Nintendo Entertainment System

"Game doesn't work. I have to pull out tha cartridge and blow on it again."

The most common reason for NES games not to work is the dirt on the game cartridges themselves or the connectors within the NES system. Rarely games fail due to the manufacturing reasons.

Dear old Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, since the beginning of it's existence was and is still suffering from the infamous blank screen of error. And as kids thought, well cartridge is dirty, they wanted to clean it the simplest and easies way possible - by blowing on it. What a terrible mistake it is! Nintendo NES cartridge connectors circuitry is made of copper. The socket inside NES that accepts the cartridge is metal. By blowing on a cartridge, and sometimes spitting on it, this created a thin layer of moisture that helped conduct electric charge on contact between console and the game. Ta ta! Game works! Off you went on your next adventure.

But your system and cartridge started to deteriorate and worsen with months passing. The moisture on metal started to corrode the connectors on the NES cartridges and inside consoles. No matter how many times "blowing" worked this was and is the worst thing that could be done. Never ever blow onto the cartridge.

Cleaning the cartridge. Two easy ways:

1. Use rubbing alcohol and cotton swab to clean throughly the surface of the connectors on both sides.

2. More effective way is to clean with eraser pressing on the connector surface firmly. Do not worry, they will not get damaged.

If you can obtain on eBay so called "security bits" you would be able to open the cartridge and inspect the circuit board and clean it much better, gaining full unrestricted access to both sides of the cartridge.

Cleaning the system, the tricky easy part.

Wow, I have to open the system? Can I do it?

Yes! You can! A "72 Pin connector, or adapter" can easily be found on eBay for mere 10 to 15 dollars. All that needs to be done is to open the system, remove all protective shielding and some screws with actual cartridge docking mechanism, which is very simple. People with manual skills should not have a big problem at all. It is not as difficult as many may think. Replace it with new 72 pin connector that was just bought earlier on eBay and VOILA! System is back and in fully operational condition.

While opening the system inspect it for any moisture damage, physical damage or liquid spills like soda, which could fry the system main circuit board, therefore render the system useless.

I do not guarantee a 100% success rate, but it should take care of majority of the problems people can have with the NES systems. I was able to fix seven out of nine Nintendo NES consoles that I came accross. Good luck everyone!