4 ms·

Ask iFixit: Does Blowing Into Gaming Cartridges Actually Fix Them?

21 points by diggan 2y ago

omoikane 2y ago
It's essentially the old school version of "turn it off and on again", but the physical ritual aspects of reseating the cart (which was helpful) and blowing on it (which was likely placebo) made us felt that we made some effort to make things work. It's one of the weird details that adds to the experience. In comparison, the modern "turn it off and turn it back on" just don't have the right tactile feel to it. Except maybe when power cycle doesn't work and you have to pull the battery.
MongoTheMad 2y ago
(in a middle 30's aged voice:) This youngin does not realize that blowing in the cartridge did three things - 1.) Allowed the cartridge to reset, 2.) Removed dust particles on the contacts, and 3.) lowered the temperature inside the hot electronics which had no ventilation.
ssl-3 2y ago
My friends blew on their Nintendo cartridges. It was like muscle memory for them. They'd encounter a glitch, yank the cartridge out, blow on it, and then thrust it back in and hope that it'd be better for the next hurried speedrun. Rituals were had of blowing nto games before even playing them the first time, so as to ward off the glitch demons pre-emptively. We never did this in our family. When we started encountering glitches, our dad called Nintendo to ask about the problems we were having with the [rather expensive] system he'd bought. They sent a kit for cleaning cartridges, which included a wide, flat absorbant swab wrapped with some kind of seemingly-synthetic absorbent material and a little drippy bottle full of isopropyl alcohol. This actually worked. (IIRC, during that phone call they also issued interim instructions for using a Q-tip and isopropyl to get things moving while the package was shipped.) We didn't have anywhere near the problems with glitches that our friends did. Mostly, the games just worked with some occsasional cleaning and time to dry out.
- tiltowait 2y ago
  This is a well-known remedy in collector’s circles. An eraser on the contacts also does wonders. One common cause for NES glitches is for the 72-pin connector to get bent out of shape. You can find replacements on eBay, and it makes a world of difference. Surprisingly, it’s also good advice not to push the cart down once it’s inserted, as that increases pressure on the pins and bends them more over time (despite the slot allegedly being zero insertion force).
  - ssl-3 2y ago
    A pencil eraser is a well-known remedy in all kinds of circles. A friend brings me his crashy scratch-built computer. I take the lid off, use a pencil eraser on the DIMMs, and reassemble it. It's fine after that, minus a couple of atoms or so of gold plating thickness. As long as it's a good pencil eraser, anyway -- some leave a smeary mess. 25 years or so ago, I was reading that the cart socket on the Nintendo used repurposed regular card-edge parts; parts that were never meant to work at multiple angles. I don't know the validity of this, since I haven't yet restored either of the two NESs that I have here (both of which I should have sold -- even broken and dirty -- during the NES Mini craze). I've thus never had a good, stern look at that socket. (But back in the 1980s, between us young kids and our electronics-luddite dad and a phone call to Nintendo, isopropyl was the answer.)
ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
>That essentially made them hot-swappable extension cards for the console. I can't think of any game that involves removing or inserting a cartridge while the console is on.
- vaindil 2y ago
  Not quite the same thing, but several of Rare's N64 games (most notably Banjo-Kazooie) had a planned feature called Stop 'n' Swop [0] that would allow you to unlock things by inserting a different game's cartridge. Nintendo made them cancel the feature because the system was not intended to be used that way. [0] https://tcrf.net/Banjo-Kazooie/Stop_N_Swop https://tcrf.net/Banjo-Kazooie/Stop_N_Swop
- maxbaines 2y ago
  Can't remember the game, but removing and inserting the cartridge, enabled some kind of glitch I could use to cheat as a kid.
  - tiptup300 2y ago
    Perhaps Sonic 3D Blast for the Sega Genesis? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZs2HUW9tDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZs2HUW9tDA
  - 31337Logic 2y ago
    We did exactly this for several games on the old (woodgrain) Atari 2600 consoles.
  - MrMember 2y ago
    One of the Sonic games for Sega Genesis had some weird trick you could do by only fully inserting one half of the cartridge.
  - skywal_l 2y ago
    Maybe you're thinking of this trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFHNgJlJSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFHNgJlJSg (Access Glitch Worlds in Super Mario Bros. via NES Tennis)
maxbaines 2y ago
Interesting article. Blowing into cartridges fixed them many times for me. Although in reality it was likely re-inserting them that maybe did it and also the paragraph about adding moisture being a bad thing is obviously correct, now I wonder if that added moisture actually improved the connectivity on already corroded contacts.
- dole 2y ago
  I'm certain this is why blowing into cartridges worked, the moisture both being good and bad. Moreso bad and unspoken being the lingering terrible stench of shared breath and dried spittle in cartridges passed around schools, apartment buildings, and housing projects. Glad COVID didn't start back in '84, shit would've been like 12 Monkeys.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
shaggie76 2y ago
I wonder if the ritual of taking the cartridge out and re-inserting it scraped a bit of dirt or corrosion off of the contacts which was actually what made it work.
Simulacra 2y ago
Speculation: It does two things, yes, it would blow dust particles, but I think also the moisture from the hot breath, combined with reinsertion, and the metal on metal contact, might be the trick.

