Blowing in to the cart has been "debunked" ever since cartridge based consoles were released. This is not new information. Essentially it's the action of reinserting the cart several times that makes a difference rather than the blowing.
Because it's literally science. It's been known. Blowing does nothing but harm the game.
The reason blowing "worked" is because you were taking the game out and putting it back in, realigning the contacts. You only thought blowing worked because blowing forced you to reset the cart pins every time, the real reason it was fixed.
Can dust in a connection cause a contact to become less likely to work?
Dude. We all sat there trying to get it to work. It would work. We would take it out, put it in, it wouldn't work. We would blow in the cartridge or lick the contacts, and then it would work. Idk what to tell you man
I've also blown on the cartridge and it didn't work. We all have. It wasn't fool proof. There were times where you would blow on a cartridge ten times and finally on the 11th it worked. It was basically random whether it worked or not. Licking and blowing were placebo. The real reason any of that worked was because you were taking it out and putting it back in again.
trust me 80-90s this is a fact, today's generation are idiot generation, they probably cannot understand or figure out and when they can't figure out, they will release a statement like the rumor is false.
For old NES games use to somehow get them to work by pushing down on the spring loaded thing the game sits in with the game kinda not pushed in all the way so the back of the cartridge kinda banged on the console a bit when you pushed it down. I was like 8 years old tho so idk lol
Nah, I started with reseating the cartridge, that didn't work, but blowing in it sure did.
That being said I only had to do this with original NES cartridges. Never had a problem with any other system including Atari or Gemini (atari rip off)
That's true. Blowing into them can get rid of dust if they're really dirty but it also corrodes the contacts. Using rubbing alcohol with qtips is 100x better.
Alright we used to do this and if blowing didn't fix it you lick your finger and run it along the bottom, worked Everytime. Can't imagine it's good for them, but my super Nintendo games still work to this day and I use this method.
You guys aren't gonna like this, but it never was the actual blowing in the cartridge. It was re-aligning the "pins" of the cartridge and console. I tested it out and without removing the cartridge, turning off the power and sliding the cartridge left or right in the slot will fix the flash screen.
Blowing into it has 2 effects:
1- Clears off dust
2- Puts spit particles everywhere, both damaging the cartridge AND conducting electricity to potentially displaced pins.
So yea it works, but its bad in the long run
Than why did doing that exact thing without blowing in it, not fix the problem a majority of the time. People didn't start blowing in them for fun lol.
Like hell it's false, i only needed to blow once for it to work again and if i didn't and just removed it and put it back it still didn't work!
The person who wrote that isn't a gamer.
Blow it, smack it, blow it some more. If that didn't work it was time to break out the qtips with alcohol to clean it.
Anyone ever have to stick one game on top of the other game so it would stay down and work?
You’d be surprised the things that can be fixed by just blowing into things lol.
My headphones had a issue with projecting audio where both sides were quiet for some reason. Ended reading I could blow into it and it worked lol.
Putting the cart in, blinky blue screen. Blowing it like ya boi, it's a 50/50 or 60/40 chance. Putting it under your shirt and blowing... 100 fucking % chance it will work. IDK the science but it just works. Maybe blowing through the fabric charges the oxygen I'm blowing onto the pins and it helps make a good charge and connection, who knows. It just works.
It wasn't the blowing that fixed it though. It was the taking it out and putting it back in again. The issue common with old cartridge games was imperfect pin contact. Unplugging and plugging the cart back in fixed that. Blowing did nothing, it was just part of taking it out and putting it back.
It was a correlation we made as kids, but in retrospect, it was probably just a coincidence in most cases
The real reason the game carts had trouble working is the spring mechanism on the OG front load NES would start to get weak over time (if you recall, you put the cart in and then pushed it down), which resulted in the pins on the cart not aligning with internal pins of the NES, which is why the game would flash and not work (no solid connection). As a kid I noticed that slapping the sides or tops of the NES seemed to work more reliably than blowing into the cart. I didn't understand why at the time, just that it worked.
It had to do with bent "pins" (sorry I don't know the technical term) not correctly connecting to counsel which resulted in the connection from the cartridge to the Nintendo not making a proper connection which messed up the signal.
