Contras is a clone of the arcade hit Contra, although with some differences. Like the arcade, you can have two players simultaneously, but
unlike the arcade, you only have one improved weapon to get, which is rapid fire. The bonus shapes you shoot to get the extra
weapons seem to be based on the extra weapon types from the arcade original, but due to the history of the game (Doug started it, but Jeff had to finish it later, and to quote
Jeff, this was his first experience in "taking over somebody else's mess"), it looks like not everything was completed as originally planned. It was one of the most ambitious Coco 3
games attempted, making use of multi-voice music and sound effects, horizontal scrolling, large maps and dual player modes with graphics
very close to the Nintendo version. Unlike the arcade version, the 3-D segments are not in here, but the later levels are actually different
from the arcade as well (the first level is pretty well identical). I have had the game crash a few times (all game motion stops, but
the music keeps playing), so I think even after Jeff took over development, it was a bit rushed (it was 2 years late, after all). On the other hand, it is quite a fun
game.
Title: Contras
Author: Jeff Steidl and Doug O. Masten
Publisher: Sundog Systems
Released: 1993 (originally supposed to be 1991)
Requires: Color Computer 3 with 512K RAM, disk only, joystick.