As someone born right at the tail end of the cartridge era, when I think of video games, I think less of the blocky gray cartridges and more of disks and downloads. Still, the very first console I ever owned was arguably Nintendo’s last cartridge-based handheld. And you never forget your first console.
A Persistent Habit
My Game Boy Advance might be a relic from 2001, but it still runs games flawlessly (until it’s dark outside). There’s a certain charm in the tactile feedback of inserting a game cartridge—the satisfying click and the nostalgic sound that follows when the Game Boy logo flashes on screen.
Game Boy Advance Cartridge
Repair information for the game cartridge used for Gameboy Advance games, also known as the AGB-002.
View DeviceI’ve broken a Nintendo DS, but this Game Boy Advance still plays games like it’s the early 00s. That didn’t stop me from performing a ritual borrowed from generations of gamers before me: Sometimes, I gave the cartridge a quick blow before trying to start the console. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I remember the games failing to load often, but I still did the thing.
Those were the days before I was using the internet, so I’m not even sure where I picked it up and why I was so sure that it worked. But did blowing into cartridges ever work?
The short answer is no. As has been pointed out in the many many debunkings of this popular gaming repair urban myth, it was mainly confirmation bias. Often, there was nothing wrong with either the console or the cartridge; the issue was with the connection between them. Removing and reinserting the cartridge was the true fix, giving the impression that blowing on it was the magic step. So it’s all down to the particularities of game cartridges.
The Insides of a Game Cartridge
Nowadays, you get your game as files stored on (flash) storage or a disc, but game cartridges were far more than just storage. They contain printed circuit boards populated with chips, SRAM, other surface-mount components, and (sometimes) even a battery for progress saving. That essentially made them hot-swappable extension cards for the console. This also meant that not all games were created equal.
Some cartridge games used enhanced chips for better performance and others even added their own special features for gameplay. That’s especially true for the Game Boy era which saw a whole laundry list of special cases, like Kojima’s Boktai series which included a solar sensor, the infrared panel on the cartridge of Robopon or Drill Dozer’s rumble pack.
REV-A NES Cartridge Teardown
The crucial interface that allows a game cartridge to function involves a row of metal contacts located along the cartridge’s edge. These must be aligned precisely with matching pins inside the console’s cartridge slot. If these contacts are misaligned, dirty, or corroded, the game bugs out or fails to launch.
The practice of blowing into game cartridges started with the Nintendo Entertainment System, which used a more error-prone system than the Famicom, which it was based on, to align the contacts of the cartridge and the console.
The new system, called “Zero Insertion Force,” made it easier to insert and remove a cartridge—but it also meant the cartridge’s contacts weren’t being scrubbed by friction with every insertion/removal. So the cartridges were more prone to build-up of grime and corrosion.
To make matters worse, in the NES, Nintendo also added the first-ever game console technological protection measure, a lockout system called 10NES. 10NES used a key in the game to open a lock in the console, to determine whether a cartridge was authentic and coded for the correct region. Modern versions of this same system, by the way, are the reason that game consoles have been largely left out of Right to Repair laws.
When 10NES registered a bad cartridge, it would blink the power LED and enter an endless reset loop. Gamers of yore discovered that removing and reinserting the cartridge—and blowing on it—could make the contacts align more consistently. Why blowing? Maybe to dislodge dust, maybe just because gamers have been blowing on their dice for good luck for eons.
Nintendo Entertainment System
A game console released in North America by the Nintendo Company in 1985, called the Nintendo Entertainment System, model NES-001.
View DeviceCleaning It The Right Way
While blowing might displace some dust, it won’t solve issues with corroded or dirty contacts—and might even make things worse by adding moisture, which can lead to more corrosion. Nintendo, to their credit, did their part to point that out.
Four years after the launch of the NES, they released an official NES Cleaning Kit which included cleaning accessories for both the cartridge and the slot. Additionally, Nintendo’s troubleshooting website for the NES Game Pak was updated to explicitly state that you should “not blow into your Game Paks or systems” sometime around the mid 2000s. A similar warning was also printed on the backside of Nintendo 64 cartridges.
So, what’s the best way to tackle dirty or corroded contacts? We’ve got a precision cleaning kit with a bunch of tools to make it easy. For the cleaning fluid, you’ll want to use 90%+ isopropyl alcohol or specialized contact cleaner. Any time you’re cleaning electronics, it’s important to use isopropyl in concentrations of at least 90%, as anything less has enough water that it could cause more corrosion before it evaporates.
Cleaning corroded contacts will require opening up the console or cartridge, but don’t worry—chances are there’s an iFixit guide that can walk you through the process, be it for your cartridge or console.
The next time you’re tempted to blow into a cartridge, remember that knowledge and proper cleaning techniques are your best tools.
5 Kommentare
The moisture initiated the needed electrical contact. Then it did a little damage, so the fix was essentially killing the machine a little tiny bit each time you blew moisture on the leads in the cartridge, and then transferred this moisture to the console when inserting the still slightly wet cartridge. The hard blowing into the cartridges didn't do squat and when you kind of blew lightly to fog it up worked for me in extreme cases, like when a cart was on it's last legs.
Hempus - Antwort
You nailed it. I’ve seen so many articles that miss the point and this is one of them. Does blowing into the cartridge actually ’fix’ the root problem of why the cartridge is not working? No. Does it ‘work’? As in does blowing on the cartridge make it readable by consoles? Yes. But not because it ‘cleans’ or blows the dust away as some have said. It’s the moisture that aids in completing off the circuit. And as you have said, it corrodes the contacts slowly, making the problem even worse over time. That being said, I still do it from time to time if cleaning the contacts doesn’t work.
Robertson Dunn -
This problem began with the Atari 2600 although many do not want to admit this because of the old war against Atari and Nintendo. This problem began with the Atari 2600 although many do not want to admit this because of the old war against Atari and Nintendo.
the plating on the cartridges contacts was not sufficient. The friction of the contacts wore away the plating used to stop the copperfrom corroding with just 10 or more of changing all the cartridge for a new game. Now the cartridge sits on the shelf in the humid weather of the summer the garage and the moisture of your breath may the rust and the oxidation were enough to make contact. Sometimes on a small scale, if the oxidation rolled in a small little ball, it would isolate the contact cartridge, and then the moisture of your breath would wash that piece to the side and the game would begin to work. I have experienced blowing into as a kid and if I played the game long enough, sometimes it would fall out because the moisture for my breath evaporated
James Eiden - Antwort
The older the system cartridges were, the more blowing worked. As many above said, moisture!
For really bad ones, some of us used to actually LICK the contacts. Worked every time.
Bad for the system, the cart, and our health, but proof in the process.
John clark - Antwort
I found that cartridges usually just worked (talking Atari 2600, ColecoVision and others that used standard card-edge connectors. For those rare cases where gunk built up on the contacts, I found that they were easily cleaned with a pencil eraser. My present-day self cringes at the amount of ESD damage that that might have done, but at the time, it seemed to work just fine. At least with the low-capacity masked-ROM chips used. I wouldn't recommend it for something more modern.
shamino - Antwort