eleased by Konami in February 1988 for the NES, Contra ported the brutal-difficulty arcade run-and-gun to home consoles. The Konami Code (↑↑↓↓←→←→BA) — entered on the title screen to grant thirty lives — became one of the most famous cheat codes in gaming history and shipped first inside this cartridge.
Contra's 1988 Konami first print sits at the heart of the late-Black-Box / early-hangtab transition. The H-tab variant is the canonical first-print indicator. Sealed WATA 9.4 A+ trades $2,000–6,500; the Konami 1988 packaging (pre-Player's Choice and pre-Game of the Year reprints) is the structurally scarce variant.

