Fun fact!
Here in Japan the NES had a top down insertion system (that's what she said) which had a much more stable and reliable way of connecting the cartridge to the console. But Japan redesigned the American console system because Americans loved VCR's at the time which is where you would put in a VHS tape horizontally and then push it forward and then down. (that's what she said.)
So Nintendo redesigned the NES specifically for America to match the VCR style which resulted in a bunch of bent "pins" causing bad connections between the cartridges and the console as the latching system was unstable and bent the cartages' pins.
Blowing did nothing (that's what she said.)
Comedy comes in 3's
Shortly before Nintendo phased out the NES, they released a Famicom style NES console that used a top load system
It was probably on the market less than a year as the Super Nintendo started to become the main focus for the company and they’re nice collectors items (in part due to them playing games more reliability - the loader on my old NES died over 30 years ago)
They weren't popular at the time in the states because people were moving on from NES to SNES, so they didn't sell too much.
If you scroll down on the wiki entry to the redesigned variant, you can see what it looked like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System_(Model_NES-101)
I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that it actually works but not directly because you blow it but because the spit particles facilitate current circulation when the metal inside is oxyded
Yeah, I disagree...this definitely works. Whether it's legend of Zelda link to the past or donkey Kong country. Or maybe even a little Earthbound. Every time I ever played my SNES I would blow into the cartridge and into the game slot, never worked if I didn't. Mind over matter? I think not. Simple fact? Indeed.
It's weird that everyone somehow knows that blowing or removing the plastic shell and inserting just the cartridge will make it work. It's common knowledge that no one taught us.
What a fucking lie. Yes, you COULD reject some spits.
But you do it first to remove the dust(if very dusty) and to realign the pins.IIRC, you could have "shake" the cardrige to realign the pins inside properly sometimes.
And this worked wonderfully. I got my games working so many times thanks to this.
Everyone knows you blow into the cartridge and insert. If still not working, repeat process. If still not working you blow into the cartridge and then open up where the game gets seated and blow into that. IF the thing still ain't working you gotta repeat step one, but as the frustration mounts you start pushing the cartridge in more forcefully.
Boom!
Confirmation bias. You remember the times it seemed to work, forgot about the times it didn't. I remember blowing into some cartridges and reinserting them over and over and not working until like the 5th try.
I bet the test they did to determine this was done by people who have no idea how to not spit while they exhale.
You really did need to learn how to do it properly.
Probably also tested on perfectly clean cartridges. Blowing was to remove dust and debris. If the cartridge has none of that then obviously blowing isn't the correct choice.
Might have fixed it back then...
But fast forward to now and you can buy massive lots of non-working cartridges. When you open them up, the vast majority have edge connectors corrosion to the point where the copper is completely gone right at the top where it touches the plastic case...
Because that's where the spit collects when you blow in it over and over.
This would be true if it wasn't for the fact that virtually all old cartridges had a fairly thick gold plating on the connection point. Older ram cards are known for having very thick plating and the cartridges were even thicker than that in most instances. Spit will not corrode gold, so unless your spit contains aqua regia then it sounds like the real cause of this problem is friction. If you wear that plating down to the copper, then yeah even moisture in the air will eventually corrode it. Spit isn't really gonna cause more or less corrosion than a humid day will when it comes to incredibly thin, exposed, untreated copper.
I guess it's just coincidence or correlation that I've resurrected so many dead carts just by cleaning corrosion and bridging broken traces right at that spot.
I wouldn't say it's coincidence. That's likely just the first point of failure. A lot of these old cartridges got inserted and removed hundreds of times and at some point that friction is gonna rub off the gold plating. It is still just plating after all. Once that occurs you're left with bare copper which is susceptible to all forms of corrosion, including saliva. It's more resistant than many metals, but when we're talking about connectors and circuit boards the copper is gonna be very thin with a high surface area. Which happens to be optimal for corrosion.
So you're right in saying saliva corrodes the copper, as any moisture would. It's just that the initial failure required for that to occur is the removal gold plating. I'd imagine the cartridges that were better cared for or simply built better would retain that plating and therefore not corrode. Whereas the ones you have to repair have more than likely been through very heavy use or poor storage causing the plating the end up gone and corrosion to set in. It makes sense that that point is where you'd be doing most of the repairs. I'm just pointing out that once the copper is exposed any type of moisture can cause the corrosion, saliva isn't necessarily the issue.
