NES Game Cleaning

Here I will describe my method of cleaning and restoring old dirty games back to life. I have read a lot of conflicting opinions about cleaning cartridges, and it can get kind of confusing if you don't know what you are doing. I figure ill throw mine in there to make it worse. Seriously though, I have an NES collection of over 500 games and this method has never failed me. Games that did not work, do every time after this short process.

Step 1: First gather your tools. These are simply 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol, LOTS of cotton swabs, a rag (old socks work great), and a dirty cartridge of course. Also, the alcohol must be 70%. I have noticed too often that the 91% sometimes lightens the plastic.

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Step 2: Start by wiping down the exterior. Put your rag on top of the bottle of alcohol and quickly turn the bottle over to get some on the rag. Wipe the cartridge down with light pressure but go very lightly over the label. Apply more pressure where needed for the dirtier areas. Don't worry about the cracks and crevices too much, we will get those with the cotton swabs.

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Step 3:
Now for the cotton swabs. Dip one in the bottle and then run it around the inside of the mouth of the bottle to squeeze out any drips. You want it damp, but not dripping. Now start on the front in the area you use to pull the cartridge out of the system. Make sure to get the backside of this area too. Follow up with the tabs at the top, the screw holes in the back, and the slots running down the front. Pay extra attention to these, the cleaner they are the better your cartridge will look over all.

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Step 4: Now to the contacts.
This is the area you want to be as clean as possible. Start out with a fresh cotton swab with alcohol and clean all of the plastic on the inside here. Get the inside of the lip in the front real good. Clean the plastic until it looks good and the cotton swab is no longer coming out dirty. Next clean the contacts with the alcohol and a firm motion sliding across them. Make sure to press to the back and to the front to get the entire surface clean. Clean the edge of the connector. Keep scrubbing away until no more dirt comes out on the swab.

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Step 5:
This is optional and only necessary if you think it is need. If you suspect that soil somehow entered your cartridge (i've seen it all) and you want do do a thourough cleaning of the inside, you will need to get the appropriate bit to open it up. Now the 5 screw variants of the NES cartridges used plain phillips head screws so that is not so much of a problem, but when it comes to those security screws on the more common 3 screw variants, you will need to get the special bit. Fortunately this bit can be had cheaply on ebay and fits in any standard screw driver that you can swap bits on. Once your cartridge is open just clean the inside plastic with the alcohol, using cotton swabs to reach the cracks and crevices. Lightly wipe off the board and contacts to remove any surface dirt.To give the contacts a good shine rub them down with a pink pencil eraser. If they seem badly tarnished, start with a white plastic eraser, then the pink. After the erasers wipe the contacts off with some alcohol and let it dry.

Step 6: After your cartridge is all clean and happy, let it sit for a minute to dry before you put it in your NES (i know you're excited). And the last thing to do before you fire up your "new" game is to blow it out. NOT WITH YOUR MOUTH!!! You don't want to undo everything you have just done. Canned air is great for this. I know we all used to do it, but blowing in your games just doesn't make sense if you think about it. Canned air is filtered and more powerful. This can lead to dustless games, cleaner contact with the system, and no more light headedness. Go ahead and try out your game. It should work great. If not then your system maybe be dirty. Try blowing it out with the air. By now you have most likely gotten used to your NES and how to move the cartridge around to get a good connection. If none of this works then you will need to clean it. I will cover that in the next section.

Different techniques and my thoughts: I have heard a lot of different way people get their games to work. And there are a few that I think are just plain wacky. First the method of inserting the game most of the way in, then pushing it down and clipping it off of the edge of the system. I do remember doing this and it never really made sense. Why would you want to abuse your game and system in this way. I could understand if this were something mechanical and you were trying to jolt something into motion, but its not. All this is doing is putting more pressure on the system contacts and maybe bending them out of shape. Then we have the freezer method. I have heard of a few people putting their games in the freezer and then they work after a few minutes. All I have to say about this is "hello condensation!". Other things I have heard are slapping the cartridge off your hand, actually spitting in it, and wedging another game in there to hold it in place. None of these methods are good ideas for many reasons whether it be for the reasons of corrosion or just plain damage to the game. Ultimately this is a solid state system and just needs to be clean. If you have cleaned your game as described above then the problem must lie in your NES.

Now obviously this method can be modified for use with any cartridge game, but I speak of the NES games because they are the ones that I have tested most of my methods on. I have seen the way that their plastics and labels react to these cleaning methods and have not had a problem. I use rubbing alcohol on all games from other systems in my collection and never have a problem. The only issues I see are sometimes labels of a certain type will bleed when the alcohol hits them. So take it easy on those labels until you are sure that you wont be causing damage. I have removed art from labels too many times when I wasn't paying attention.

As usual, if you have any comments or corrections that you think would be of use to everyone, leave a reply.