If you’re a retro games freak holding old game cartridges and a functional vintage console, you probably have a few games that don’t load up reliably. Before you waste your time blowing on them — the traditional way of ‘cleaning’ dust from cartridges — there are other steps to consider. Ars Technica put together a great guide to get them working as good as new.
You can watch the video above for the full process.Essentally you’ll need to open the cartridge with the proper screwdriver, then use brass polish and rubbing alcohol to clean the contacts on the printed circuit board (PCB). This process should work for everything from the oldest console games up to N64 classics.
If a cartridge really can’t be saved, there are still ways to put it to good use.
The cheap, easy way to make those old game cartridges as good as new [Ars Technica]
Comments
4 responses to “Clean Your Old Game Cartridges The Right Way, No Blowing Required”
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Clearly instead of ” Before you waste your time blowing on them” you meant if on the of chance blowing doesn’t work try this more time consuming but effective method.
I ran my copy of fire emblem (3DS) through the wash and dryer the other day. The case is a melted mess. But when I force the cartridge in the game still works. However I don’t really want to put in a heap of time and then fine the game suddenly dies. Any ideas how safe I will be to keep playing?
Can you open it up and spray contact cleaner in there? Clean off any corrosion / detergent.
I’ll give that a go tonight. It’s pretty fused tight though. I thought about putting into a new cartridge. I was impressed it worked at all after seeing what a melted mess it is.