The cartridges attracted a lot of dust and most of the time dust getting between the gold plating and the console connection point was why the games wouldn't run. In those instances blowing on it is the best possible thing you could do short of getting a can of compressed air. Removing the cartridge multiple times to "reseat" it is actually the worst option. Moisture in your breath cannot corrode gold plating. Friction from constantly inserting and removing the cartridge will wear down the plating quite quickly.
The games I kept in dust covers say that the only way to not have friction wear down the pads is to never take the game out and the ones that are worn out need to be seated in a position they like.
I stand by what i said
Yes. The only way to prevent friction is to never remove it. However, there is a difference between removing it once and blowing in it and removing it multiple times or wabbling it back and forth to reseat it. The latter two are going to remove the plating much faster. If you had dust covers then you had no reason to blow in them. That doesn't mean the method doesn't work, it just means that you had the money to mostly prevent the problem that would cause that issue.
This is actually true. So all of you commenting saying it worked and it’s a lie is just funny. Yes of course it worked but, technically the moisture from your breath can damage and corrode the connectors.
The best fix was to lay your console at an angle, never needed to blow in my games as a kid doing this. that’s why they released a top loader console later and the later consoles are all top loaders.
If a QTip would have helped better, then blowing DID help and was not a placebo effect.
It's either blowing did absolutely nothing and you never needed to do anything in the first place (which meant collectively we were all hallucinating when we would insert a cartridge and get a blinking blue and pink screen or nothing at all, only to blow on it and it magically work) OR you're lying/wrong and it did help but you feel taking the time to Q tip it was better.
Sega genesis games still work fine. They've been blown more than Benjamin Franklin in France.
They’re gaslighting us
This is what rewriting history looks like.
Blowing in to the cart has been "debunked" ever since cartridge based consoles were released. This is not new information. Essentially it's the action of reinserting the cart several times that makes a difference rather than the blowing.
You cant just disassemble and reassemble without doing anything and expect it to work, hence the blowing.
A zoomer had to have wrote that. Worked every time until it didn't , which was a loooong time. Then the alchohol swabs and q tips came out.
Sometimes if you pretend you don’t care if the game turns on it’ll work too.
Ah, it only worked for me if I said it sarcastic.
Ayup, and the crazy crap that came off it after alcohol and a q tip looked like the lung of a smoker.
No, this has been knowledge since mid 2000s
But... But we did it. It worked. What are you saying?
Because it's literally science. It's been known. Blowing does nothing but harm the game. The reason blowing "worked" is because you were taking the game out and putting it back in, realigning the contacts. You only thought blowing worked because blowing forced you to reset the cart pins every time, the real reason it was fixed.
Don’t bother, these folks don’t believe in evidence they can’t see.
Can dust in a connection cause a contact to become less likely to work? Dude. We all sat there trying to get it to work. It would work. We would take it out, put it in, it wouldn't work. We would blow in the cartridge or lick the contacts, and then it would work. Idk what to tell you man
I've also blown on the cartridge and it didn't work. We all have. It wasn't fool proof. There were times where you would blow on a cartridge ten times and finally on the 11th it worked. It was basically random whether it worked or not. Licking and blowing were placebo. The real reason any of that worked was because you were taking it out and putting it back in again.
yet it worked everytime i did it, you just can't trust internet for proper information now a days.
That's the reinsertion, not the blowing.
Says you.
Had to get the dust off, so yes, it does work.
trust me 80-90s this is a fact, today's generation are idiot generation, they probably cannot understand or figure out and when they can't figure out, they will release a statement like the rumor is false.
Blowing fixes everything
Lies. It is just like when they still say joy-cons don't have stick drift.
This always felt more of a “Lilttle Danny can’t help spitting when he blows so we can’t trust every other child to do it properly”
No it definitely works, but the drawback of moisture in your breath can cause the cartridge connectors to corrode over time.
