Charas-Project

Off-Topic => All of all! => Topic started by: Drighton on January 02, 2006, 07:35:18 PM

Title: Cartridge CPR Origins
Post by: Drighton on January 02, 2006, 07:35:18 PM

It seems to be a universal thing, this cartridge cpr. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to that old technique to get your NES or other cartridge games to work. It usually involved:

• Blowing on the exposed circuit board of the cartridge
• Slam the cartridge (open side faced down)
• Rapid insertion/docking of the cartridge
• Multiple pressings of the reset and/or power buttons.
• Rigging the cartridge with a wedge.

In casual nostalgic conversation with the one who taught me the invaluable technique I began to wonder where it originated? The method is so, for lack of a better word, ghetto that it seems unlikely that this method was passed down by a Nintento customer service rep.

My teacher learned from his cousins in Pennsylvania. Since I have no contact with them, thats where my cold trail ends. Yeah, I didn't go far.

So, if you can fondly remember and laugh about this topic, where did you learn your Cartridge resuscitation method, and for kicks, what did it involve?

(edit: addition. thanks to blaze)

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Post by: blaze_shinigami on January 02, 2006, 07:52:20 PM

this takes me back.

only thing I can add is putting a piece of paper in there to stop jiggling, and holding down the cartridge until you saw the game actually come on (cause only then was it safe).  The Advent of the CD into gaming ended all the frustration. cartridge marks on the wall.

I used to see my brother do it, and it seemed to work.

q-tips, too.

anyone played with their consoles upside down?

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Post by: Drighton on January 02, 2006, 08:19:45 PM

yes, I forgot about rigging the cartridge.

Never played upside down. In my family, q-tips were fancy. :p If we had them, you only used them for your ears.

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Post by: charaman on January 02, 2006, 08:26:29 PM

I learned it from my cousins too. We live in Pennsylvania. I guess we found the source.


Cousins.

Pennsylvania.

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Post by: 69_so_fine on January 02, 2006, 08:44:57 PM

i learned it from my cousin who learned it from his brother who lived in mossuri and it just consisted of basically everything that you guys alredy said sorry to end you guys trail but i have no family in pennsylvania at least not that i know of

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Post by: Tomi on January 02, 2006, 08:50:42 PM

So thats why old school gamers have such good respitory systems...

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Post by: Drighton on January 02, 2006, 08:50:43 PM

Oh elusive genius, where art thou....

Quote

Originally posted by Tomi
So thats why old school gamers have such good respitory systems...

Ah, Tomi, you have no idea.
You see, after some time doing each part of the method in random order, if the game still failed to work, you would repeat, inceasing the power with which you blow, since the previous knottage did not do the trick. Needless to say, you would see stars.


I remember playing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. My brother and I, with our friends (also brothers) would spend all day trying to beat the game. However, we were not spoiled with save points as the newer generations are. If you run out of lives, you have to start the game over from the beginning.

We would constantly strive to: 1) solve the timed puzzle that would reveal what the Holy Grail looked like, 2) navigate through all the levels using only three (?) lives, since after that you had to start over, 3) picking the Holy Grail at the end. The grail was different each time you played, so if you didn't get at least a small portion of what the grail looked like in the beginning then you just had to pick at random.

We never beat that game, but man it was fun trying to.

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Post by: MrMister on January 02, 2006, 11:46:09 PM

Sega Genesis cartridges had to be blown on every single time you wanted to play... that thing was fragile. If you even looked at it wrong, the game would freeze.

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Post by: Archem on January 03, 2006, 12:04:14 AM

I didn't learn this technique, I discovered it! I'm not claiming to be the first to try it, I know that's not true. Instead, my aggressive personality coupled with an occasional head of steam (often indused by a previous beating from being bad), I would throw it at the wall (which would bring about another beating), blow in it, and generally abuse it. It worked, and soon I became the #1 pro at making a cart work. Even today, I can make ANY cartridge work, even when no one else can do it. My skills, oddly enough, have translated to today's CDs and DVDs, which occasionally get scratched, stained, smudged, and uglified. This is no nostalgic test for me: I still play GBA games.

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Post by: MrMister on January 03, 2006, 12:06:41 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Archem2
I didn't learn this technique, I discovered it! I'm not claiming to be the first to try it, I know that's not true. Instead, my aggressive personality coupled with an occasional head of steam (often indused by a previous beating from being bad), I would throw it at the wall (which would bring about another beating), blow in it, and generally abuse it. It worked, and soon I became the #1 pro at making a cart work. Even today, I can make ANY cartridge work, even when no one else can do it. My skills, oddly enough, have translated to today's CDs and DVDs, which occasionally get scratched, stained, smudged, and uglified. This is no nostalgic test for me: I still play GBA games.

NDS carts are like 2 mm thick, though.
They'd crumble.

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Post by: Razor on January 03, 2006, 12:08:49 AM

Quote

Originally posted by blaze_shinigami
The Advent of the CD into gaming ended all the frustration. cartridge marks on the wall.

Lies! CD scratches!

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Post by: blaze_shinigami on January 03, 2006, 01:30:00 AM

Quote

Originally posted by MrMister
Sega Genesis cartridges had to be blown on every single time you wanted to play... that thing was fragile. If you even looked at it wrong, the game would freeze.

lol. yes! aww man, it would be like, segaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

****!!

Quote

Originally posted by Razor
Lies! CD scratches!

There's a skin out nowadays, but you needed discipline to handle CDs back in the day. It was an art form. Like Bushido.

