i realized when arguing with my buds (as allways) that i have never myself, or seen anyone beat contra without the code. does anyone here claim to have done it?

I've done it, but I don't exactly have any proof :l. It's not too difficult if you sell your life away and memorize all of the levels though.

I've beaten it. It's not insanely hard or anything.

I agree. I think I managed to get to Stage 4 without dying. Most of the game is just reflexes and recognizing patterns. The only stage that was pretty challenging was the last one, but with a spreader the game becomes a lot easier.

I've done it. My proof is that I have no reason to lie about it. Not like it's getting me laid or scoring any drugs for me. Although I may have been on drugs when I did it.

Done it.

All you have to do is play through a couple of times and you'll have it down well enough to breeze through. At least that's what I did.

I did recently, actually, but it was a two player game.

One-lifed it dozens of times, as have most of the PlayTheNES crew at some point. I believe Roth has a 1Life2Live video of himself doing it somewhere.

Contra is totally beatable without the code. I've made it to stage 8 without dying.

The game is all about memorizing patterns. Once you known what to do and when to do it you can blaze through. Also being able to hold on to the spreader without dying helps a ton.

Super C on the other hand is much harder. Something about the enermy patterns are designed to trick you it seems. Power ups also seem more rare and you only get 3 continues rather than 5 so you end up seeing the game over screen much sooner than you would think. You pretty much have to rock that one 2p to have a chance.

I wouldn't really say so; it really comes down to the same thing as Contra: if you memorize enemy position and patterns, you will be fine. I've had no trouble going through Super C without losing a life, yet I still can't beat Contra without the code.

I've one-lifed Contra and Super C, but I've yet to find a totally foolproof way to deal with those floor mouths in that 3rd to last stage in the latter. I've gotten through it before, but I still find myself dying on that part at least once more often than not, while the rest is no problem.

Meh, I think Super C is harder just because I dislike the top down parts. It always seems a slow moving stray bullet I thought I dodged gets me while I'm trying to juke out somebody else. I know that I kinda just described every level of Contra, but it seemed to happen more to me in the top down mode. I don't get it, I'm awesome at Heavy Barrel and Iron Tank but this always kicks my ass.

I just make sure to stay away from the buds of the monsters that are about to pop up. If I remember, though, there's only so many of the monster that can appear on the screen at once. I think that if you don't kill them, they'll only respawn once they're out of the screen. I think at least; haven't played the game in a long time.