# collective consciousness- blowing into NES carts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575 "2004-05-05T02:03:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sandlegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@Sandlegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandlegs)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/1 "2004-05-05T02:03:46Z")
How did we all know how to do this? I know for a fact that no one told me about this trick of the trade. And when i saw one of my friends do it i was amazed that he knew how to make the games work like i did. So far i have a 100% blowing into the NES cart record from all of my friends who had or still have an NES. Amazing, is all i can say. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/2 "2004-05-05T02:09:48Z")
Well, it’s because…of…the…ummm… Well, obviously we read…it in…errr… Ok, beats the hell outta me. I suppose it was just common sense? “There’s probably some fuzz in there. Blowing on it will remove the fuzz”. I guess \. ---
**Author:** ![insomnia4AM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@insomnia4AM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insomnia4AM)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/3 "2004-05-05T02:13:07Z")
I always did it because I thought, hey there must be dust on there! It’s the barrier between me and my game. That and I used to shove the instruction book in there on top of the game to get it to stay in place. ---
**Author:** ![Sandlegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@Sandlegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandlegs)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/4 "2004-05-05T02:31:11Z")
HA! I knew it! we have 2 ---
**Author:** ![Menor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@Menor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menor)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/5 "2004-05-05T02:43:08Z")
I just wonder where my 4yr old learned to do this. Must have seen me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/6 "2004-05-05T02:44:07Z")
I have no idea where it came from, but I always did it, and so did everyone else I knew. Anyone else done the “stuff an extra cartridge in there to hold it down” trick? /proud owner of a refurbished NES he bought on eBay ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/7 "2004-05-05T02:51:39Z")
I did the blow. Did the stuff-in-the-extra-cartridge. But did anybody do the “Rub your finger back and forth in the little slot on the right side of the cartridge while it’s in the deck?” Does anyone know what I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/8 "2004-05-05T03:03:17Z")
You know what was cool? Playing COLECOVISION games with the cartridge half-assedly inserted so that the sprites went all blocky and blinky. That was cool. ---
**Author:** ![insomnia4AM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@insomnia4AM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insomnia4AM)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/9 "2004-05-05T03:10:52Z")
How about using the cleaning solution on a q-tip to clean the cartidge, and the parts inside? I remember doing that a LOT. I kept a supply of q-tips by the NES itself just for this purpose. Anyone else use the Game Genie to get the game to work? Not use the codes for the Genie, but just to get the game working right. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/10 "2004-05-05T03:14:58Z")
Why did this work anyway? It was said to be “dust”, but those were pretty damn big contact pads and dust is very small. In these modern days, I never have to blow on my compact flash cards to get them to work and we still have dust. But it worked so there must be something to it. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/11 "2004-05-05T03:52:16Z")
I suspect this was inspired by that other thread. But yea, it just seemed to be part of the Collective Kid Hive Mind we all shared. Here’s my solution order: Blow in it Peer into it, blow into it again, smack it against my hand Clean it with alcohol and the Q-tips I kept stashed in the entertainment center for this purpose. Clean it with spit. If spit didn’t make it work, nothing could. I even had the Official NES cleaning kit, with that stick thingie with blue and white cleaning thingies, and it didn’t work half as well as spit. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/12 "2004-05-05T04:03:21Z")
> [@Sandlegs](#): > > How did we all know how to do this? I thought everybody got this from me - since I _ **know** _ I was the first one to think of it! 🙂 - Peter Wiggen ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/13 "2004-05-05T04:13:04Z")
All of you are wrong: I was the first one to ever do this. Ok, maybe not but I did develop the technique independantly. I also used alcohol and q-tips, the game genie and slamming the cart into the connector. ---
**Author:** ![Sandlegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@Sandlegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandlegs)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/14 "2004-05-05T04:20:14Z")
so…my assuptions are correct. not just my friends and i knew the “trick”. awesome. I now own a top loading NES, and i have to do the blowing thing infrequentely, so maybe it was the original NES’s problem. (I heard these top loaders are going for a bundle on ebay.) ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/15 "2004-05-05T04:25:18Z")
Blowing into NES cartridges is actually an ancient Japanese trick that dates back thousands of years. ---
**Author:** ![insomnia4AM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@insomnia4AM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insomnia4AM)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/16 "2004-05-05T04:27:24Z")
> [@Sandlegs](#): > > (I heard these top loaders are going for a bundle on ebay.) Really? I have one… Hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/17 "2004-05-05T04:32:11Z")
My thing that I do with my NES is not to push the game in all the way and not to push it down like you’re supposed to with an NES. You see, once it broke and went in to get fixed. Since then, pushing the game down was OPTIONAL. If a game does not work like that, generally I just won’t push it in all the way. But we all blow on them! It is a necessity. My original NES still works perfectly 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jmizzou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@jmizzou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmizzou)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/18 "2004-05-05T04:37:20Z")
I would also blow into the cartridge, and have _no_ idea where I picked it up. I also did the stuff-in-the-extra-cartridge trick, which I’m pretty sure I figured out for myself. > [@Jimmy Chitwood](#): > > But did anybody do the “Rub your finger back and forth in the little slot on the right side of the cartridge while it’s in the deck?” > > Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Do you mean using that little slot to jiggle the cartridge around in the deck? ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/19 "2004-05-05T04:43:52Z")
Yep, we blew on them. Blow on the game, and then in the system if it still wouldn’t work. Then we’d put the game in not quite all the way, so the slant on the edge of the cartridge was over the lip of the NES. Then slam the game down into the NES so it slides in with a big “Thunk!” ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575/20 "2004-05-05T06:10:32Z")
I found the best trick to making a cart. work is to insert it all the way in, drag it some, so that when you push it down it barely fits through, and then turn on the console. Works every time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/collective-consciousness-blowing-into-nes-carts/243575.md?page=2)