Retro Gaming Hacks

Make Your NES Work Like New

Defeat the "blue screen” by installing a new 72-pin connector.

In 1985, Nintendo broke into the U.S. home electronics market with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System [Hack #5] . The NES’s slick gray design blended in with existing audio-video equipment, and featured a unique front slot-loading cartridge system. Unfortunately, as many of us who were lucky enough to own an NES have come to realize, Nintendo’s choice of form over function was ill-fated. Slowly but surely, NES consoles became worn-out and refused to boot cartridges, the primary symptoms of which were the infamous flashing red power light and solid blue error screen. In this hack you’ll learn how to get your NES working properly.

The Dying Process

This problem starts off slowly, occurring only a small percentage of the time. During these early stages of decrepitude, blowing air into the system and the cartridge usually gets just enough dust off the contacts to allow the game to load correctly. After a while, the problem starts to show up more often, and becomes a little more difficult to fix. Blowing on the contacts begins to lose its effectiveness.

Many companies, Nintendo included, provided cleaning kits for the system that included an applicator that fit into the games and console along with an alcohol-based cleaning solution. NES Cleaning Kits were more expensive than blowing on the contacts, but were also much more effective (and safer, as the alcohol solution would not degrade ...