Quote Originally Posted by nate1001 View Post
I have a few problems with your theory...

You suggest that blowing on the cart adds moisture which increases conductivity. Sounds reasonable, yet why then does the game continue to keep working long after, even days and possibly weeks after the moisture has had to have evaporated completely?

The moisture in human breath would leave very little, a barely measurable layer of moisture. Were talking microns here... This evaporates in very little time and is hardly thick enough to increase any connection or conductivity. Your theory hinges on the idea that a impossible connection is made and mysteriously remains for hours, days, probably weeks long after the fact. This doesn't add up. You are imo, creating more NES myths...

Also you keep mentioning green mold... Have you ever considered this is most likely a patina?... This is after all a copper alloy right? You even brought up old coins somewhere...

Im gonna go with placebo. The original NES simply had too many design flaws. It is most likely the act of removing and reinserting that solved the issue be it dust, a weak pin connection or comm between the lockouts.

I do however agree, blowing on the carts isn't a good idea. But come on, Ive revived old carts that were Blockbuster rentals. Were not kids anymore and blowing on the carts is far less "abuse" than what we did to these things when we were kids. The fact that these things still work some 20 years later...
Heh, wow. A blast from the recent past.

While the findings here were STRICTLY theoretical and not empirical by any stretch of the imagination, I think they also produced some visual evidence that could not be denied.

There was a build up of CRAP on the cartridge that was blown on every day that was NOT on the cart that was left as-is.

Pile that on top of the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of NES (and other system) carts in the wild that have visible corrosion type damage on the contacts. Moisture + oxygen + (most types of) metal = damage/corrosion, and it doesn't take a stress test like this to prove that.

Have any pennies in your pocket that look like this?



No. Most of them probably look like this.



While blowing in NES cartridges may very well be a placebo effect, as a collector I see absolutely no value in perpetuating a a theory that it does no damage whatsoever. (And I've never ever heard the assessment that you can keep a cart working for days/weeks after a single blow.)