First off, I have to thank some people. Yes, even before I write my classic, "FAQ no one reads."

• Mr. K (aka my research assistant): Without him I wouldn't have been able to achieve a sub-15 minute run. He gave me invaluable advice and told me how to kill the first, fourth, and fifth bosses more quickly.
  Then again, he did give me the idea to point blank the first boss, which meant a lot more dying in the first stage. Maybe I should be cursing him instead. ;)
• Josh Styger: Even though his run had a lot of mistakes, he showed me that it was practical and faster to keep dual crush missiles throughout the entire run.
  Styger, I know you want me to run Low G Man now that you are in awe of my Contra skills, but I cannot deign myself to such a menial game.
• Stanski: For listening to me when I failed for the 2309th time (not sure if that's an exaggeration).
• Ash Williams: For his Pacifist TAS. I don't remember taking a whole lot from it, but I definitely stole his third boss strategy. It was too good not to steal.
• Frezy_Man: For being the Swede of Speed and telling me to get off my ass and finish this run.
• SDA for being cool in general.

Yes, sub-XX times are arbitrary goals, but I have to say, it feels nice to have a sub-15 minute time. =)

This run was an on and off effort that took over 2 years (mostly off though).

I wasn't running this game too seriously until six months ago, which was when I really wanted finish the run because I was getting so tired of running the game.

As a result, around November-December 2008, I produced a "Classic Contra" run thanks to a loose s-video cable. You can download the video here, but it's 10 seconds slower than this run.

I wasn't feeling too motivated to run the game until MAGFest, where seeing other speedrunners motivated me, especially after Frezy_Man said he wanted to see a Contra 3 run from me. For the next two months, I decided to abstain from playing any game on my TV that wasn't Contra III. As an aside, I'm now just starting to enjoy my 3-month old Xbox 360.

The obligatory IFAQ:

Q: Did this run really take over 2 years to complete? Why?
A: Yes, this run really did take over two years for me to complete, mostly due a lack of motivation and a loose S-video cable when I recorded my first successful attempt. I wasn't too motivated to complete the run until MAGFest, especially after Frezy_Man (The Swede of Need?) told me he wanted to see this run.

Q: How many attempts did this run take?
A: I have no idea, I don't count attempts (it's not really indicative of run quality), but if I had to guess, 2000-3000 attempts? That number could be way off in either direction.

Q: What is your mashing technique? You're mashing faster in this run than in previous runs.
A: I place my index finger on Y, middle finger on X, then I shake my arm like crazy.

I used a different method for the first boss: Left thumb on Y, Right thumb on X. This method was possible while fighting the first boss because I didn't need to move.

Q: Why did you choose such an odd starting point in Stage 5? All of the other runs, including the TAS, choose the top left corner.
A: I choose the middle right instead of the top left because it's much easier to pull off the ledge shortcut when you start on the right. If you choose the top left, it's more difficult to pull off the shortcut because you have to adjust your angle, and there's a chance an enemy will spawn on the other side, blocking passage (like what occured in Styger's run).

Q: Is it possible to kill the Gargoyle in one loop?
A: Yes, I came painfully close. If just one more shot connected, I would have saved 2-3 seconds.

Q: You have three bombs when you beat the game. Wouldn't you save time if you used them?
A: No, using a bomb causes a lot of slowdown, which counterbalances the extra damage from the bomb. If using a bomb for extra damage does save time, then the time saved is minimal.

Stage-by-stage rundown:

My rundown will be short for this run since there isn't a whole lot to criticize or write about.

Stage 1

Improvements:

• Instead of standing back to destroy the guns, I just rush and kill the first wall ASAP. (2 seconds)
• I skip the tank and point blank the wall instead. (1 second?)
• I don't use a bomb around the "volcano." (half a second to a second)
• I point blank the first boss. (3-4 seconds)

Ahhh, stage 1, a great source of restarts. I would not be surprised if the number of attempts that ended here was in the thousands. Point blanking the first boss definitely helped inflate that count.

Here is an account of how my stage 1 attempts usually went.

Die, Die, Die, Die, get to the boss, Die, get to the boss again, Die as I land the killing blow, Die, Die, get to the boss, kill him successfully, die in stage 2 because I think I can slip by an enemy that I end up running into at full speed.

Surprisingly, it's very easy to pass by the fireball spewing explosion without a bomb. Make sure you're far enough to the right of the screen, then fire downwards while jumping when the explosion starts to appear. I think cleared it successfully about 90% of the time.

Too bad my chance of getting past the first boss was a lot lower. Normally when you fight the first boss, he'll shoot some bullets at you within the first 2 seconds. Considering that the boss fight took slightly less than 2 seconds in this run, you can guess that there were plenty of restarts here. My success rate against the boss was around 20%.

Stage 2

Improvements:

• I walk diagonally most of the time. (no idea, but it's at least a second)
• I get a better turret pattern than Styger. (2-3 seconds)
• I don't screw up any of the turrets. (3 seconds)
• Faster boss battle - I shoot from a better angle get lucky. (2 seconds)

If you're confused about the second item on the list about bullet patterns, there are two possible turret AI patterns and you can always tell which pattern you're dealing with by the second turret.

