Blowing on NES cartridges was actually bad for them

[Administrator]

We all remember growing up and plugging an NES cartridge into the console's slot only to get a jumbled up error screen. And we all knew the solution to this particular query; blow on the underside of the cartridge. Yet a recent study has shown that not only did blowing not help, it may have actually hurt the cartridge.

According to a report at Mental_Floss, "When things went wrong inside your NES, the problem was usually a bad connection between the cartridge and its slot. That could be due to tarnishing, corrosion, crud in various places, weak pins in the slot, or other issues."

The report cited Frankie Viturello, host of the gaming show Digital Press Webcast, who noted "While I admittedly may have dabbled in a little cartridge-blowing as a naive NES-playing youth, I've long-since been an advocate for not doing it with the stance that for whatever it may do to aid in the temporary functionality of an NES, it ultimately opens the door for damage and distress to the hardware."

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