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Post by: DragonBlaze on January 03, 2006, 01:35:11 AM

I've had more problems with CDs than I ever did with cartrages! My ps and ps2 always had problems with reading CDs, and I've even boughten used games that were too scraged to play on the psx. But as long as I owned the psx game, I felt no shame in downloading it to play on my computer, I did own the game so I had the rights to download it.

The only time I ever had a problem with cartrages was when I tried playing snes games on my n64. I put an n64 gameshark in the 64, then I put a snes game on the gameshark. My 64 wouldn't work for a week.

For the snes games, as long as you keep the little plastic protector on them, and use a dust cleaner on the actual system once and a while, it works fine :)

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Post by: Meiscool-2 on January 03, 2006, 01:37:41 AM

I used a wet tooth brush..... i'll let you guess for yourself how that one worked.

*sniff* Final Fantasy Four... I miss you so much!

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Post by: blaze_shinigami on January 03, 2006, 01:49:40 AM

Quote

Originally posted by DragonBlaze
I've had more problems with CDs than I ever did with cartrages! My ps and ps2 always had problems with reading CDs, and I've even boughten used games that were too scraged to play on the psx. But as long as I owned the psx game, I felt no shame in downloading it to play on my computer, I did own the game so I had the rights to download it.

The only time I ever had a problem with cartrages was when I tried playing snes games on my n64. I put an n64 gameshark in the 64, then I put a snes game on the gameshark. My 64 wouldn't work for a week.

For the snes games, as long as you keep the little plastic protector on them, and use a dust cleaner on the actual system once and a while, it works fine :)

What? dust cleaner? I blew into the consoles. slapped em. flipped  'em over. they were  real troopers, those poor bastards.

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Post by: Archem on January 03, 2006, 02:04:15 AM

Indeed. My NES still works, sans the weird "flashing" thing. Anyone know what I'm talkin' about? I've mistreated the hell outta those things, and they never let me down. Except for my N64. The power switch jammed on something, so now we can't turn it on. I blame Pringles.

As for my DS, those carts don't get dusty because "the'yre 2mm thick". Plus, they're open and exposed so the crap doesn't get caught in it.

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Post by: DragonBlaze on January 03, 2006, 02:08:36 AM

Quote

Originally posted by blaze_shinigami

quote:

Originally posted by DragonBlaze I've had more problems with CDs than I ever did with cartrages! My ps and ps2 always had problems with reading CDs, and I've even boughten used games that were too scraged to play on the psx. But as long as I owned the psx game, I felt no shame in downloading it to play on my computer, I did own the game so I had the rights to download it. The only time I ever had a problem with cartrages was when I tried playing snes games on my n64. I put an n64 gameshark in the 64, then I put a snes game on the gameshark. My 64 wouldn't work for a week. For the snes games, as long as you keep the little plastic protector on them, and use a dust cleaner on the actual system once and a while, it works fine :)

What? dust cleaner? I blew into the consoles. slapped em. flipped  'em over. they were  real troopers, those poor bastards.

Lol, I guess I'm just lucky. My snes still works like a charm, along with all its game. I never use it anymore though now that I have a computer :p. I play all my games on a snes emulator rather than a counsol. I'm a good boy and only download games I own though

 

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*sniff* Final Fantasy Four... I miss you so much!

Thats what FF chronicals is for ;)

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Post by: Osmose on January 03, 2006, 06:23:11 AM

Blowing on the cartridge actually damages it in the long run, although it is a quick way to get the dust out rather than using something like a Q-Tip. But yeah, I think most of us did that naturally without thinking. Although I never tried to smash or bang any of my games - I'd think that that would damage them even more than blowing on them.


And Dragonblaze - contrary to popular belief, it is illegal, whether you own the game or not, to download a copy of it to play on your computer, emulator, to burn, etc. Quoting  this page from Nintendo.com (http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp),

 

Quote

There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.

Therefore, unless you make the copy yourself and only use it yourself, you may not use a copy of any game, program, etc. that is not the original copy. And that applies to all companies, too, not just Nintendo.

Doesn't stop me, but still.

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Post by: Ben on January 03, 2006, 06:31:16 AM

For my First Nes......I only had to give the odd blow...
Untill I got my game genie....and then it messed the tesion and I had to start wedging.....Sometimes with the game genie.....and then with folded paper......and then the machine was only operable when on its side......
Then, it had to be balanced with one corner slightly levitated....

And then I discovered a new one.....
If you put the game in, so that the edge of the game would rub against the NES wall, when you depressed the game into the machine, and you caught the lip in just a special way......it would work.....

My second Nes was stolen, so I didnt get that chance....by then they were welfare....

I didnt have any problems with my genisis....


Anyone remember mega man 3, and getting your friend on controller 2 to cheat up tha high jump, invincibility and slow motion?

Those were the days

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Post by: Cerebus on January 03, 2006, 07:56:06 AM

For my NES, I had to blow in them. When I put the cartridge in the console, I put my thumb on each extremity and push it, not too hard. If it didn't work, I did the same thing but I pushed a bit harder. If the game began with a messed up image, I slaped the console. If it still din't work, I move the cartridge inside the console a bit, while the power is off. It it still didn't work, I didn't play.

As for Genesis, I just slap the cartridge in front, power on, if didn't work, power off, slap the cartridge in back, power on, if didn't work, power off, slap the cartridge in front, power on, etc. I sometime just hit on top of the cartridge.

As for SNES, I never had a problem with it.

N64, same as the Genesis.

Game Boy, just removed the cartridge and put it back until it worked.