TIL I was cleaning my NES cartridges wrong for like 15 years

So I got this old copy of Contra off eBay last week, $12 shipped, and it wouldn't load past the title screen. I always just blew into the pins or rubbed them with a t-shirt, but my buddy came over and showed me the isopropyl alcohol + Q-tip method. He said the blowing actually makes things worse over time because of moisture. After I cleaned it that way, Contra booted up first try, no flickering. Anyone else have a classic game they thought was dead that came back with a proper clean?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinnm773d ago

Had a buddy who threw out his copy of Mega Man 2 because he thought it was dead. Years later he saw a cleaning tutorial on YouTube and almost cried when he realized he could've saved it. He still gets mad about it when we bring up retro stuff.

olivia_white933d ago

My cousin did the same thing with his original Game Boy, threw it in the trash because the screen got all scratched up. Found out later there's a toothpaste trick to buff those out and he was just sick about it. Funny how the stuff we didn't know back then still haunts us now.