NES Games

[Guest The Great Wesuke]

OK, so I've bought a shitload of old NES games over the past year, have taken them home and had them work fine. I think the problem is that they are sitting out not in dust covers (cause they didn't come with any) so now some of them aren't working. I recall in my youth I had friends who had to blow really hard directly into the circuit slot on the game to get it to work. I've had mild success with this. Anyone have any other solutions?

 

Yes, I have now put the games somewhere where dust can't get to them.

[Guest jaCko]

Try the old cotton swab dipped in alcohol...rubbing alcohol that is.

[Guest DubWiser]

A new cotton swab might work too, but yeah, blowing into the games is only half the battle. All the old schoolers know that you have to smack the cartridge and swear at it first, then blow in it.    

 

Or you could just hook up some ROMS and shit.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I've found that slapping the game genie on games makes them run.

[Guest El Hijo Del Lunatic]

Whew.  Most of the stuff we used to do to get it working is pure supersitition, but some things do work.  It depends on the problem, I guess.  If the problem is with a majority of the games you own, then maybe it's a problem with your tray, in which case the best solution is to get a hold of a Game Genie.  The second best solution in that case is to hold the game down with another cartridge, by pushing the game in, holding the tray down and turning it on to see if it works, sliding in another game on top of it, then resetting.  The only problem with this is any shake could reset the game, so you kinda gotta keep emotions in check.  If the problem is with dust in your cartridge, don't blow directly in the middle of it, but play the cartridge like a harmonica to get the edges (it does work).  It dosn't hurt to blow into the actual console, either.  If that doesn't work, take a cotton swab to it, but do it gently.

 

As far as superstition, mine was always "blow into the game, tap it twice on your knee, tap it twice with your knuckles, blow into the game console, then push down as you slide the game in so the the tray catches as soon as the game is in."  Thats a little odd, but I know people who would spin around in a circle three times to get their game to work.  Anyone else have a weird way to get NES games to work?

[Guest J*ingus]

They did sell cleaning kits, for both the games and the system, which I recall working pretty well.  Does anyone here have a reasonable facsimile of one?  

 

Part of it is simply positioning; I have to wiggle my games around before I hit the right spot so they'll work.  And yeah, the Game Genie can do wonders in getting the old ones to work.

[Guest Stupendous Man]

Fuck cleaning kits and whatnot, this should do the trick:

NES Repair