PROTOTYPES

Contra Encyclopedia home page

This page is intended to be a quick reference for all of the known prototypes of games in the Contra series. They are categorized into the Contra games to which they correspond. Each entry links to its respective page which covers the prototype in further detail. Additionally, they are also available on the main page of their respective game.

Unique to this page is a section that catalogs prototypes for which information is significantly scarce or for which the validity is uncertain.

Select a game:

•Contra
•Super Contra
•Operation C
•Contra III: The Alien Wars
•Contra: Hard Corps
•Contra: Legacy Of War
•C: The Contra Adventure
•Contra: Shattered Soldier
•Neo Contra
•Contra 4
•Contra Force
•Hard Corps: Uprising
•Cancelled/Unreleased Contra Games
•Indeterminate

CANCELLED/UNRELEASED CONTRA GAMES

The following is a list of cancelled or unreleased Contra titles for which prototype builds have either surfaced or are known to exist in public circulation.

•Contra: Evolution Tech Demo (Microsoft XBox 360)

Top of page

Here is a “family photo” of Contra prototypes taken by JaxsBox of NintendoAge. Most of those are from this site. Strangely, he did not include at least 4 others: the 2 copies of the near-final SNES protos (possibly because it would get him and guggles in hot water due to the nature of how the prototypes were acquired), the convenient blank-label PCB (described below) and the alleged Contra III partial build (likely a lie).

INDETERMINATE

•AtariAge user Shawn alleged that a prototype of the NES version of Contra was listed on eBay for $10 000, some time between 2009-2013. According to them, the EPROMs had handwritten labels. Without any proof from Shaw, or at the very least a willingness to discuss what they saw about said listing, a hoax is a safe possibility for this.

—

•NTSC-U sample of Probotector for NES. There are no confirmed sightings, nor any solid testimonies. However, NTSC-U samples of PAL video games are confirmed to have been created and sold between collectors, including those of Probotector II and Super Probotector. Additionally, experienced collector DreamTR stated that a North American prototype of the game had been created, although he may have been referring to Probotector II.

—

•NintendoAge user Kessen claimed to own a prototype of a Contra game, without specifying the system. They had listed that they owned prototypes for various systems, including Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. As there are multiple Contra games between these 2 handhelds, the exact title cannot be determined. This joke joined nintendoage just to ask the legality of selling prototypes, only to never return after only using the forum for a few days.

—

•The following pair of prototype long boards were sold by eBay user nowhere.japan to JaxsBox, from the Nintendoage forum, who eagerly purchased them without due diligence:

On the left is Contra Spirits; on the right, Contra III. Both are identical to their respective final, retail releases.

There are simply too many questionable aspects about these 2 alleged prototypes, as well as the rest that the user had put on sale (including what they had already sold). There is yet to be a single one of their prototypes that isn’t on a long board (which was considered to be quite rare at the time) and that contains a build other than what is publicly available (either retail, which is mostly the case, or dumped prototypes).

The long board issue is compounded by there having been a sale of empty SNES long boards on Yahoo Japan recently prior to nowhere.japan’s listings. Even further adding to this is how the Contra III board’s EPROM chip labels match the style of paper on developer Culture Brain’s EPROM labels. A batch of Culture Brain EPROMs was also sold recent to these prototypes surfacing.

These boards have a 1993 date, which is 1 year after the release of Contra Spirits and Contra III. At the very least, this implies that the EPROMs were not originally placed on these boards.

Of particular note between this pair is the Contra Spirits prototype (left). The label covering both EPROMs has 1991 written on it. Considering it holds the final release (from 1992), and especially considering the other known earlier builds are also from 1992, these are likely illegitimate.

—

•Photo provided by JaxsBox from the Nintendoage forum, it probably isn’t even Contra III as claimed.

The EPROM chips are covered by conveniently unmarked labels. The year date stamped on the battery is 1993, 1 later than the game’s release. He was probably scrambling for an unlabeled prototype board to snap a photo of to cover up for him not doing his end of the deal on another Contra prototype.

