TIL I was cleaning my NES cartridges wrong for like 15 years
So I got this old copy of Contra off eBay last week, $12 shipped, and it wouldn't load past the title screen. I always just blew into the pins or rubbed them with a t-shirt, but my buddy came over and showed me the isopropyl alcohol + Q-tip method. He said the blowing actually makes things worse over time because of moisture. After I cleaned it that way, Contra booted up first try, no flickering. Anyone else have a classic game they thought was dead that came back with a proper clean?
Had a buddy who threw out his copy of Mega Man 2 because he thought it was dead. Years later he saw a cleaning tutorial on YouTube and almost cried when he realized he could've saved it. He still gets mad about it when we bring up retro stuff.
My cousin did the same thing with his original Game Boy, threw it in the trash because the screen got all scratched up. Found out later there's a toothpaste trick to buff those out and he was just sick about it. Funny how the stuff we didn't know back then still haunts us now.