Blowin' on Nintendo games
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Feb 27th 2007 at 10:26PM }
We used to jam the game all the way back, force it all the way down, shove (of all things) one of those plastic SNES cart covers in there to keep it in place -- and then (as seen above) feverishly press 'Reset' until that sucka started up. Other techniques?
See also: How did you blow your NES cartridge?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
steve17 @ Feb 27th 2007 10:29PM
brings back memories of my 64 days.
Christopher MacKinnon @ Feb 27th 2007 10:46PM
Isopropyl Alcohol and Q-Tips. Works like a charm for any cartridge based console :)
And besides, blowing into the cartridge can accidently send saliva onto the contacts corroding them :(
LaughingTarget @ Feb 27th 2007 10:30PM
NES still works. Have to put the game in as normal, but after pushing the cart down, I have to back it out (while still in the down position) slightly to get the game to play. I just use light duty rubbing alcohol and a q-tip to keep it clean. No need to blow and rust up the connectors.
steve17 @ Feb 27th 2007 10:32PM
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
the horror. LOL.
that was a great laugh for the day.
Linkamus @ Feb 27th 2007 10:35PM
Blow on it... push it almost all the way in... leave like a quarter inch over the edge of the lip and SNAP! that bitch in. Worked 60% of the time, all the time.
Adam Sutherland @ Feb 27th 2007 10:36PM
Everyone had their own technique didn't they? My NES picture used to break up into green blocks on the screen if I did it wrong. There was a definite system to it.
Shmil @ Feb 27th 2007 10:37PM
blowing out the system itself works wonders
ghj @ Feb 27th 2007 10:39PM
Blowing ultimately just wrecked the games. I was more of a "wiggle while repeatedly hitting reset" man myself when it came to the NES.
pangit @ Feb 27th 2007 10:41PM
aaahh the memories. cept my games wouldnt stay down after i got so frustrated and beat the shit out of the system. so when i would get the game to work i'd shove a snes cover in to keep it down.
Rubang B @ Feb 27th 2007 10:42PM
I still use Q-tips and rubbing alcohol, but the secret is you must then use a dry Q-tip to dry it back off. Otherwise it stays wet and it's just as bad and rusty as blowing on it.
Nintendo mailed me a free replacement non-rusted 72-pin connector about 4 years ago. I can't believe they still had one. I installed it myself (it takes maybe 3 minutes). It's worked like a charm ever since.
And I still have 300 working NES carts. SHAZAM!
Metroid fan @ Feb 27th 2007 10:44PM
I just fixed mine by lifting up all the pins on the connector and now I don't even need to push the games down...
Daniel @ Feb 27th 2007 10:44PM
If it fails to load, I load the cart as far forward it will go and still travel downward.
Then I just nudge it left and right a little, till it works.
Either that, or I use my Game Genie, which works most of the time.
Violently attacking the NES like in the video is probably why it doesn't work.
bret @ Feb 27th 2007 10:47PM
yeah, get a toploader
hvnlysoldr @ Feb 27th 2007 10:47PM
I blew into the cart, blew into the machine, and used a Game Genie to keep it in place. Plus wiggling the carts and hitting reset.
JohnCarroll @ Feb 27th 2007 10:47PM
Reminds me of Requiem For A Dream.
pascaloux @ Feb 27th 2007 10:52PM
Anyone with a bad comment on Virtual Console?
Now NES games work all the time. And they cost 5$.
Eric @ Feb 27th 2007 10:51PM
Oh, I... BLEW in them... *wink wink nudge nudge say no more*
Rubang B @ Feb 27th 2007 10:54PM
Metroid fan's right too. Most of the time the problem is the connectors bending, and you can just bend them back and it's better than brand new. But if it's the corrosion, you need a new connector.
Also of note: if the game is blinking gray, you definitely have a problem and either need to bend or replace the connector because the NES isn't even detecting the game whatsoever. If the game is blinking any other color at all, then you just need to wiggle/reset/clean with rubbing alcohol on Q-Tips. SHAZAM!
Shibathedog @ Feb 27th 2007 10:57PM
Ninja Secret: Put your shirt tightly over the connector part and blow through the connector.
