Congrats on 100 episodes, that opening made me want to rewatch everything yet again. Excellent choice as Contra is easily one of the greatest game of all time in my opinion, so many great memories of playing it and to this day can easily pick it up and play through it while having a blast.
@@SameNameDifferentGame can you tackle Prince of Persia? I recommend tackling Apple II, MS-DOS, NEC-PC, SEGA CD, Macintosh and SNES. The last four gives the most notable look for the characters (Jordan Merchner went with the Japanese design to use for the Macintosh version) while the first two were more of a proto-look (they were rotoscoped with very little change).
Growing up with a bootleg famicom, my system had 42 games in its memory but they were all early famicom games like Joust, Pac-man, Galaga and the like. One of my friends got a later model which had Contra and I was SO jealous of him. As a kid I liked probotector better because I like robots better. As an adult, I prefer Contra BY FAR lol
I had that exact same console. With a sticker of Mario and the Princess, right? I fucked up that console using a wrong adapter... But I still have it for display. It's a good looking console. There were tons of pirate catridges with Contra included.
1. That was a great 100th episode. I know you didn’t cover the computer ports but I would like to say that the MSX version is worth playing because of its weirdness, and unlike the other computer versions, it is playable. 2. I’ll be looking forward to your thoughts on “Super C” one day because I like it just a little more than Contra 1.
The attract mode was all I needed to convince me Contra wasn't worth my tokens. Just some army guys in the jungle, ho-hum. The box art looked more interesting, but it was still just an NES port of this, so no thanks. Everything changed when I witnessed a waiter from the nearby Shoney's, in his apron, pounding through the deeper levels. Once I saw the hangar dissolve into throbbing alien guts, I was sold. After the heart exploded, I hustled immediately to the toy store at the other end of the mall. Once I got home, things looked bleak. The visual hit sunk my hopes, and the steep challenge was more than I could handle. Long after I had given in to the let downs, my cousin spontaneously phoned in with... the code. Minutes later I set foot in the alien's lair myself. My face was red hot, my chest was pounding and I was drowning in my sweat. I had to just kill the power and walk away. That was just the beginning. These days I clear the game on one life with the pea shooter.
to 100 more! Great episode! The NES/Famicom versions > Arcade version for sure. Growing up, didn't even know Contra was an arcade game, never saw it in the wild. can't believe it took so long for the NES to be available on digital services (prior to the Contra collection, the closet to a digital version was a Contra 4 bonus IIRC).
What can I say about Contra that hasn't been previously said? The quintessential run and gun action platformer. I love both the Arcade and NES versions, but the NES one is the best. Happy 100 episodes, and let's all hope for hundreds more. If I can make a suggestion, you should look at MSX Vs. NES Konami games. Konami was the de facto company for the MSX. Surprised you didn't do one for Salamander on your 10th anniversary.
Congratulations on 100 episodes Joe. How you aren't over that 100K mark yet is absolutely criminal. I have been a subscriber since the very beginning or close to the beginning of your channel. It's great to see thst you have stuck with this series even though your channel hasn't hit the mark that it really should have. But here's hoping that in the not too distant future that your channel hits the heights that you and it deserves. Keep doing what you are doing because your channel to me is better than most channels over 100k-1m subs. You haven't changed the way you do things from day 1 and you haven't caved into changing things just for views. I appreciate that because you are genuine in how you do things. It maybe the reason why you haven't reached more. But I would rather watch you being genuine from your first video to this one than watching a 1m sub channel that has changed to suit RU-vids narrative just to roll that cash in while being fake.
Something about Contra brings out the "old dogs" more than any other game. The game that popularized the most notorious cheat code in the history of the medium. A master class of platforming in it's day or any day. This was the very first video game of many I ever purchased with my own money. What perfect subject matter to discuss for a milestone episode. Here's to 100 more. Cheers!
Well done on making it to episode 100 man. Contra was a weird thing for me as a kid. You'd read in magazines about it but I just had these Probotector games which, as far as I was aware, was just another shooter series from Konami. Was also aware of Gryzor cos it had ports for the micro computers but never played them. Still got a soft spot for the robots of Probotector to this day because of that whole situation.
I love love love this opening. Congrats on 100 episodes! Your work has been consistently great, and I'm looking forward to many more episodes in the future! (See, told you I'd comment again here)
Contra and Super C are my favorite NES games, and definitely in my Top 10 of all time. I just remember renting it and playing it with my friends. What a great time that was!
