OK, the death of this one is easy enough to pinpoint, as it ended with the fall of the last cartridge-based home console, the N64 (apparently in 2001, but more likely somewhere between 1999 and 2000). But before then the following was common practice. If a game cartridge didn't seem to want to work (which was not uncommon) the user would retrieve it from the console, turn it upside down, bring it to their lips and blow into it. Why? Who knows. It was just the done thing. Was it getting rid of dust? Cooling it down? Who knows. But regardless, it seemed to work. If geek-based sitcom The IT Crowd had premièred in 1992, "have you tried blowing into it?" might easily have been a national catchphrase.
A regular film and video games contributor for What Culture, Robert also writes reviews and features for The Daily Telegraph, GamesIndustry.biz and The Big Picture Magazine as well as his own Beames on Film blog. He also has essays and reviews in a number of upcoming books by Intellect.