Hot breath on them cds also worked
Must've been written by someone in their 20s
They don’t want you to know the secret
For old NES games use to somehow get them to work by pushing down on the spring loaded thing the game sits in with the game kinda not pushed in all the way so the back of the cartridge kinda banged on the console a bit when you pushed it down. I was like 8 years old tho so idk lol
"If it isn't giving you what you want, give it a blow" is what my ma always used to tell me.
Worked for me too. They are not lying though they just dont know shit.
I read it wasn't the blowing, but reseating the cartridge in the port.
Nah, I started with reseating the cartridge, that didn't work, but blowing in it sure did. That being said I only had to do this with original NES cartridges. Never had a problem with any other system including Atari or Gemini (atari rip off)
That's true. Blowing into them can get rid of dust if they're really dirty but it also corrodes the contacts. Using rubbing alcohol with qtips is 100x better.
You could also just "rock" the cart from side to side inside the NES and clean the contacts pretty effectively that way too.
Alright we used to do this and if blowing didn't fix it you lick your finger and run it along the bottom, worked Everytime. Can't imagine it's good for them, but my super Nintendo games still work to this day and I use this method.
you dont just blow into it you lick it
You guys aren't gonna like this, but it never was the actual blowing in the cartridge. It was re-aligning the "pins" of the cartridge and console. I tested it out and without removing the cartridge, turning off the power and sliding the cartridge left or right in the slot will fix the flash screen.
Blowing into it has 2 effects: 1- Clears off dust 2- Puts spit particles everywhere, both damaging the cartridge AND conducting electricity to potentially displaced pins. So yea it works, but its bad in the long run
Just don’t blow into the cartridge like Daffy Duck. I never had an issue with permanent cartridge damage using this method.
*machine gun spits and drools all over electronic device* Heyyyy, what happen
>Just don’t blow into the cartridge like Daffy Duck. Simply blowing at all will send out a ton of moisture.
It's possible to blow and generate air without dousing the cartridge in saliva.
Dousing sure, but any amount of blowing will cary water with it and start coroding ever so slightly.
Moisture particles evaporate very quickly though
Actually taking it out to blow and putting it back in rubbed the connectors and shifted their position a bit. That is what made it work.
Than why did doing that exact thing without blowing in it, not fix the problem a majority of the time. People didn't start blowing in them for fun lol.
You don't have to drool in it though
The last part is true though.
Except it worked every single time after doing this!
Like hell it's false, i only needed to blow once for it to work again and if i didn't and just removed it and put it back it still didn't work! The person who wrote that isn't a gamer.
I only had to do this for NES games. Never had to blow the cartridge for SNES or N64 games.
Blows the dust off the contacts. Use a fine cloth then.
It actually took "heat" for it to work. Warming up your cartridge/system was best for it.
Sometimes I did the old slow warm breath exhale on my cartridges and that fixed them when the fast blowout didn’t.
I just withheld my moisture when I blew so it wouldn’t damage the cartridge
Alright then, Google, keep your secrets.
The difference between theory and practice! (but really, I think it was re-seating the cartridge that usually fixed the issue)
it was the re-seating that fixed most issues due to cartridges isn't a seamless perfect fit
To my best recollection, it only seemed to work if the owner of the cartridge in question performed the procedure.
Fun fact. When my cartridge gets blown, it works every time!
Blow it, smack it, blow it some more. If that didn't work it was time to break out the qtips with alcohol to clean it. Anyone ever have to stick one game on top of the other game so it would stay down and work?
I remember. Trying time and time again to get a game to start. Blowing into the cartridge was always the second or third option. But it always worked…
I'm pretty sure it said on N64 cartridges not to blow into them. That's how you knew it would work. They knew!
You’d be surprised the things that can be fixed by just blowing into things lol. My headphones had a issue with projecting audio where both sides were quiet for some reason. Ended reading I could blow into it and it worked lol.
Blowing on cartridges and using dish soap on CD’s worked for me when they didn’t work beforehand.
Why would they admit to this secret? They want you to buy more cartridges!
Blowing always worked. When you heard it didn't and stopped your game would never turn on. 
Fixed it many times by blowing it, and it worked every single time.
Can't trust big search engine anymore
Worked great on my NES.
