We have all been there! Blowing on a Nintendo video game cartridge when the game we were playing just would not launch or appeared to be glitching. Somehow, this desperate attempt always seemed to do the trick. Perhaps not always on the first or second try, but eventually. Well, according to The PBS Digital Studios show It’s OK To Be Smart, it turns out this magical quick fix never actually did anything (go figure!).
Did Blowing On Nintendo Game Cartridges Do Anything?
The clever people of It’s OK To Be Smart have shared a video dissecting exactly why the widespread practice of blowing on Nintendo video game cartridges appeared to work. In reality, what actually helped get the games to work was removing the cartridge from the console and reinserting it.
This gave the TV game cartridge another chance to line up correctly. However, because we had blown on the cartridge before putting it in, our brains tricked us into believing that it was the action of blowing that had caused the game to function properly again.
Damaging The Video Game Cartridges
Blowing on the cartridge most likely caused more harm than good. The moisture from our breaths causes further corrosion of the pin connectors, making it even more difficult for the game to start up the next time.
The video further explained that the myth then continued to perpetuate itself because humans are more likely to believe something when others do to. This is known as the common belief fallacy. So, because all our friends believed blowing on cartridges worked, we did too and eventually, it became common practice for all.
More Proof
Mental Floss also shares an in-depth article by Chris Higgins that completely discredits the blowing-on-cartridges myth. In his article, Higgins writes, “My money is on the blowing thing being a pure placebo, offering the user just another chance at getting a good connection.” Further in his writings, he adds, “The problems with Nintendo’s connector system are well-documented, and most of them are mechanical — they just wore out faster than expected.” I guess that is that then.
So, I guess that concludes the matter. This myth is officially debunked. Blowing on Nintendo video game cartridges does not work and eventually does more damage to the cartridge.
Are you also guilty of blowing on your Nintendo video game cartridges to get them to work?
Also, read our articles about whether or not the PS5 is the last console and what the PlayStation 6 could look like.
Yes, those were the days. We had cartoon turtles that knew martial arts selling us pizza and telling us it was healthy. We could pretty much believe anything in those days. To know the magic of it all you’d need to be there. Probably won’t happen again.