Great review and lot of nostalgia. Contra is great game and always will be. I like to do my own Contra Marathon - Contra, Super C, Contra III, Contra Hard Corps - all great games, great music . For the NES version I like the Famicom version the most, there is translated version of the game , unfortunately I cant managed to run on my original hardware, because my Everdrive did not support that particular mapper . Still great games and great memories. Congrats on Episode 100. You deserve all the respect. Great content.
I love this 100th episode! You didn't really do anything different from your normal episodes, aside from the extended intro, but that's why I like your videos. Just a chill guy giving an in-depth look at games, in this case your favorite game. The Tate Mode joke from Game Sack completely caught me by surprise though. I laughed my ass off just like the first time it was on Game Sack, but I definitely did not expect to see it here. I actually didn't know the VRC2 chip was why the Japanese version had the extra graphical effects, I thought they were just too lazy to translate the text so they removed it. It's a shame Nintendo of America didn't have the MMC3 or MMC5 for Konami to use at the time, like they did with Castlevania III, as those chips were more capable and probably could have handled the extra effects. But damn, this was quite an early game to use bank switching, only 80s/90s Konami would think that far ahead. As for the regional variants, it's weird that Germany required robots for the game but it's not a bad concept. I do wish they gave the main characters cooler names than just letters and numbers, it's part of why Kiryu, Moguera, and Jet Jaguar are as memorable as they are, but honestly I think it makes for better coverart than the US/JP versions. A shame they didn't properly adjust it for 50hz systems though, if they were going to remake the game exclusively for not just Germany but all of Europe, you'd think they'd go through the effort of optimizing it. But that was probably easier said than done.
@@SameNameDifferentGame The only real difference was in the sound department, otherwise they didn't have to make any graphical or gameplay compromises.
@@zanegandini5350 I know, I did an episode on it. But the sound capabilities make a considerable difference over the stock NES soundchip (and the MMC5, which had no sound capabilities).
@@SameNameDifferentGame Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong mapper, but I'm pretty sure there was a Japan-only release that actually did use the MMC5 for expanded sound capabilities (nothing like the VRC6, but it did still add a few extra channels). The problem was, even if the MMC5 was capable of adding extra sound channels, the NES was not capable of using them. The pinout for such capabilities was moved to the expansion port on the bottom.
@@SameNameDifferentGame I looked it up and I was wrong, there were actually five games that used it for extra audio capabilities: Ishin no Arashi (SFX only) Just Breed Metal Slader Glory (very sparingly, mostly in SFX) Shin 4-Nin Uchi Mahjong (uses PCM) Uchuu Keibitai SDF (SFX only) And to be exact, what it did was add two more PSG channels and a second PCM. They behaved pretty much the same as the PSG and PCM in the stock NES itself.
Mega-congrats on 100 episodes Joe!!! Love your choice of Contra for this milestone episode, and always love the thorough research and history you present! Only knew a little bit about the PAL and JP releases before, but your deep dives on both enlightened me to new details on both versions. Killer art card too for this, and I should have seen that cameo coming, but it still cracked me up! Looking forward to another 100 episodes!!!
I was thinking, "I wonder if he'll mention the Konami Code," and sure as shit, it's the next segment. Never fail to deliver. Good stuff, as always. 👍 Can't get enough of the history segments.
Oddly enough, Contra is one of my momma's favorite video games. When I was a wee youngin', she would break out the NES and get to work; even her sister-in-law would join in when she'd drop by
I will briefly explain the bank-switching system: the sprites are usually stored in single images in fixed tiles. So, when you ask to the NES HW to copy a chunck of an image from a tile, in a certain position, the result (usually) was a single static image, that could be use to animate a sprite or a background (or keeped static, with no animation). Now, imagine if you could ask an chunck of image that come to you already animated (like a animated gif). That couldn't be done by the NES itself, but with a bank-switching it could (with a co-processor embeded in the cartrige). With this add-on, you could, for instance, ask for a image in the position XY, and as result receive a switchable image, sometimes as part A, sometimes as part B, but for the NES HW, was the same reference (a static image). That made possible the trees been moving or the other animations, basicly without change almost any code, just configuring the image switch banks. Regards! Nice video dude!
Excellent video as always! The quote you put in at 18:50 probably explains why I prefer the NES to the SNES. I think NES games show a lot more personality and imagination than SNES games, which often look corporate and formulaic. And that's probably why NES game devs were able to take arcade games and make superior home versions despite working with inferior hardware. Just look at Contra, Rygar, and Bionic Commando. When a handful of people get together and shoot ideas at each other, great things can happen.
