Question about an old NES

[Goldom]

I just aquired an NES from a garage sale, amazing condition - original box, even original ads in it. But something seems to be wrong with the thing itself.. One game it had with it was Mario/Duck hunt, which works just fine. But every other one with it doesn't turn on.. the screen flashes on and off green, and the power light goes on and off at the same time. Same thing as if no game is in when it turns on. It seems unlikely that every other game would be broken, but if its the system, why would that one work? I noticed, looking at it, that one has less little metal bits on the connector - none in the center, while all the others do. Could it be that the others have more connectors and that one spot inside the machine isn't connecting, so only the one not having them there works? I'd think that was crazy, but I know with SNES, the more complex games have more connectors on the sides that older ones don't.

[jayfish]

1. A Couple Of Things.

First, Get a can of compressed air and blow out the inside of the unit where the cart goes in. Second, use an eraser to clean the contacts on the carts themselves. Give it a shot.

Jay

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Have you considered looking into emulation?

It's possible to find great NES emulators nowadays, and any P2P or Bit Torrent search will yield huge numbers of game roms (and they don't really eat up too much HD space either).

Also, go to a used game store if there's one near where you live and try to get a NES cleaning kit. It will scrub the internal cartridge contacts without damaging anything, better than you probably could by flipping the lid and inserting a pencil eraser or q-tip.

[Goldom]

4. I do have NES (and SNES and Genesis) emulators,

but there's something more special about using the real machine. I still own the Genesis that I got for my.. I forget, somewhere between 3rd and 6th birthday. It doesn't work terribly well, but even so.

[Guy Fawkes]

3. How to fix your problem:

fold up a piece of paper. Put it ontop of the cartridge when you put it into the NES. This should push the cartridge down a little and fix the problem.

If that doesn't work, try cleaning the cartridge feed with Q-tips and isopropal Alcohol.