21 points by diggan 2y ago

It's essentially the old school version of "turn it off and on again", but the physical ritual aspects of reseating the cart (which was helpful) and blowing on it (which was likely placebo) made us felt that we made some effort to make things work. It's one of the weird details that adds to the experience. In comparison, the modern "turn it off and turn it back on" just don't have the right tactile feel to it. Except maybe when power cycle doesn't work and you have to pull the battery.

MongoTheMad 2y ago

(in a middle 30's aged voice:) This youngin does not realize that blowing in the cartridge did three things - 1.) Allowed the cartridge to reset, 2.) Removed dust particles on the contacts, and 3.) lowered the temperature inside the hot electronics which had no ventilation.

ssl-3 2y ago

My friends blew on their Nintendo cartridges. It was like muscle memory for them. They'd encounter a glitch, yank the cartridge out, blow on it, and then thrust it back in and hope that it'd be better for the next hurried speedrun. Rituals were had of blowing nto games before even playing them the first time, so as to ward off the glitch demons pre-emptively. We never did this in our family. When we started encountering glitches, our dad called Nintendo to ask about the problems we were having with the [rather expensive] system he'd bought. They sent a kit for cleaning cartridges, which included a wide, flat absorbant swab wrapped with some kind of seemingly-synthetic absorbent material and a little drippy bottle full of isopropyl alcohol. This actually worked. (IIRC, during that phone call they also issued interim instructions for using a Q-tip and isopropyl to get things moving while the package was shipped.) We didn't have anywhere near the problems with glitches that our friends did. Mostly, the games just worked with some occsasional cleaning and time to dry out.

tiltowait 2y ago
This is a well-known remedy in collector’s circles. An eraser on the contacts also does wonders. One common cause for NES glitches is for the 72-pin connector to get bent out of shape. You can find replacements on eBay, and it makes a world of difference. Surprisingly, it’s also good advice not to push the cart down once it’s inserted, as that increases pressure on the pins and bends them more over time (despite the slot allegedly being zero insertion force).
- ssl-3 2y ago
  A pencil eraser is a well-known remedy in all kinds of circles. A friend brings me his crashy scratch-built computer. I take the lid off, use a pencil eraser on the DIMMs, and reassemble it. It's fine after that, minus a couple of atoms or so of gold plating thickness. As long as it's a good pencil eraser, anyway -- some leave a smeary mess. 25 years or so ago, I was reading that the cart socket on the Nintendo used repurposed regular card-edge parts; parts that were never meant to work at multiple angles. I don't know the validity of this, since I haven't yet restored either of the two NESs that I have here (both of which I should have sold -- even broken and dirty -- during the NES Mini craze). I've thus never had a good, stern look at that socket. (But back in the 1980s, between us young kids and our electronics-luddite dad and a phone call to Nintendo, isopropyl was the answer.)

ThrowawayTestr 2y ago

>That essentially made them hot-swappable extension cards for the console. I can't think of any game that involves removing or inserting a cartridge while the console is on.

vaindil 2y ago
Not quite the same thing, but several of Rare's N64 games (most notably Banjo-Kazooie) had a planned feature called Stop 'n' Swop [0] that would allow you to unlock things by inserting a different game's cartridge. Nintendo made them cancel the feature because the system was not intended to be used that way. [0] https://tcrf.net/Banjo-Kazooie/Stop_N_Swop https://tcrf.net/Banjo-Kazooie/Stop_N_Swop
maxbaines 2y ago
Can't remember the game, but removing and inserting the cartridge, enabled some kind of glitch I could use to cheat as a kid.
- tiptup300 2y ago
  Perhaps Sonic 3D Blast for the Sega Genesis? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZs2HUW9tDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZs2HUW9tDA
- 31337Logic 2y ago
  We did exactly this for several games on the old (woodgrain) Atari 2600 consoles.
- MrMember 2y ago
  One of the Sonic games for Sega Genesis had some weird trick you could do by only fully inserting one half of the cartridge.
- skywal_l 2y ago
  Maybe you're thinking of this trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFHNgJlJSg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFHNgJlJSg (Access Glitch Worlds in Super Mario Bros. via NES Tennis)

maxbaines 2y ago

Interesting article. Blowing into cartridges fixed them many times for me. Although in reality it was likely re-inserting them that maybe did it and also the paragraph about adding moisture being a bad thing is obviously correct, now I wonder if that added moisture actually improved the connectivity on already corroded contacts.

dole 2y ago
I'm certain this is why blowing into cartridges worked, the moisture both being good and bad. Moreso bad and unspoken being the lingering terrible stench of shared breath and dried spittle in cartridges passed around schools, apartment buildings, and housing projects. Glad COVID didn't start back in '84, shit would've been like 12 Monkeys.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

shaggie76 2y ago

I wonder if the ritual of taking the cartridge out and re-inserting it scraped a bit of dirt or corrosion off of the contacts which was actually what made it work.

Simulacra 2y ago

Speculation: It does two things, yes, it would blow dust particles, but I think also the moisture from the hot breath, combined with reinsertion, and the metal on metal contact, might be the trick.