Will work first time every time. I think it has something to do with heat, i have no idea, its weird though.
arrrgh @ Feb 27th 2007 11:08PM
Didn't ANYONE else have the GAME GENIE???? that thing was God's gift to the NES. Not for cheats, but because with the game genie attached to a cart, the cart ALWAYS worked. Seriously 98-99% of the time. I couldn't use my NES without it.
silkylove @ Feb 27th 2007 11:05PM
LOL. What a rookie! Everyone knows you have to mix up the quick dry breath with the slow hot breath. You use the quick dry breath to get rid of any dust. You follow it up with the slow hot breath like you're tryin’ to fog up a mirror. You have to get a little intimate with your cartridge. That gets the connection prong nice and misty Then you just ease that bad boy in the system. You don't do any of that stupid wiggling the game stuff. You just hit power and you should be good. If not then you must quickly and LIGHTY tap the reset button. Works about 90% of the time.
Kwipper @ Feb 27th 2007 11:09PM
Oh man! This is totally nostalgic, but usually I would take it a step further. I would sometimes lick the inside of the cartridge and the contacts. Sometimes I would use rubbing alcohol to clean them, just to get them to work.
silkylove @ Feb 27th 2007 11:13PM
@Kwipper
Now that's just nasty:(
Shade @ Feb 27th 2007 11:20PM
It's like a horrific dream from my childhood! I can't bare to look anymore... *Runs away screaming and crying... like a man"
Blazur @ Feb 27th 2007 11:21PM
One thing I found usually worked well was inserting the game just enough so that it barely cleared the front when pushing it down.
p.s. Has anybody else noticed how buggy GameVideos.com Flash videos are? Sometimes they don't even work for me, even with the latest Flash plugin...
Joe @ Feb 27th 2007 11:40PM
My method for me usually works withing the a few attemps. First I put the cart under my shirt and blow on it like Shibathedog said; then I put the cart in the NES, but don't push it in all the way. The sweet spot is when the cart scrapes the NES when you push it down. If it doesn't work in a couple of tries, then I start to do the "pressing reset several times till the game works" thing. If all that fails (and it's kinda not all that often, but still happens in my experience), then I'll do the alcohol and Q-tip thing. Usually two Q-tips: one for each side of the circut board; one side of the Q-tip has alcohol, the other is to dry it off. You can usually tell from the Q-tips if you are going to need to clean it some more.
CubeGuy @ Feb 27th 2007 11:33PM
@ Shibathedog
That's my method of choice. Works almost every time.
ross @ Feb 28th 2007 12:14AM
i licked the end of the game.. worked nearly every time..
Adam @ Feb 27th 2007 11:42PM
My technique was always to blow on the contacts once, lick the contacts, then blow on them again.
Probably not the most well-advised solution, considering that you had to get saliva on the contacts themselves, but it worked every time for me, providing the cartridge was actually still functional.
Poisoned Al @ Feb 27th 2007 11:51PM
You know I've always maintained that the NES had some kind of design flaw. No other cartage based machine had as many problems as the NES. I mean my Master System, SNES and Mega Drive never gave me problems. Even when I rented out minging scuz covered carts they ran okay.
Rubang B @ Feb 28th 2007 12:11AM
@Poisoned Al, all those good cartridge-based systems that don't give you any guff are toploaders. They don't mess around. The Famicom was a toploader in Japan. But after the video game crash of 1983, nobody wanted a video game system. If the NES was a toploader, nobody would buy it.
So the story goes that they named it the Entertainment System, made it shaped like some wacky VCR, and had it come with an assload of peripherals like the Power Pad, Zapper, and R.O.B. to make it look like it's a family fun center with all kinds of functions other than video games. It was a big hoax and it worked.
REUYL @ Feb 28th 2007 12:29AM
I always treated my cartridges like gold because I knew my dad wouldn't buy me a new game system if I messed it up!
Joe @ Feb 28th 2007 12:37AM
@Poisoned Al
I've actually had problems with my SNES and Genesis a good number of times that required some good ol' fashioned blowing. Actually I even had to do it with my N64 once or twice. Of course, none of those systems were anywhere near as trouble some as the NES
Rubang B @ Feb 28th 2007 12:38AM
It's all you fuckers that were licking your cartridges back in the day that made half the used games I find today green with corrosion and unplayable. I wish I could go back in time and find every kid licking a cartridge and smack them upside the head and warn them of my future NES collection's needs.
beavis_2k @ Feb 28th 2007 12:46AM
I had the same troubles with rented NES games, the techniques I would use were
1. Blow on it fast and only once
2. Gently lower the cart in the nes
3. put in the cart just barely enough to go down
4. the most practical solution, get a q-tip, dip it in alcohol and swab the contacts both sides using each tip of the q-tip, rental carts were notoriously dirty, maybe too many people blew on them :)
Kris @ Feb 28th 2007 12:53AM
#4 had the right idea, that worked all the time.