—

•Retro gaming collector, and user of the NintendoAge and Assemblergames forums, retrogamesuk claims to have sold prototypes of Contra III (SNES) and Contra 4 (DS). The former was said to be a final review copy. In typical prototype collector fashion, after providing a few details to begin with, there was no further correspondence from this user, despite a claim to elaborate on the prototypes. Given he’s good friends with jaxsbox, it is clear they share so much in common.

—

•NintendoAge user M3chk1lla claims to own 3-4 prototypes of Contra games. However, locating them among storage seems to be an ongoing battle for the past year, with no sign of victory.

—

•Contra III “prototype”. The following cartridge was posted for sale on leboncoin.fr:

The seller, who is simply named Seb Zeitountsian (possibly Sebastien) through his email and located in Marseille, France, claims that it was bought from a Konami employee who acquired it in 1991. Including the cartridge itself, there are many questionable aspects about this item:

-Contra III was released in Japan first, in 1992, under the title of Contra Spirits. The North American release occurred ~1 month afterward, the changes just being almost entirely superficial. It, however, was not initially titled Contra III, but Contra IV. It is therefore unclear why a build of the game from 1991 would be referred to as Contra III when this title was conceived the following year.

-The cartridge appears to have had its label removed, with visible glue stains in the area of its placement. Although the seller or the alleged Konami employee could have used a spare shell as a donor cart, this was not at all addressed in the listing. When considering fraudulent items deemed prototypes, this is at least somewhat noteworthy. A photo of the game’s PCB would definitely confirm or eliminate any doubts.

On a related note, the seller claimed that an additional screenshot, of the back of the cartridge, was available on his/her Facebook page. In addition to placing a restriction on people who don’t have a Facebook account, it is unclear why the seller did not place this useful element in the ad. See below

-Due to the use of the website, the seller would be paid specifically in cash; however, he accepted no other options for selling the item (ie, online, with shipping). Selling through this web service and strictly remaining with cash payment narrows down the market, especially since the item is a North American game in a European country, for a regionally restricted game system. It also ensures that the buyer would not be able to track the seller down in the event that the “prototype” was indeed fraudulent.

That they were unwilling to sell this Contra III “prototype” through an online transaction based service, for example eBay or a video game forum, is suspect. Such a transaction method would have had to be used to acquire the game from the alleged Konami employee, taking their distance apart into account. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, using eBay or video game collector forums would have broadened the market and increased the chance of a higher sale price.

When contacted for clarification and reasoning, the seller was less than cooperative and highly defensive, dismissing the discussions with snap judgements. If this is in fact a legitimate prototype, it is most certainly identical to the release version and not anywhere near a build from 1991. Furthermore, the seller probably did not sell it for anywhere near the asking price; a dishonest seller who refused to be reasonable.

UPDATE: Further clarification and translation has led to a much stronger conclusion that the alleged listing is a fraud. The seller actually claimed that a fingerprint of a Konami employee is present on the back of the cartridge and that it can be traced to the employee on Facebook. Due to this development, this item can most likely be dismissed.

—

•Contra Advance “prototype”. The following GBA prototype/dev cartridge was listed on eBay:

Although there is yet any concrete, explicit proof of either side of its legitimacy, the following factors suggest it to be suspicious, at least:

-The type of dev cart featured in the auction is able to be erased and rewritten with data. It is also well established for years as being used for forgeries that comprise publicly available ROMs downloaded from the internet that is burned to the cartridges.

-Adding to the previous point, the gameplay screenshots featured in the auction fully match the prototype build that is publicly available. There are no visible differences.

-Further adding to the previous 2 points, there are no game-specific or descriptive labels on the cartridge; only the generic dev cart informational label. In contrast, the confirmed legitimate prototype, described here, has 2 labels, including one from Konami.

—

•Swiss collector Daniel Hekel, of the former Assemblergames forum, claims to have several hundred prototypes, 2 of which are apparently of Contra: Hard Corps. He claims they have several differences from the retail version.

