Why did the NES (original Nintendo) not work properly. ?

Question

When ever I put in a cartridge in the NES years ago it never worked the first time. Funny such a design flaw was so popular.

Answer 1

You have to wiggle the cartridge a certain way and get it to a point where it works and it works everytime.

Answer 2

While I cannot really explain the technical details, it has to do with the fact that you had to insert the cartridge horizontally in the NES console as opposed to vertically like other consoles (eg: Super NES, Genesis, Colecovision, etc).

Nintendo did release in 1993 an updated NES console (christened the "NES 2") that solved the problem by inserting the cartridges vertically.  But  it was released in the heyday of the Super NES/Genesis,  so of course nobody bought it .

Answer 3

As others have mentioned, it is a problem of getting a connection through between the cartridge and the NES. There are two possible causes for this:

1) The contacts (metal strips on the bottom of the cartridge) are dirty. As the game is used over the years, dirt, grime, and possibly corrosion will build up on the connectors. This makes it difficult for the electric signal to get through, which will make the NES unable to read the cartridge. The easiest way to deal with this is to get some rubbing alcohol, dip a Q-tip in it and rub the contacts with the Q-tip. Give it a good scrubbing, but be still be gentle with it. Let it dry for a bit and try plugging it back into the Nintendo. It should work.

I've bought many used games in the last couple years and I got a lot that were so dirty I could never get them to play, even with 15 minutes of readjusting, blowing, and retrying. I cleaned them as I described above and most of them work 100% of the time with no trouble at all. A few will need another scrubbing because they were just that dirty.

2) The other possibility is that the receiving connector pins on the NES are bent. The NES was designed so that cartridge will be inserted between two rows of pins almost like teeth which have a natural opening a little narrower than the cartridge's connectors, so they act like a spring and create a tight connection. With years of use though, sometimes they will lose that tightness, which will make a solid connection difficult if not impossible. If all your games are giving you problems, then this is likely the situation.

The solution to this one is a little more work. The first thing you can try is to open up the Nintendo's casing and try to bend the row of connector teeth inward a small amount. This has solved a lot of people's troubles. If that doesn't work, you'll have to buy a replacement connector. You should be able to find these easily enough on eBay, and they're relatively inexpensive. You can then open up the casing again and swap your old connector for this one and it should be good as new!

In my experience dirty contacts on the game cartridges is the problem in most cases, so hopefully that's all you'll need to do. It's good practice to clean any new cartridges you buy used before sticking them in your machine so that any dirt and grime on them won't be transferred to the inside connector of the Nintendo.  

Answer 4

because of dust and particles getting in the way of the cartridge caused a problem between game and console.  

Answer 5

Like most game consoles, it was designed to a price point. Part of the cost-cutting centered around its game cartridge slot, which had trouble making a good electrical connection. With time, it oxidizes, and many if not most Nintendos either have aftermarket cart slots or often crash in game play.

People having this problem would do well to try Craig Lab's Deoxit. It's expensive, but is about the bast contact cleaner around.