Of course, this kind of stuff happens to me right when I'm about to do something

So today I got Mario 64 downloaded for the Virtual Console on the Wii. I wanted to check the differences between the versions, like if something was a different color, or if a glitch was still there. Finding my old N64 and old M64 cart, I plugged them in and started my 120-star file. Everything seemed normal, then I went to the level "Bowser on the Dark Road"...

I changed camera positions to help me walk through the map, just like always, when I ran into one of the crytals that those shock-ball thingys fly around. I walked through it, but the sound treated it like I was bumping into it (Mario's "Ooooph" sound). Then when I finished walking through it, mario's hands were behind his back, and his head was looking upwards (if you know about the "puppet controls" in SSBM's debug mode, that's what it looked like was happening). Reaching the platform with the wooden block moving under it, King Bob-omb was there (xD). He spoke with the normal text he usually does, then a slowed-down version of his boss music played, and Mario kept going with the random yells. Then I fell through the floor, fell into the death zone, but instead of going back to the hallway where the level starts, there was nothing but a black screen.

I removed the cart after shutting the game off, blew on it and the N64's insides, then I plugged it in. The game started, I knew because the screen flashed and "video" disappeared, but still that same black screen. I waited 5 minutes, nothing. Shutting it off again I looked at the cart. One of the "pegs" (the metal strips on that tan thing that gives data to the N64) had exploded. Yeah. Scorchmarks and everything.

So, is there a way to fix this at home, or do I ask Nintendo to fix it/Say "screw it" and play the Wii version?

(My N64 still works though, tested my old Transformers game on it afterwards )

The Wii version is better.
I read this about 3 or 4 months ago;
http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers ... _N64vsWii/

It tells the differences and stuff.

Don't blow on it. It only causes more glitches.

SolidFett wrote:Don't blow on it. It only causes more glitches.

Since when? I've blown on my cartridges for like 10 years and they're all perfectly fine. I mean, if you're like "PFOOOOOOOOOOO", then it might glitch-ify. But if you you're like "pfoo", then it's OK.

It's the way you get dust out, and the people who damage their carts because of it have to learn the difference between blowing and ejecting everything in their mouth at the time

Take a q-tip to your cartridge. Wet one side of the q-tip under the sink, then lightly squeeze the excess water out. Scrub on the cartridge contacts with the wet side, making sure you scrub both sides. Then take the dry side and dry it off. Take a second, dry q-tip and use both ends to make sure everything is totally dry. Plug in the system and play. (works really well on NES carts)

Wow...That actually worked! Thanks

(The coin sound is missing now though o.0)

It's possible that the cartridges are simply not meant to last this long.

From the Gamecube all the way back to the beginning of Nintendo, thay have always used various forms of storing the saved data magnetically, which means that it is bound to corrupt your game files sooner or later.

Also, any of the systems using cartridges, are also stored magnetically. So no, they are not meant to last forever.

A couple of my old Gameboy games were corrupted as well. All my save files were gone and it was impossible to save any new games. My N64 games seem to be ok but Nintendo games can go bad after a while. As for the blowing thing, it works so long as you don't spit into it. God, I remember when I was little one of my mom's coworkers dropped her kid off at our house while she went somewhere so we just played video games. Something was wrong with the game and he said blowing on it would work. So I blew on it but he was like, "No, you're doing it wrong. Give it to me." So I handed it to him and he gave it a big old rasberry. Fortunetely it didn't Diet Dr. Pepper up the game but it still annoyed me.

You can make it so Gameboy games can save again, Era.

1) Get A Gameboy Advance SP with it's recharger cord
2) Insert the "dead" game
3) Plug the Cord into the wall and into the SP
4) Leave the SP on all day, when the orange light goes off wait an hour, take the cord out then plug it back in.
5) This should recharge the Internal Battery of the game, letting you save, but your old files will still be lost. I do this monthly with my old games, haven't even lost anything.