Any gamer born in the 80s or earlier knows the routine all too well: if your Nintendo Entertainment System wasn’t working, you pull out the game cartridge, blow into it, then try again until you achieve success. While many will defend the habit — citing the countless amount of times it worked — Mental_Floss set out to find the truth behind the myth by speaking with a number of individuals from the gaming industry and examining a real-world test of Nintendo’s infamous 72-pin connector. Head to the source to get a brief history of the console and Nintendo’s official cartridge care instructions, and prepare to have your childhood memories tarnished by the investigation’s results.
Testing the myth behind blowing into NES cartridges
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
