why NES games work when you blow them

[Foopster]

my guess is that when you blow into them the moisture from your breath increases conductivity of the pins resulting in easier reading of the cartridge

anybody else have a guess?

[Ad Bot]

[gr8dayseth]

my guess is that it just wakes it up from the nap it's been having

[cooolguy32]

The dust comes out?

[joe411]

It doesn't. All blowing does is get saliva on the pins, ruining them.

The reason it works the second time is because taking it out and putting it back in reseats the cartridge, and probably connects each pin properly. There is no reason to blow into it each time.

Source: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12589/did-blowing-nintendo-cartridges-really-help