NES frustration

[spaceman88]

Hi,
I used to be an authorized Nintendo tech. back in the 1990's. The security chip only comes into play with "illegal" games like a 72 in 1 cart. 99% of the time it's the 72 pin connector and the games. The best way to clean the games is to take them apart and scrub the gold contacts with chrome polish (Nintendo recommended "Turtle Wax" brand) then wipe them off with wet paper towel. Do not blow in the cart.. A dirty game will quickly contaminate a new connector, sometimes the first time you put it in. If you have a good connector cleaner you should be able to bring it back, use alcohol to clean with.

[spaceman88]

The 71 in one carts are usually pirate carts and only a hand full of games on it will be unique games. The rest might be rom hacks and name changes. Best sticking to normal carts rather than the pirate ones.

Yes, some had pirated games others were just crappy unlicensed games. They would use hacks to get around Nintendo's security chip, but Nintendo kept changing the code in the chip to shut them down. So a pirate cartridge might play on an older NES deck but not a newer deck.

[spaceman88]

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Yes, blowing in the cart. was so common that Nintendo supplied us with orange stickers warning people not to blow in the cart. that we had to put on every deck we repaired. They also sold cleaning kits for the games, but if the kid had been blowing too long the corrosion would be too bad. In that case the game had to come apart and be cleaned with chrome polish.