7. Blowing On Cartridges As A Magic Fix
Like most people, I was convinced that the way to get a Megadrive/Nintendo cartridge working was to blow on it. However experts now say you were actually doing more
harm than good. In our bid to remove dust accumulating on the inside of the cartridge's opening, the continued blowing did nothing. For the NES, it turns out that it wasn't dust that was causing games to "break" at all. It was the way the NES was designed to interact with its cartridges.
"Nintendo designed its NES connector using nickel pins bent into a position so that they'd give slightly when a cartridge was inserted, then spring back after it was removed. These pins became less springy after repeated use, which make it hard for them to firmly grasp the game cartridge's connectors."
It is now a fact that blowing was actually bad for your system: the components, which were made of copper, would be damaged by the moisture exhaled into the cartridges. It turns out that Nintendo even warned against this in the fine print of its products, stating: "Do not blow into your Game Packs or systems. The moisture in your breath can corrode and contaminate the pin connectors." So counter to popular theory, blowing on your gaming cartridge did nothing but damage your game and system.