Retro game on!

With any luck my posts about retro video games have made you desire a trip down memory lane. So you grab that box out of the garage with your old Atari/Nintendo/Sega inside. You connect it up to your TV, turn on the video game console and... nothing. It doesn't work. The unit powers on, but nothing appears on screen. Well don't throw it out, chances are it still works, it just needs some cleaning. After all, it's 20 - 30 years old.




If your video game console doesn't work, most like the problem is dirty connectors. But don't blow into the cartridge and try again, as we'll see this actually makes the problem worse. If you look inside the cartridge you'll see a row of metal contacts. Technically this is called an edge connector. Regardless of the name, if these connectors are dirty the console won't see the game and therefore won't work. If you search the Internet on this problem, by far the standard repair technique is to use Q-tips and rubbing alcohol to clean the connectors. Whereas this does work, it's only partially effective. The rubbing alcohol will remove dirt, dust, grime, and oils from the connector. But really old systems face another problem.

Nearly all metals rust when exposed to oxygen. The technical term is oxidization. A layer of oxidization forms over the metal and prevents a good clean contact with the system. Rubbing alcohol will do nothing to remove the oxidization, and blowing into the cartridge adds moisture from your breath which acts as a catalyst to speed up the oxidization process. So how do you clean oxidization? You need an antioxidant, which is just a fancy name for acid. Obviously we're not trying to dissolve the cartridge, so we want a mild acid to remove just the oxidization layer. There is one acid which most people have in their house which is mild and works perfectly for this - vinegar.

So here is my recommend method for cleaning video game cartridges. Start off with Q-tip and rubbing alcohol to remove dirt, grime, and oils. Next, use Q-tip with vinegar to remove the oxidization. Finally, one more pass with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol to remove any residual acid left from step 2. After cleaning your cartridges like this they should work first time every time.

A few additional tips to share.

1. Regardless of what cleaning solution you're using, the Q-tip should only be damp, not dripping.

2. Use a high percentage rubbing alcohol, preferably 90% or higher. Low percentage rubbing alcohol contains a lot of water, and water is the catalyst that caused this problem in the first place.

3. Don't forget to clean the connector inside your video game console. This isn't as easy. I haven't found a good way to do this other than try and clean the tops of the pins with a Q-tip. But be careful not to damage the pins.

4. Finally, if you own a NES and this doesn't figure the problem, you need to Google "72 pin connector." You most likely need to repair your connector, or buy a replacement off eBay.