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scontra: MAME ROM Information.

History:

Super Contra (c) 1988 Konami.

The sequel to "Contra", released a full year after the original On December 2634, a disturbing distress signal from General Hal - who was on his way to South America in preparation for the GX Army's 7th military maneuvers- is received, reporting that the GX Army has suddenly revolted. The top branch of the federation forces calls in Bill and Lance to investigate the situation.

They arrive at the base ruins, only to find out to be attacked by the members of the GX Army. Bill notices the pale blue skin and the lifeless eyes in their former allies and begins shooting at them. As it turns out, the GX Army is being possessed by a mutated form of the alien creatures they fought at Galuga. And so the battle between the Contras and the aliens has begun again.

Super Contra plays identically to its predecessor, with the usual mix of run-and-gun gameplay. The main difference was that the into-the-screen stages of the original Contra were replaced by overhead stages. In addition, weapons were now upgradeable and represented by the actual guns themselves as opposed to the letter icons of the first game. Players have also gained the ability to duck underwater to avoid being shot. There are a total of five levels, many of which have sub-bosses.

The available weapons in the game are as followed :

* Machine Gun - Fires bullets at auto-fire. The upgraded version increases the firing rate to a near-ridiculous speed.

* Bomb Launcher - Fires bombs that spreads fire when it hits its target. The upgraded version causes bigger explosions.

* Laser Rifle - Fires a powerful laser beam once per shot. The upgraded version fires a larger beam.

* Spread Shot - Fires a three-way shot. Increases to a five-way spread after the upgrade.

* Mega Shell - Available only in the top-view stages. After picking it up, the player can launch it by pressing the jump button and kill all on-screen enemies.

The stages are as follow :

* Area 1 - Outer Base (side-view) - Takes place in a military base overrun by possessed soldiers. Bosses includes a manned tank and a possessed helicopter. At the end of the level, the player must destroy a core protected by a pair of snipers and a grenade thrower to gain entrance to the next area.

* Area 2 - Inner Base (top-view) - Inside a tank hanger filled with manned tanks and cannons in addition to enemy soldiers. The boss at the end is the Hyper Electric Magnetic Tank Magnus, which is operated by three gunners.

* Area 3 - Jungle (side-view) - Enemies come from trees as the player progress through the level. The player will sometime have to cross a lake, which they can hide underneath to avoid fire. As the player reaches the end of the level, they begin fighting against alien eggs that produce facehugger-like creatures (the same ones featured in the original game). The boss at the end is an alien shrine with a skull.

* Area 4 - 1st Alien Lair (side-view) - Takes place inside an alien nest. The enemies are now xenomorph-like creatures and mouths that shoot alien spawns. The sub-boss is an alien hovercraft composed of skulls, while the actual boss is a flying alien.

* Area 5 - 2nd Alien Lair (top-view) - The final stage, filled with mouths emerging from the ground, flying heads and spider-like creatures. The final boss is Gaver, a giant alien head with snake-like arms. After destroying the final boss, you can see a small alien spawn which flies off-screen if you pay close attention.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : GX775

Main CPU : Konami (@ 3 Mhz)

Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)

Sound Chips : YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), K007232 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)

Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 2

=> Fire, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1988.

This game is known in Japan as "Super Contra - Alien no Gyakushuu [Model GX775]" (translates from Japanese as 'Alien's Counterattack').

King Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Music From Super Contra & Ajax - K30X-7702) on 21/03/1988.

- UPDATES -

The western version ends the game after the staff roll, while the Japanese version takes the player to a second and harder cycle of the game.

- SERIES -

1. Contra (1987)

2. Super Contra (1988)

3. Operation C (1991, Nintendo Game Boy)

4. Contra Force (1992, Nintendo NES)

5. Contra III - The Alien Wars (1992, Nintendo Super Famicom)

6. Contra - Hard Corps (1994, Sega Mega Drive)

7. Contra - Legacy of War (1996, Sony PlayStation)

8. C - The Contra Adventure (1998, Sony PlayStation)

9. Contra - Shattered Soldier (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)

10. Neo Contra (2004, Sony PlayStation 2)

11. Contra 4 (2007, Nintendo DS)

12. Contra ReBirth (2009, Nintendo Wii - WiiWare)

- STAFF -

Written & Directed By : H. Tsujimoto

Assistant Director : K. Wada

Associate To Directors : S. Fujiwara, T. Koudo

Production Sound Mixer : Y. Uno

Music Editors : Kazuki Muraoka, Motoaki Furukawa

Art Director : K. Nakamura

Set Director : N. Sugita

Titles : H. Takatani, N. Ishii

Makeup Supervisor : M. Moriyama

Conceptual Artist : T. Jinbo

Electronics Designer : K. Hashima

Publicity Supervisor : F. Shibuya

Still Photographer : J. Tanaka

Translator : K. Hayashi

Produced By : K. Hiroshita

- PORTS -

* Consoles :

Nintendo NES (1990, "Super C")

Microsoft XBOX 360 (2007,"Xbox Live Arcade")

Nintendo Wii (2007, "Super C" - NES version)

Nintendo DS (2007, "Contra 4", as an unlockable bonus content)

* Computers :

Commodore Amiga (1990, "Super C")

PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2002, "Konami Collector's Series - Castlevania & Contra")

* Others :

Mobile Phones (2008)

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

MAME Info:

0.36b3 [Manuel Abadia]

Artwork available

Bugs:

- scontra, scontraj: Flaws in sound emulation. Ace (ID 03754)

WIP:

- 0.144u7: Kanikani updated Super Contra dipswitches.

- 0.137u4: hap fixed Super Contra main character shadows.

- 0.137u1: Corrado Tomaselli verified all the clocks from Super Contra PCB as well as the vsync. Changed VSync to 59.17 Hz.

- 0.136u1: Fabio Priuli added driver data struct and save states to ThunderX driver.

- 0.136: Fabio Priuli fixed tile/graphic corruption on multiple launches of Super Contra and clone.

- 0.135u4: Fabio Priuli updated Super Contra to use the new Konami video devices.

- 0.131u3: Kanikani added DIP locations to Super Contra.

- 0.130u3: Aaron Giles merged memory maps in Super Contra.

- 1st December 2008: Mr. Do - Kiltron got his wish, and finally got to restore a Super Contra bezel.

- 0.58: Removed 3rd coin slot.

- 0.36b4: Added priority encoder prom (not used).

- 0.36b3: Manuel Abadia added Super Contra (Konami 1988) and clone (Japan).

- 17th August 1999: Jim Hernandez sent a new Super Contra driver with support for the correct romset.

- 15th August 1999: Nicola Salmoria sent in a fully working driver for Super Contra, but the romset is partial so there are a lot of bad graphics.

ARCADE RELEASE: Super Contra (Konami) - 1988/Jan/28

STORY:

- One year after the battle with the mysterious Red Falcon Organization, the earth saeems to be free. However... the quest for freedom continues.

LEVELS: 5

Other Emulators:

* FB Alpha

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Contra 3: The Alien Wars (Nintendo Super System)

Vs. Platoon

Battle Rangers

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Midnight Resistance

Thunder Fox

Battlecry

Gunforce

Gun Force II

Metal Slug

Metal Slug 2

Metal Slug X

Metal Slug 3

Metal Slug 4

Metal Slug 5

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-

Combat School

Romset: 2721 kb / 40 files / 1.13 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>Super Contra</description>

<manufacturer>Konami</manufacturer>