The good pattern is when the second turret fires at you the moment you're in its line of sight, which is the pattern I got in my run.

The bad pattern (costs 2-3 seconds) is when the second turret doesn't open up right away, requiring you to fire some missiles, then face away from the turret. This is the pattern Styger dealt with in his run.

As for the stage itself, I couldn't have asked for a better run. Even my boss fight was unusually fast.

Stage 3

Improvements:

• I kill the first miniboss before jumping off. (1-2 seconds)
• I climb up the wall without using a bomb. (half a second to a second)
• I'm further to the right when I start climbing platforms and poles. (half a second to a second)
• Better climbing path near the end of the stage where the winged soldiers spawn. (one second)
• I don't wait when I reach the top. (half a second)
• Much faster boss strategy. (9-10 seconds)

These improvements are somewhat offset by worse luck against the wall boss and robot brothers. Styger's luck was ridiculously good against the wall boss, the boss drills first maybe 1 out of 20 times. Usually my luck against the robot brothers is much better, but of course something has to go wrong during my successful run. ;)

Yes, I screw up a bit against the wall boss, but I doubt that mistake cost more than half a second (if even that much time).

It might look like I wait too long on the first spinner, but I can't climb up until the screen is scrolled all the way to the right.

Stage 4

Improvements:

• Better luck against the tightrope guy. He stays in place in my run, he moves to the right in Styger's run. (1 second)
• Better battle against the long-legged robot before the helicopter. (1-1.5 seconds)
• Better boss battle (3-4 seconds)

Not much to say here. I improved the few spots that could be improved. The only thing to note is that I've killed the spiked walker miniboss (the one right before helicopter) at the very peak of its jump, but that is very difficult to do.

Stage 5

Improvements:

• I execute the ledge shortcut successfully (3 seconds)
• Again, I don't miss any turrets. (2 seconds)
• Tighter boss battle. (5-7 seconds, hard to tell because of the slowdown)

Read my IFAQ if you're wondering why I didn't choose the top left corner.

I could have shot the third turret (cocoon?) a little faster if I was facing the right direction when I approached the spinning sand, but it's tough to align yourself correctly. Still, I could have been more accurate.

I hesitate for a split second near the end because I've fallen an embarrassing amount of times during the last stretch.

My fifth boss battle was very smooth. Yes, the worm blocked some of my shots, but I was able to align myself with the eye quickly without turning. It might be possible to kill the boss before it closes its eye, but that would require adjusting yourself to get a lock on the eye when the sand starts to spin.

Stage 6

Improvements:

• I only use one bomb when running through the lair. (half a second to one second)
• I kill the crawler boss in one loop. (12-13 seconds)
• Slightly faster alien queen battle. Better aim? (1-2 seconds)
• I kill the brain in 4 cycles instead of 5. (12-13 seconds)

As you can see from the list of improvements, this is the stage where I gain the most time over Styger's run.

I usually do better against the Gargoyle's first pattern, but I don't think I lost more than a second there.

There seems to be a misconception floating around that the gray stones are the only good pattern when fighting the brain. The red brains are just as good, if not better, as long as if you have a bomb. Since the main brain cannot hurt you, you can use a bomb to destroy the smaller brains and shoot without worry. Also, the Stones take about 13-14 seconds to cycle through, whereas the red brains take around 11 seconds.

My index finger was cramping up while I was fighting the brain. I don't know if my mashing suffered, I just wanted to mention this. Playing for more than 2 hours in a row does take its toll on you.

To be perfectly honest, I am simply glad to be finished with this run. This is likely the best run I've done so far, simply because I've played the game a stupid number of times.

Though I think this run is very optimized, it's definitely possible to improve this run, just like any other run.

Here's a list of some possible improvements:

• Don't get slowdown in the beginning of the second stage. Too bad I have no idea what lags the game there. - half a second
• Better luck against the wall boss in the third stage. However, the chance of the wall boss drilling twice first is around 5% - 3-4 seconds
• Better luck against the twin robots - 3 seconds
• Better walker fight in the fourth stage - 1 second
• Better fourth boss fight - hard to say, 2-4 seconds
• Immediately shoot the third turret in the fifth stage, instead of adjusting while in the sand. - 1 second
• Killing the Gargoyle boss during its first cycle (really difficult) - 3 seconds
• Better luck against the alien queen - 2 seconds
• Better final boss fight - 3-5 seconds

Now are a couple of things that can easily go worse.

• Worse luck against the turrets in the second stage - 2-3 seconds
• Worse luck/positioning against the second boss. - 1 second
• Worse luck walking through the flies. - 1-2 seconds
• Worse luck against the wall boss. - 3-6 seconds
• Worse luck against the tightrope miniboss - 1-2 seconds.

Now the list above is ignoring run-ending mistakes like failing to kill the Crawler in its first cycle.

My guess is that the human limit is around 14:40, but that's assuming you nail almost everything perfectly and get perfect luck.

If these comments aren't enough for you, there is audio commentary included with the run. If you're afraid my audio commentary will just repeat what I've stated here, don't worry, I promise my audio commentary has no information related to the run whatsoever. However, the commentary does contain some interesting facts ;)

Until next time
-Mike 'That Red Teenage Mutant Mega Contra Slug Zero guy' Uyama