Anyone old enough to remember playing cartridge-based games like those that came with the Nintendo Entertainment System or its successors certainly remembers how blowing across the cartridge opening always seemed to help a stubborn game load–but did blowing on them really help?

Mental Floss shares the results of their fact finding mission, a mission that included researching the connection mechanism in the NES, talking to Frank Viturello (who conducted an informal study on the effects of moisture on cartridge connectors), and otherwise delving into the history of the phenomenon. The most interesting part of the analysis, by far, is their explanation of how blowing on the cartridge didn’t do anything but the ritual of removing the cartridge to blow on it did. Hit up the link below for the full story.

Did Blowing into Nintendo Cartridges Really Help? [Mental Floss]

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