Did you ever play MK on the Sega when it came out? And doing left, down, left, up a, b, a, at the start up to get blood? LOL good times.
And Contra is on my list to get for the NES, there are so many bad games for that platform, but Contra is a gem, and can be played for hours. Funny thing is you do the same code as MK to get 20 +- lives. Also for the record not sure if that is the exact code. Memory is a little rusty after all these years.
I didn't play it when it first came out, but I remember installing the portable version on my computer and playing it. It was epic, I don't know what year it was, but I'm talking at least 10 years ago.
Contra was definitely a gem. I played and played and played for hours, I don't remember ever getting bored.
Thats awesome!