to get that score. I was going to play for a couple hours to see if I could beat it, but eh; Contra the 3rd-4th-5th-10th time through just gets more and more boring. Particularly when you're doing it in one sitting. And I got really pissed every time I lost my Spread.