Hey, would the recent Contra collection on the Switch be acceptable or does it have to be on the original NES?

If I had to guess I would think it's no different than people using virtual console versions or the nes mini classics for running the game. I would suspect it might actually put you at a slight handicap in terms of running speed overall. That's just speculation ,but in other words, I assume it would be fine if you wanted to submit runs on it. If someone can look into the running speeds at some point that would definitely shed more light on it.

Cool. I honestly do speedruns in more of a hobby to see how I compare than super competitive. Was thinking of getting my brother to try co-op with me for fun.

Co-op is the best! You should definitely give it a try. Really interesting how the screen scrolls.