SAMUS IN CONTRA
Version 1.0 | November 2, 2026 | NES
A Retro Replay release
https://retro-replay.com/romhacking/

Samus trades Zebes for Contra's jungle. This graphics hack brings her
original NES look into Konami's run-and-gun, with replacement player
sprites, a new title portrait, and Samus helmet life icons.

The suit follows Contra's action across running, jumping, shooting,
crouching, swimming, rear-view base stages, damage, and death poses.
Both players use Samus sprites and the same suit colors in two-player mode.

WHAT'S CHANGED
- 35 player poses adapted for Samus, including the indoor rear view.
- Samus artwork on the title screen and a SAMUS IN heading.
- Helmet icons for the remaining lives display.

Contra's stages, weapons, controls, music, and difficulty are unchanged.
There are no Metroid upgrades, bombs, or Morph Ball controls in this release.

INSTALLATION
1. Make a backup of your clean Contra (USA) ROM.
2. Check the ROM information below. Do not use a Japanese, European,
   prepatched, or trainer-equipped ROM.
3. Apply samus-in-contra-v1.0.ips with an IPS-compatible patcher, or use
   the patcher on the Retro Replay release page.
4. Open the patched copy in your NES emulator.

REQUIRED ORIGINAL ROM
Contra (USA), US release, 131,088 bytes including the 16-byte header.
This patch targets the NES 2.0-headered file identified by these hashes.
CRC32: 52CD5CD8
MD5: cdf73714ff3ef47f4eeb2b71707be2a0
SHA-256: 1f4a9b3f04e2f828688512c0b83611a87c3fc1bd4f85ed91da1b19abc5816d73
Header (hex): 4e45531a080021082000000700000001
The patch writes the final iNES header. Do not remove the input header.
A differently headered dump will have a different checksum.

PATCHED ROM CHECK
Size: 131,088 bytes
SHA-256: 0f4b0febcdb741b11c90a85ad8c2a7f18d2d28eec26d6e8389846843b6bea01f

CONTROLS
D-pad: Move and aim. Down crouches where the original game allows it.
A: Jump. B: Fire. Start: Begin or pause. Select: Choose players at the menu.
Water uses Contra's original movement rules, including no jumping.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS AND TESTING
Some effects and objects share the player's palette and take on suit colors.
Both players have the same appearance, so keep track of your position in co-op.
Tested in emulation, including all eight stage starts and targeted one-player
and two-player checks. A full uninterrupted playthrough and testing on
original NES hardware have not been completed.

CREDITS
Retro Replay / dadmin: Project direction, playtesting, and release.

REFERENCES
Contra disassembly: vermiceli and contributors, building on work by Trax.
Metroid disassembly: nmikstas, building on engine work by Kent Hansen.
These are source references, not members of this hack's development team.
https://github.com/vermiceli/nes-contra-us
https://github.com/nmikstas/metroid-disassembly

DISTRIBUTION
Share the patch with this readme and the credits intact. No game ROM is
included. Contra and Metroid characters, artwork, and original game material
belong to their respective owners. This is an unofficial fan project and
is not affiliated with or endorsed by Konami or Nintendo.

FUTURE PLANS
A separate fork is planned to bring more Metroid elements into Contra.
This v1.0 character-swap release will remain available as its own download.
The expanded fork is planned work, not a feature of this release.

VERSION HISTORY
1.0: First public release of Samus in Contra.
