Cool experiment. I'm curious to see the outcome. A quick thought:

When a child turned on a game and got a blinking screen, how often do you think that was because of the lockout chip being out of sync with the game and not because of dirty contacts or bent pins? Then, when the child removed the cartridge, blew on it, put it back in, and turned it on again, maybe by coincidence sometimes the lockout chip was now in sync with the game, making it boot up just fine.

How big of a problem/coincidence do you think the lockout chip was vs. dirty contacts/bent pins?