Contra IV: The Alien Wars (Regional Intermediate Prototype)
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| Download Contra IV: The Alien Wars (Regional Intermediate Prototype) (info) |
A near-final prototype of Contra III with its original title, featuring IV instead of III. It retains all of the Japanese original's gameplay features (difference in difficulty, cheats, etc.), but all of the text is translated to English. The prototype is in a Super Famicom cartridge. It is dated approximately 5 months before the Japanese release, according to the EPROMs.
The download features 2 ROM files. One is the original, unaltered ROM data for preservation; this contains a ROM header error that prevents it from being played on most emulators. The other fixes this error (single byte).
Notes
A mix of the Japanese and North American releases.
- From the Japanese version, it retains all of the cheats (30 lives, level select, sound test); unlimited continues; full ending sequence on all 3 difficulty settings; date stamps on some images in the ending; remaining lives display method during gameplay; title screen animation; copyright information at the bottom of the title screen.
- All text is translated to English.
- Biggest difference is in the title screen, shown above. Besides "IV", "The Alien Wars" subtitle is more blandly colored.
- Spread Gun's muzzle flash is white instead of yellow (shown below); likely unintentional.
- While the end texts are in English, they are arranged like in the Japanese version. Due to this, there is no message at the bottom to press start. There is also a typo in each difficulty's end text. All in the screenshots below.
- Occasional graphical glitch during one of the final bosses (shown below).
- Attract demos are out of sync.
- ROM header contains 3 instead of III.
Screenshots
Spread Gun muzzle flash
easy mode end text
normal mode end text
hard mode end text
graphical glitch
Origin
- Bought by DreamTR from a Sunsoft employee and later sold to Niels, the current owner.