NES Controller and Modern Controllers - Differences and Similarities

          Do you remember when you were a kid and you had to use those controllers that were incredibly uncomfortable? Well, probably you are thinking on the NES controller. That joystick was designed with a rectangular shape and the directional buttons were really little and hard to use, the only buttons that were comfortable were the B and A buttons. Well, with that in mind think now about modern controllers that are used now, those joysticks were created in order to feel really comfortable when we using them, and they have at least 10 buttons in order to have all necessary actions in our disposition.

           

           If we think about the differences we can name a lot of them, but if we think about similarities we can say only a few, so, firstly, I will talk about the similarities. First, they both have buttons, those buttons are used to manipulate a character, actions or menus. Both, the NES controller and a modern controller have the same 2 main buttons: the “select” button and the “start” button, those buttons are fundamental in order to play properly. And that is all that I can say about similarities.

             

          Now, if we talk about differences, there are many, but I will talk about a few of them. First, The NES controller is anti-ergonometric, and a modern controller is ergonometric, while the NES controller was a rectangle with buttons, a modern controller fits completely with your hands, I do not really know what they were thinking were they developed the shape of the NES controller, it was uncomfortable. I think that when my son sees the NES controller he will not believe that I used that rectangle to play videogames. Another difference is that while with an NES controller you only use your thumbs, the left thumb to control the directional pad and the right thumb to use the B and A buttons, with a modern controller you use practically all your fingers, but it is easy to use and easy to remember the position of all buttons. Finally, an NES controller cannot be connected on a computer, there is not an adapter to connect it, while a modern controller can be easily connected on a computer in order to play any games, even an NES game, with an emulator of course.

             

         As you can see technology has evolved greatly, it took many years to see how controllers have evolved and now we can enjoy of all their comfortableness. 

Recalling your childhood - Contra

Without any doubt, Contra is one of those games that have marked our childhood. It presented us a shoot them up with various weapons, enemies, bosses and stages never seen before, and the best thing is that you could play it with a friend.

            The first version of Contra was released in 1987 and was an arcade game developed by Konami, the home version (the one that we played) was released in 1988 for the NES. The plot basically set us in the year 2633, our characters are named Bill and Lance and we are sent on a mission to neutralize a terrorist organization called Red Falcon that is secretly planning to take over the Earth. As you can see, it is not the greatest story ever told, but it gives us a reason to kill terrorists and later, evil aliens.

The game has 8 stages and each stage has a boss at the end, and if you can remember, those bosses could give you a headache, specially the ones from later stages.

Equipment

            The first weapon in the game is a useless rifle, this rifle shoots white dots of pure rubbish and it can kill normal soldiers with a single shot, but if you want to kill mounted soldiers, machines or a boss it will take you a lifetime. Of course this rubbish of weapon can be upgraded. There were 6 upgrades, 4 for our rifle and 2 specials that appeared in flying orbs:

“M” (Machine Gun): This upgrade is almost the same as the standard weapon but slightly faster and powerful. 

“F” (Flame): This upgrade is considered the worst of all, especially because of its circular pattern, its slowness and its lack of power.

“L” (Laser): The most powerful upgrade, it fires a reddish flame colored laser out of the gun which flies in a straight line across the screen, this weapon can kill anything with 2 or 3 hits. The main drawback is that it can be fired once until it disappears.

“S” (Spread): The best weapon in the game, it fires several bullets in a wide arc so you can hit everything on the screen. The best strategy is that if you are close enough of an enemy which takes several hits to destroy, you can easily fire every shot from your weapon, causing a massive damage.

“R” (Rapid): It speeds up the firing rate of all weapons with the exception of the laser rifle, allowing your bullets to reach their targets faster than they normally would. An extremely useful power-up when used in combination with the Machine Gun or Spread.

“B” (Barrier): As the name suggests, it is a barrier that protects you from bullets and if any soldier touches you he will be destroyed.

“Falcon”: When you pick it up, it destroys every single enemy on the screen, the problem is that it appears a few times in the game and it is not very useful.

Starting the game

             You start the game with 3 lives and the stages are quite difficult, even the first one, and considering that we were kids when we played it, it was a real challenge to complete the game. 

Fortunately, like every game developed by Konami, there is a cheat code in order to start the game with 30 lives, which can help you a lot in order to complete the game. Unfortunately when we were kids there was not internet to find any cheat, so we had to complete the game with just 3 lives and 2 continues, but if we played it with a friend it could have been a little bit easier or maybe an inconvenience because if any player lost all of his lives, he could steal lives from the other player, causing, in many cases an argument. 
  

Stages 

Finally, the stages and their bosses. From the very beginning we are attacked from every side, one touch you are dead, if you are good enough you can fight the boss from the stage. Here we can see the stages and their bosses: 

Stage 1 - The Jungle

Boss 1

Stage 2 - Base

Boss 2

Stage 3 – Waterfall 

Boss 3

Stage 4 - Base 2

Boss 4

Stage 5 - The Snowfield

Boss 5

Stage 6 - Energy Zone

Boss 6

Stage 7 – Hanger

Boss 7

Stage 8 - Alien Lair

Boss 8

            As you can remember, it was a great game and really difficult. The final boss was a giant heart which throws you scorpions in order to kill you, after you destroy it you can see the ending:

          If you are crying at this moment remembering all those moments of frustration, you can have your revenge. Here is a link down below if you want to play Contra:

Contra Nes Online 

About

           I was born in the most glorious decade of history, the last half of the 80s, in which videogames and their most notable characters such as Mario, Sonic, Link and others were known in the entire world. I have to say that I am a big fan of Nintendo and other companies such as Square Soft, Atari, Konami, etc., and their games have marked my life. I am 24 years old now and I am a student of pedagogy in English at the Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaíso, this is my third year and I have to say that I am still playing videogames, and I have learned a lot of English and vocabulary thanks to them. I have a son, he is 1 year and 10 months old and I hope that he plays the same videogames that I have played. 

 I am almost sure that most of you have played videogames and have enjoyed playing them. That is why I am going to review some old videogames that most of you know, especially from the NES and SNES consoles. I know that some games made you cry, made you launch your joystick through the air, swear, laugh and other intense emotions, and are those games that will be reviewed. I hope you enjoy reading this blog.