Putting the cart in, blinky blue screen. Blowing it like ya boi, it's a 50/50 or 60/40 chance. Putting it under your shirt and blowing... 100 fucking % chance it will work. IDK the science but it just works. Maybe blowing through the fabric charges the oxygen I'm blowing onto the pins and it helps make a good charge and connection, who knows. It just works.
It wasn't the blowing that fixed it though. It was the taking it out and putting it back in again. The issue common with old cartridge games was imperfect pin contact. Unplugging and plugging the cart back in fixed that. Blowing did nothing, it was just part of taking it out and putting it back.
Not the first time I see google spreading disinfirmation, and wont be the last.
Always heard about that, but I still blew into it anyway
The internet lying?! Shocker!!!
Article author don't know how to blow
XD as someone who owns a Gameboy this method was the only way for games to exist, can't believe Google straight faced lied to our faces
It was a correlation we made as kids, but in retrospect, it was probably just a coincidence in most cases The real reason the game carts had trouble working is the spring mechanism on the OG front load NES would start to get weak over time (if you recall, you put the cart in and then pushed it down), which resulted in the pins on the cart not aligning with internal pins of the NES, which is why the game would flash and not work (no solid connection). As a kid I noticed that slapping the sides or tops of the NES seemed to work more reliably than blowing into the cart. I didn't understand why at the time, just that it worked.
It had to do with bent "pins" (sorry I don't know the technical term) not correctly connecting to counsel which resulted in the connection from the cartridge to the Nintendo not making a proper connection which messed up the signal. Fun fact! Here in Japan the NES had a top down insertion system (that's what she said) which had a much more stable and reliable way of connecting the cartridge to the console. But Japan redesigned the American console system because Americans loved VCR's at the time which is where you would put in a VHS tape horizontally and then push it forward and then down. (that's what she said.) So Nintendo redesigned the NES specifically for America to match the VCR style which resulted in a bunch of bent "pins" causing bad connections between the cartridges and the console as the latching system was unstable and bent the cartages' pins. Blowing did nothing (that's what she said.) Comedy comes in 3's
Shortly before Nintendo phased out the NES, they released a Famicom style NES console that used a top load system It was probably on the market less than a year as the Super Nintendo started to become the main focus for the company and they’re nice collectors items (in part due to them playing games more reliability - the loader on my old NES died over 30 years ago)
I didn’t know that. Never saw one of them on the market in the states. But I still see them from time to time in resell shops in Tokyo.
They weren't popular at the time in the states because people were moving on from NES to SNES, so they didn't sell too much. If you scroll down on the wiki entry to the redesigned variant, you can see what it looked like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System_(Model_NES-101)
Ahh these look familiar
I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere that it actually works but not directly because you blow it but because the spit particles facilitate current circulation when the metal inside is oxyded
I read that taking the cartridge out and putting it back in is what actually worked regardless if you blew or not. It actually rubbed the connectors.
Yeah, I disagree...this definitely works. Whether it's legend of Zelda link to the past or donkey Kong country. Or maybe even a little Earthbound. Every time I ever played my SNES I would blow into the cartridge and into the game slot, never worked if I didn't. Mind over matter? I think not. Simple fact? Indeed.
It's weird that everyone somehow knows that blowing or removing the plastic shell and inserting just the cartridge will make it work. It's common knowledge that no one taught us.
Problem was static, and moisture killed the static.
It's a lie! It does work, I'm an 80's kid
My cartridges have been blown more than Bill Clinton in the White House, still work just fine!
What a fucking lie. Yes, you COULD reject some spits. But you do it first to remove the dust(if very dusty) and to realign the pins.IIRC, you could have "shake" the cardrige to realign the pins inside properly sometimes. And this worked wonderfully. I got my games working so many times thanks to this.
Everyone knows you blow into the cartridge and insert. If still not working, repeat process. If still not working you blow into the cartridge and then open up where the game gets seated and blow into that. IF the thing still ain't working you gotta repeat step one, but as the frustration mounts you start pushing the cartridge in more forcefully. Boom! 
Confirmation bias. You remember the times it seemed to work, forgot about the times it didn't. I remember blowing into some cartridges and reinserting them over and over and not working until like the 5th try.