100 episodes! 10 years! 10K subs! Congrats on all the milestones! Contra is one of those wonderful games that there really isn't a bad version of, especially if you're playing it on NES/Famicom. As for the lack of information about the creative process, this sadly is likely due to a bunch Konami's awful longstanding policies. Often, people who worked on Konami projects weren't allowed to speak openly, and if they left the company, their names would be scrubbed from the credits of a project (this is why the creator of Suikoden has no credit in the third game, despite him working on it) and if the creative lead isn't with the company anymore, that's probably why there was nothing on him in the Anniversary Collection. Being more positive, I love that the Anniversary Collection is so easily available on every current platform. I've seen it go on sale as low as $3.99. Go play Contra, folks!
It was pretty common among Japanese developers of the time. But even with Konami, there are a fair number of retrospectives on big games later on, just nothing from the original Contra director (except the one on Gradius II).
@@SameNameDifferentGame I know a lot of companies didn't want their talent being poached back in the 80s and 90s, but yeah, in that case, it really is odd that there hasn't been more retrospective content on Contra
Contra and Super C (on the NES, of course) are two of my all time favorites, as a kid and teen I spent hours and hours playing them with my brother, and in fact still do. Fun fact: we played the sequel first, which we received as a Christmas/Santa Claus present in '91; we got Contra only until '97. Regarding the original Arcade versions, I also find them inferior to their console counterparts, mostly for the same reasons you mention in the video. Yeah, the sprites are bigger, the graphics look more detailed and are technically better, but the vertical screen is a weird choice for an horizontally scrolling game, the color palletes look drab, the music sounds a little "chaotic", and the jump animation makes the mobility feel clunky and imprecise. As with TMNT II on the NES, the ports thankfully correct all of that and improve upon it. Congratulations on the series' 100th episode, here's waiting for the 200th. Keep up the good work, greetings from Mexico. 😎👍🏻
Congrats on finally hitting 10,000 subscribers. I know you can do it, Joe. Anyways, Contra is awesome but were u ever frustrated over dying over and over? That's one thing that made me give up on the Contra series (or the Metal Slug series to an extent), it kills you if you don't have the attention span of a cat.
Not really, honestly. I brute forced it with the code as a little kid, and after doing that so many times, I eventually found I didn't need the code anymore.
Even though I was initially disappointed with the graphics of NES Contra, it grew on me over the years, and of course the gameplay is easily the best compared to any other version. Now I feel there's some magic formula in those graphics that continues to amaze me.
In Portugal, Famicom pirate clones were more popular than the original NES itself. So, although being a PAL territory, most of us got to play Contra, which was built in in some of those systems, and in pretty much every multi-game pirate catridge for Famiclones. We were unaware that Probotector was in fact the "official" European Contra. I remember seing that NES game for sale, but only years later I knew the "truth." In recent years I bought a pirate catridge of Contra with the 30 lives code already included. It was just for collection. I prefer to play without the code. I prefer the original Contra sprites over the NES Probotector. However, I actually prefer Super Probotector's sprites over those of Contra 3: Alien Wars.
So, I've never played the arcade version (Hell, I didn't even know it existed until last year) but without playing it, I can get why the NES version is more well loved. The arcade gameplay footage looks... slow. Especially when jumping. The NES version looks such more quick and responsive in comparison. Also, congratulations on making it to 100 episodes, Joe! Happy to be a fan.
The German laws were not so much specifically about killing humans, but more about violence in general. But replacing humans with robots was one method to make it more tolerable. But there could be shmups with helicopters and planes that would be banned too, with not a human looking sprite on screen. Where the US is pretty strict about nudity and religious symbols, Germany has been more strict about violence. Basically the talk that happened about Mortal Kombat and Doom in the US in the early 90s was already a big thing here in the 80ies with any run'n gun or shoot em up. (Although it did become even bigger with MK. MK2 was confiscated nationwide from stores carrying it, though it was okay for a private person to own it. But the sale was made illegal). The rules have eased up in the HD era, but even in the PS2 age... Games like Half-Life had all human enemies replaced with robots, and if a human scientist was shot he would not die but just sit down. Many games had blood removed. After Resident Evil 2 was uncensored but banned within weeks, Resident Evil 3 had smoke instead of blood and zombie corpses would flicker and disappear. As a personal anecdote since you are a wrestling fan: the WWF was very popular in the early 90s. Bret Hart was like a rock star. But I remember my high school calling up parents and asking them to not let us watch WWF, and eventually rules were set in place that made it impossible to broadcast wrestling before 10PM when kids were in bed. It basically killed off Germany as their biggest international market, soon WWF programming slipped to 11PM and eventually midnight due to advertisers not wanting their spots on the controversial programs. In the middle of the night they could at least sell commercial slots to telephone sex lines. WWF programming was full of phone sex ads in the breaks at one point. All because of perceived violence. And we are talking 1993/94 WWF here. It is a cultural thing, nipples and such were not a big issue, but violence was here. Funny enough, going back to Contra: while there may be a degree of nostalgia involved, I legitimately prefer Probotector branding to this day. I find the mercenary type characters in Contra so generic and boring... The Probotector robots had a really cool, sleek design though. Probotector was instantly recognizable, while a Contra game might as well be Midnight Resistance or something. So yay for Probotector! ;)
yeah definitely have to give the famicom version the edge in that one, with the extra little graphical touches like the moving trees, the snow and the alien innards in stage 8... I am also partial to the MSX version which was part scaled-down port from the arcade, and part all new game cus it added a whole bunch of new stages! the music in it was pretty great too I really liked the boss theme in that version.
