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Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?

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Re: Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?

#71

Post by aristus »

dylanz wrote: post #65
aristus wrote: post #5

As a wee lad in the last millennium I was an authorized Nintendo repairman. Blowing on the cart sometimes worked, if there was errant dust or fluff in the way. But in the long run the salty moist air would cause a corrosive layer of gunk on the contacts. Normal procedure was to open each cart and clean them with a good eraser then an alcohol wash. The bigger problem was bad design in the original NES. The cart plugge…

Enlightening, thanks for sharing! I was about 8 years old, and convinced a local video store in my small town that I could repair Nintendo games. I brought them home, and if they were indeed not working, I would get a Q-tip, apply some rubbing alcohol, and swab/scrub the contacts. This nearly worked every time. I got slightly called out when a customer brought in an actual Nintendo that was broken. I ended up taking…

It was a family business so I wasn't much older than that. :) It's amazing what children can do if you don't tell them it's too hard.

Re: Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?

#73

Post by vq »

dllthomas wrote: post #32

The "Placebo Effect" isn't "something tricking you into thinking it works" - it's the fact that having a belief that something works produces better outcomes. I doubt that the mental state of the child has any detectable or consistent effect on the function of the console.

He probably meant to write "Superstition".

Re: Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?

#74

Post by acuozzo »

sliverstorm wrote: post #9

I'm surprised seeing those photos of the game boards outside their cartridges. Not only are they much smaller than the cartridge, but they are really just some memory and the lock-out chip!

The size depends on which mapper chip was used for the game. Castlevania III (which uses the MMC5 mapper in the USA) nearly fills the cartridge space.

You may be interested in checking out: http://www.nesdev.com/

Re: Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?

#76

Post by samspot »

pixelbath wrote: post #37
samspot wrote: post #34

I used to blow in them, but I found that the double cartridge technique (putting two in at a time causing the pins to press harder) worked a lot better. Sometimes if things were really bad a 'snap-in' technique would work. To perform this technique you insert the cartridge partially and then apply downward pressure causing the cartridge to forcefully jump into the slot. This was likely very bad for the system :)

Didn't the front-loading NES have a metal bar across the top of the loading mechanism? How were you able to fit a second game past that?

It goes on top of the bar :). This means the game you are playing is depressed much lower than usual.
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