Nintendo

haha, true. Always happens with my old 8bit.

galliano: dont bother. its fun for 5 minutes.

basically the solution the cartoon suggests is the only one that sometimes works: blow in the cartridge.
Common, the old nintendo games are still cool. I have a sega 8bit, and those games suck. They are all the same, just with different characters (mostly platform, well all platform really)

usually dirt or dust is not the problem, but bad connectors. you can open it up and bend back the connectors or replace the 72-pin connector with a new one. there is also some part you can remove to enable foreign and unlicenced games to run on your nes, which can also make games easier to start up.

the only games worth playing for even a brief moment are some of the multiplayer games imho. with good friends and good beer. the rest are just dorky. don't even get me started on super mario.

c64 is much more fun. the giana sisters will beat the crap out of those italian whimps.

Well, all Robots have different taste, just as with music.
I was totally into Nintendo (8 bit) in the late 80s.
Many of the old games were brilliant.

Sure, some may be bored with SuperMario but it's still a great game, or it would never have become such a hit.

I sold most of my games but I still have some.
I think hans olof is right, there must be some other problem than dust when the screen flashes.
Same as with turntable needles, blowing/licking on the connectors might just make the problem worse.
I think I should open my nintendo and give it some proper treatment, cleaning the oxide from connectors and/or modify/change the 72 pin.
Of course the games are not as fun as 20 years ago when they were the coolest you'd seen but I might still have some fun.

Aha i didn't knew about the connector thing, the blowing in the cartridge thing did the trick most of the time. I'll have a look inside how many years of 80's spit's still in there.
Maybe time for some old game computer thread. I remember having pong machine, a spectravideo i think, then the msx and the atari, amiga's (my dad had a 2000 and 500 if i recall), commodore64 and then some.
Amiga's always kicked ass i thought because you get all the games on disk and it was in colour.
Some of those games were really out there. I remember a samantha fox strip poker game on a cassette for msx and these other kids had a game for amiga where you basically had to have sex by moving the joy stick up and down as fast as possible. (some others too, but selective memory )