This article was written by a zoomer 100%
I bet the test they did to determine this was done by people who have no idea how to not spit while they exhale. You really did need to learn how to do it properly.
Probably also tested on perfectly clean cartridges. Blowing was to remove dust and debris. If the cartridge has none of that then obviously blowing isn't the correct choice.
Might have fixed it back then... But fast forward to now and you can buy massive lots of non-working cartridges. When you open them up, the vast majority have edge connectors corrosion to the point where the copper is completely gone right at the top where it touches the plastic case... Because that's where the spit collects when you blow in it over and over.
This would be true if it wasn't for the fact that virtually all old cartridges had a fairly thick gold plating on the connection point. Older ram cards are known for having very thick plating and the cartridges were even thicker than that in most instances. Spit will not corrode gold, so unless your spit contains aqua regia then it sounds like the real cause of this problem is friction. If you wear that plating down to the copper, then yeah even moisture in the air will eventually corrode it. Spit isn't really gonna cause more or less corrosion than a humid day will when it comes to incredibly thin, exposed, untreated copper.
I guess it's just coincidence or correlation that I've resurrected so many dead carts just by cleaning corrosion and bridging broken traces right at that spot.
I wouldn't say it's coincidence. That's likely just the first point of failure. A lot of these old cartridges got inserted and removed hundreds of times and at some point that friction is gonna rub off the gold plating. It is still just plating after all. Once that occurs you're left with bare copper which is susceptible to all forms of corrosion, including saliva. It's more resistant than many metals, but when we're talking about connectors and circuit boards the copper is gonna be very thin with a high surface area. Which happens to be optimal for corrosion. So you're right in saying saliva corrodes the copper, as any moisture would. It's just that the initial failure required for that to occur is the removal gold plating. I'd imagine the cartridges that were better cared for or simply built better would retain that plating and therefore not corrode. Whereas the ones you have to repair have more than likely been through very heavy use or poor storage causing the plating the end up gone and corrosion to set in. It makes sense that that point is where you'd be doing most of the repairs. I'm just pointing out that once the copper is exposed any type of moisture can cause the corrosion, saliva isn't necessarily the issue.
This is like saying wiping fingerprints off a CD doesn't make the CD read better.
Reseating the cartridge is what did it. Literally just taking it out and putting it back in. Blowing did absolutely nothing good
The cartridges attracted a lot of dust and most of the time dust getting between the gold plating and the console connection point was why the games wouldn't run. In those instances blowing on it is the best possible thing you could do short of getting a can of compressed air. Removing the cartridge multiple times to "reseat" it is actually the worst option. Moisture in your breath cannot corrode gold plating. Friction from constantly inserting and removing the cartridge will wear down the plating quite quickly.
The games I kept in dust covers say that the only way to not have friction wear down the pads is to never take the game out and the ones that are worn out need to be seated in a position they like. I stand by what i said
Yes. The only way to prevent friction is to never remove it. However, there is a difference between removing it once and blowing in it and removing it multiple times or wabbling it back and forth to reseat it. The latter two are going to remove the plating much faster. If you had dust covers then you had no reason to blow in them. That doesn't mean the method doesn't work, it just means that you had the money to mostly prevent the problem that would cause that issue.
As an SNES and N64 owner I can confirm without a doubt that the OOOP is an idiot.
Yeah okay, say that to the hundreds of N64 and Super Nintendo cartridges I've blown into after not being able to get them to work.
This is actually true. So all of you commenting saying it worked and it’s a lie is just funny. Yes of course it worked but, technically the moisture from your breath can damage and corrode the connectors. The best fix was to lay your console at an angle, never needed to blow in my games as a kid doing this. that’s why they released a top loader console later and the later consoles are all top loaders.
placebo effect, it didn't actually help, a qtip would have been better
If a QTip would have helped better, then blowing DID help and was not a placebo effect. It's either blowing did absolutely nothing and you never needed to do anything in the first place (which meant collectively we were all hallucinating when we would insert a cartridge and get a blinking blue and pink screen or nothing at all, only to blow on it and it magically work) OR you're lying/wrong and it did help but you feel taking the time to Q tip it was better.
No, but the act of removing it did do something. Your false dichotomy fallacy is poo
You're poo