After initially promising to back up and release the ROMs to these prototypes, Hekel stayed silent for several months before finally turning around on his decision with several contradictory justifications. Additionally, there is no visual proof of him actually owning these alleged prototypes of the game.

In general, he refuses to preserve any prototype content that he has on the basis of his perception of the prototype scene as “pure stupidity”. He sees no hypocrisy in his sentiment, when his biggest involvement in the scene has been to hide his sharing of an unreleased game behind his requisite of 1000 subscriptions to his Youtube channel. His only other involvement in the community has been to download prototype content that others have released, as well as reuploads of previous releases.

Additionally, his view that the scene is destined to fail is heavily biased, basing it on flawed observations such as his misunderstanding of the Assemblergames community closing down. He completely ignores the ongoing success of efforts such as Hidden Palace and Obscuregamers, especially the recent releases of the former that have received widespread coverage.

Hekel runs the site retrorulez.com, which is entirely focused on coverage of the Evercade; he is also a former beta tester for it. What is baffling is that he continues to support and create content for the device, endorsing and defending it in other communities (even to the annoyance of other people), despite ultimately having been banned from its own communities and as a beta tester.

His opinion of the prototype community is highly ignorant, having been formed based on his focus on only the negative and unrepresentative aspects of it, as well as his own misconceptions. Perhaps he should self-reflect and try to see the hypocrisy in the “pure stupidity” that he sees, especially when he’s getting banned from groups.

Hopefully he will realize that it’s more productive and useful to contribute to video game preservation with the important material that he has, rather than put his time into things that don’t reciprocate any positivity. Until then, he remains a hindrance to preserving video game history; any prototypes he may have can be considered as good as lost.

—

•Nintendo Age user sportbettor claims to own or have owned a development disc of C: The Contra Adventure. However, this is questionable as the user provided inconsistent information regarding their involvement with the item. Initially explaining that their name was in the game’s credits, they later changed the story to being just a reviewer. The attempt at 5 seconds of fame by this user is particularly amusing.

—

•Assemblergames user Kiff claimed to have sold some disc-based Contra prototypes to an American collector. As is typical of prototype collectors, when asked for further information, the user simply stopped responding.

—

•A putative Contra: Shattered Soldier review disc was sighted at 192 Flea Market in Kissimmee, Florida, in July of 2015. It features nearly identical artwork to the final release, with the exception of an RP ESRB rating, instead of T. Although this suggests a bootleg copy, the concurrent heterogeneity and similarity in the design of labels and artwork for pre-release and bootleg discs render this finding inconclusive. Further investigation is required.

—

•NintendoAge user JaxsBox claims he may have a Nintendo Wii dev disc that contains a pre-release build of Contra Rebirth. However, he was highly inconsistent in details when asked to elaborate, which can be confidently summed up to excuses and teases.

Top of page

Contra Encyclopedia home page

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Contra Encyclopedia

PROTOTYPES

CONTRA

SUPER CONTRA

OPERATION C

CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS

CONTRA: HARD CORPS

CONTRA: LEGACY OF WAR

C: THE CONTRA ADVENTURE

CONTRA: SHATTERED SOLDIER

NEO CONTRA

CONTRA 4

CONTRA FORCE

HARD CORPS: UPRISING

CANCELLED/UNRELEASED CONTRA GAMES

INDETERMINATE

MAIN

UPDATES

CONTENT

Links to Contra-Related Sites

Archives

Meta

Contra Encyclopedia

PROTOTYPES

CONTRA

SUPER CONTRA

OPERATION C

CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS

CONTRA: HARD CORPS

CONTRA: LEGACY OF WAR

C: THE CONTRA ADVENTURE

CONTRA: SHATTERED SOLDIER

NEO CONTRA

CONTRA 4

CONTRA FORCE

HARD CORPS: UPRISING

CANCELLED/UNRELEASED CONTRA GAMES

INDETERMINATE

Share this:

MAIN

UPDATES

CONTENT

Links to Contra-Related Sites

Archives

Meta