Sometimes you find a great game at the thrift store but it’s completely corroded. If it doesn’t play don’t worry you can clean it! It’s worth a shot to buy it and bring it home and try to repair it. In the video above I show you how I cleaned a N64 cartridge. There are a couple things you will need. An eraser is really at good to get the bulk of the corrosion off. Then you clean up with a cotton swab and a little bit of alcohol. some people say that alcohol is bad for the board but it works for me every time. I think some people just use too much.
If you have some magic marker to get off the gray plastic I would recommend getting a magic eraser and lightly rubbing it till it is gone. This will raise the resell value of the game immensely. Clean Nintendo 64 games when you can because it does add value. Even if it’s dirt you can make the game look more presentable.
I bought a security screwdriver bit so that I could open the cartridges themselves. That way you can get into the crevasses of the case and get all of the dirt out. It was pretty cheap and I bought it off eBay. It’s a good tool to have if you plan on selling a lot of vintage video games. It can be used on other Nintendo games as well.
What are the way that you use to clean Nintendo 64 games? Do you worry about the alcohol? Sometimes just blowing on the cartridge can get it to work but blowing really hurts the game. Even though it feels like you are blowing just air, you are blowing some saliva as well. This creates corrosion on the gold tips that game needs to connect to the console. So be careful when you are repairing games. it’s best to keep a soft touch and get harder only if you need to.