So iv'e had this copy of castlevania for years and I recently have been playing it alot trying to finally beat it but it keeps freezing, specifically at or shortly after the battle with death. Everything just stops and the note that was playing at the moment of the freeze just continues forever. As you can imagine this is extremely frustrating. I have tried cleaning it several times with the alcohol and q-tip method, each time pulling out a small amount of gunk but it keeps happening. I ordered a bit so that I can open the cartridge and my question is, what method of deep cleaning would work best with this issue. Will cleaning it deeper even help? The game consistantly works the first try putting it in the console so I can't imagine it is that dirty. I am playing on an original toaster NES with a fairly new 72-pin connector.