generaldane @ Feb 28th 2007 12:52AM
i am almost 300% sure that joystiq an article just like this a while back something about nintendo blowjob i think
Salty85 @ Feb 28th 2007 12:54AM
I always got them to work by sticking another cart in there pushing the playing game down
Max @ Feb 28th 2007 12:58AM
try it, if it screwed up, take it out (without turning it off) do a quick blow'n'shake put it back in, press it down really fast then turn it off,on really fast! it was the only way zelda would work
Al @ Feb 28th 2007 12:59AM
I used to use alcohol to clean the carts, and that worked, I also used to blow the carts before that. But for nearly 100% success I just opened the NES and pried the connectors up. Now it works perfectly.
NoHitHair @ Feb 28th 2007 12:59AM
Growing up my family's NES required the game to be pushed all the way down as much as possible or it wouldn't work. So we'd find objects that could force the cartridge down as much as possible such as balled up towels, screwdriver handles, whatever.
http://blog.mypsace.com/nohithair
Seraya @ Feb 28th 2007 1:16AM
I've never blown into a cart.
Simply I wiggle the cart so it's barely able to go down. Press in until I get a clear (blinking) picture, power off, power on. Game on.
newave @ Feb 28th 2007 1:43AM
Holy crap its my video....how'd that end up on gamevideos.....wheres my damn credit, ah well thats viral video for yah. My websites - http://newave.mooshuu.com/ btw..
Dylan Horkin @ Feb 28th 2007 2:25AM
Someone needs to invent a SNES-shaped harmonica. Badly.
Mr.SAturn @ Feb 28th 2007 2:02AM
I always found that if you kept the cart in one place and kept hitting reset until the game worked that eventually the game would either crash or start displaying a lot of glitches. Wiggling the cart while reseting usually makes all the "problem games" work for as long as needed though.
It's all a matter of having clean(or atleast partially clean) connectors on the cart and getting the game to connect in the perfect place on the system.
I've heard that if you clean the connecters on the nes unit itself that it raises the chances of a game working with little to no "tweaking". You can buy carts made to clean the nes, but they really seem to need the cleaning solution they originally came with. I have a similar cart made in the early 90's but even with large amounts of alcohol on the cart it doesn't seem to remove much if anything.
One of these days I need to open one of my trouble nes's(I've got way too many semi working nes units) and see if cleaing the unit really helps as much as some people claim.
Tom @ Feb 28th 2007 2:15AM
when he wiggle that cartridge while it was in the nes annoying the F*** out of me. Weird of me to be annoyed by something like that
Shibathedog @ Feb 28th 2007 2:15AM
There are also replacement contact units you can buy that work WAY better than the original Nintendo ones. I think their secret is they have tighter locking contacts.
My friend had a Genesis back in the day that we played so much, the contacts became super loose and it wouldn't play any games anymore. We had to find something to jam it slightly foward or backward, and then after awhile even that didn't work. Years later we found a replacement contact unit for the Genesis and that fixed it :D (I cant remember if we used the 32X to get it to work again, Could you play original genesis games through the 32X? I know we tried the game genie sometimes, and once we got it in right we where all DON'T TOUCH IT!!!)
alex @ Feb 28th 2007 2:35AM
That totally worked on with my NES... also successful methods in dealing with my girlfriend (..ex), boss, and even pets!
Rubang B @ Feb 28th 2007 2:42AM
I talked to a Nintendo customer service rep on the phone when my 72-pin connector finally died on me due to corrosion, and he told me that the original connector cleaning kits they used to sell would actually increase the long term corrosion, even though they would clean the units and make them work in the short term. Nintendo had no idea at the time that people would be playing the same cartridges 20 years later, and the old cleaning kits were just as bad as blowing into the carts, because you left the connectors wet.
NEVER ever ever blow into them or lick them, and when you use rubbing alcohol, dry the pins afterwards. They will never fail you that way. All the wiggling/reset methods and jamming the cartridges down with towels/game genies/other carts, etc., are completely safe and harmless however. I recommend those methods for the "problem carts," but rubbing alcohol on clean pins works every time.
Rubang B @ Feb 28th 2007 2:44AM
Anyway, Nintendo should take this video and make it into an advertisement for the Virtual Console along with an announcement for some new NES games on it.