Good ole rubbing alcohol and a q-tip! That’s all you need.
Edit: I don’t know if you have “q-tips” - it’s a cotton swab or cotton stick, would be the generic name. The things you aren’t supposed to stick in your ear but that’s what everyone does anyway.
I was going to ask if a qtip is just a cotton bud! Also is rubbing alcohol the same as an alcohol-based hand sanitiser, or do I need some specific alcohol-based cleaner?
Don’t use hand sanitizer, at least not the gel type, it will leave a residue. You just need like 91% isopropyl alcohol - stuff you would use to clean a wound.
Edit - I looked it up, it’s called surgical spirit in the UK.
Hell yeah. Yeah - 25 years of crud builds up. Those contacts just need a lil cleaning and you are good to go usually. Also if you feel so inclined - swapping out the pin slot in the system itself is very easy and cheap. There’s no soldering on the NES, not sure about the Sega… But honestly if just cleaning the pins on the game did the trick, I wouldn’t fuss with it.
Clean or replace your pin slot in the console and clean the contacts on your game. That should fix that.
What’s the best way to clean them? I assume something more than the old blow-into-the-cartridge trick?
Good ole rubbing alcohol and a q-tip! That’s all you need.
Edit: I don’t know if you have “q-tips” - it’s a cotton swab or cotton stick, would be the generic name. The things you aren’t supposed to stick in your ear but that’s what everyone does anyway.
I was going to ask if a qtip is just a cotton bud! Also is rubbing alcohol the same as an alcohol-based hand sanitiser, or do I need some specific alcohol-based cleaner?
Don’t use hand sanitizer, at least not the gel type, it will leave a residue. You just need like 91% isopropyl alcohol - stuff you would use to clean a wound.
Edit - I looked it up, it’s called surgical spirit in the UK.
I’ve not got any to hand but the cotton bud did help!
Hell yeah. Yeah - 25 years of crud builds up. Those contacts just need a lil cleaning and you are good to go usually. Also if you feel so inclined - swapping out the pin slot in the system itself is very easy and cheap. There’s no soldering on the NES, not sure about the Sega… But honestly if just cleaning the pins on the game did the trick, I wouldn’t fuss with it.
Have fun!