Gryzor

Gryzor is the 1988 Commodore 64 conversion of Konami's 1987 arcade run-and-gun Contra. Ocean Software released it in Europe under the Gryzor title, while Konami issued the same C64 version in North America as Contra. The conversion's credits include programmers Colin Porch and David Blake, artists Stephen Wahid and Andrew Sleigh, and musician and sound-effects creator Jason C. Brooke.

A commando infiltrates an enemy stronghold, blasting through soldiers, gun emplacements and alien defences on the way to the mother ship. The game combines side-scrolling combat with map-guided base tunnels and static boss encounters. Its three broad sections cover two enemy outposts and a final assault on an atmosphere-processing plant and the mother ship.

The player begins with a rifle and can collect rapid fire, a three-way scatter gun, a laser and a temporary protective barrier. A joystick controls movement and firing, but jumping uses the spacebar, an unusual arrangement imposed by the C64's single-button joystick standard. Death returns the player to the basic rifle, making weapon retention important.

The C64 version preserves the arcade game's varied viewpoints and major bosses, but compresses its progression into six stages. It supports one or two players in alternating turns rather than the arcade's simultaneous two-player action, has no continues, and omits the arcade fireball weapon. Some PAL tape releases also contain a shortened waterfall sequence, whereas the North American Contra release otherwise differs mainly in presentation.

This is a computer conversion of Contra rather than the later NES adaptation. The NES version reworked the arcade material into eight stages and added its own layout and features; Gryzor instead follows the arcade design more directly within C64 limits. Despite sharing Contra's source, Gryzor is also distinct from Probotector, the robot-themed title used for the PAL NES release.