@@SameNameDifferentGame my dude you deserve a much larger audience your videos are very well done and you're a likable narrator. I'm actually shocked I only found out a week ago maybe!
I've seen Trade Federation droids that could take more hits than those Probotectors; clearly less an example of German engineering and more one of interference, that one was. If this was the hundredth episode, I wonder how the next hundred or two will turn out. Maybe you could do one for NARC (Arcade vs PS2/XBox) or Spy Hunter (same as previous.)
Yeah, Midway did a bunch of weird PS2 takes on their classic arcade games, I'd like to look at those someday. I did talk about Defender a bit when Jay Dali Popka did a video about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OKb8gTRLPE8.html
Incorrect. The NES and computer games had a cover painted by British artist Bob Wakelin, which used Arnold as a reference for both Bill and Lance, but that cover art was painted some time after the original arcade game released, and Lance as he appears on both the Japanese arcade flyer and in the arcade game is clearly based on Rambo.
I hate the jumping in the arcade. It looks so stupid. Always have had a soft spot for Probotector ever since I learned about them through Super Mario Crossover. Great video, just found your channel, subbed and clicked the bell!
Hey Joe I'm pretty sure you beat all contra versions and thus know already what I'm about to tell you. Gonna spill the beans anyway since you didn't mention it in the video. There is one more difference regarding the ending of probotector vs the fam/us versions. In probotector, you fly off the island with a jet instead. Why the hell did they change that?
Your peeps preferred their microcomputers.... MC master race?! I was fortunate enough that my dad bought an imported Amiga 500 in it's day. Had a C64 before that 👍. How those games could be limited to a single button when you had a whole fucking keyboard available was just so beyond stoopid. Even the NES seemed to have alot of input options by comparison.
@@TexasHollowEarth I’m not actually sure we preferred MCs - I know I didn’t! Much preferred arcades and consoles for gaming. It was more a case of ‘make do’. I would have loved the PC Engine/Turbografx had it come here in the late 80s - that would have blown everything away!
Knowing how the copyrigth law worked was why the SEGA Kids coundn't make me move to thier side becuase I knew the 2 games anadian games where that same. It wasn't until I got The Contra Anniversary Collection of the PS4 that I knew NES and Arcade Contra where not the same; since I never played the arcade version. Oldy with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny I wound love see an video on the Atari 2600 and NES Indiana Jones games. Both systems have games named after the same moive on the same system and you can't tell them apart. You can delete an rom form an flash cart thinking it's an copy but it's the different game.
Contra games ranked from best to worst (Ports and mobile games excluded except for the two nes games which I believe are better than the arcade games) Contra hard corps Contra 3 Super C Contra Contra 4 Contra rebirth Hardcorp Uprising Operation C Contra shattered soldier Neo contra Contra rogue Corp C Contra adventure Contra legacy of war
Yeah, no.... Contra Hardcore is meh. Shattered Soldier is my favorite Contra game. Contra 4 is one of my faves, also. Using the 2 DS screens to mimic the arcade titles' vertical raster was brilliant. Lucia the android was a great addition to the series & added much needed player variety. Hardcore was just too wacky & didn't feel 100% like Contra.
@@TexasHollowEarth I disagree I don’t contra can get much better than hard corps. Multiple characters all with different weapon sets, can carry up to 4 weapons at a time, more levels than any contra game, multiple paths, multiple endings, great graphics and music for its time. The game was extremely difficult which I believe combined with the multiple paths and endings to the game added to its replay value. Really only contra 4 probably had more replay value than hard corp because of the mission mode
the game boy version has way nicer music, banging. But I understand you took the nes tune as that is more recognizable for most probably Just sayin! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-05znICyY308.html
