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One of the highlights of today's ScrewAttack festivities was the great cartridge blowing competition, an epic contest in which hopeful gamers relived their childhoods in an attempt to get old games to work. The lads at ScrewAttack put fourteen NES cartridges through the worst possible Hell -- dirtying them, drowning them, even putting them in the toaster.

The aim was simple -- blow into the cartridge as hard as possible, pop it in an NES and see if it works. It was tense drama that not even Jack Bauer could hope to rival. Hit the jump for some footage I grabbed of the event, even though a bunch of nerds kept getting in the way and whatever footage ScrewAttack puts up will be ten times more professional and less shakey. 








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Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize. Likes PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3 Meet the rest of the team



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16 comments | showing # 1 to 16
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lastSKYsamurai's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 22:19
lastSKYsamurai
Stupid Flash plugins for Safari.... I'll just visualize what happened. ....yes, lots of blowing, head. er, my head. In my head!

O'h oh. It's all lost now.....
Zippyduda's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 22:30
Zippyduda
I'll watch the videos in a sec, they better be ET cartridges! Wouldn't want to see good NES games go to waste, in the name of seeing whose best at blowing.
ArrestedDeveloper's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 23:07
ArrestedDeveloper
Second one won't play. It say's it's a private video and you have to accept a friend request to watch it.
kjohnson1585's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 23:24
kjohnson1585
Question. Only blowing allowed? Or do you have access to ALL the Nintendo-fix-it tricks? My favorite: after popping the cartridge in, you give it a shake within the console. This usually puts the game in a 1-second-loop of the intro. Then you hit reset. BAM! Gameplay restored.
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 23:28
Jim Sterling
Oops, forgot to set the second vid public. You should be able to see it now.
portastad's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 23:44
portastad
There's SO much to write about at this convention, huh? *eyeroll*
kefkaesque's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/03/2009 23:55
kefkaesque
@ portastad

It's a small first convention of a small site, what do you want for a FF7 remake to be announced? A cartridge blowing contest is awesome, it's just about having fun...
Monodi's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 01:38
Monodi
There's something crunk about Craig's voice.
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 01:38
Chronic Logic
Blow that cartridge! Ah, good times.
blehman's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 02:40
blehman
Yeah. It was as fun as it sounds. So, no.
SetoChaos's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 05:02
SetoChaos
Amazing =D
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 07:33
Jim Sterling
"It's a small first convention of a small site, what do you want for a FF7 remake to be announced? A cartridge blowing contest is awesome, it's just about having fun..."

This.

ScrewAttack isn't exactly the ESA or IGN. They're not going to have Hideo Kojima down here. This is their first convention, which Dtoid is here to support because we're good friends with ScrewAttack. I think it's really good for a site's first con, considering the fact they don't have millions or dollars or fistfuls or power.
Infinitys End's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 10:29
Infinitys End
Jim's just being nice.
What he's not telling you is what he REALLY did at the convention, which is get drunk and spew out cunt jokes.
Discarded Couch Sandwich's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 10:40
Discarded Couch Sandwich
No amount of blowing will make my NES cartridges work. I can still see the ones and zero's from the last time I tried when I close my eyes at night. :(
Jim Sterling's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 10:51
Jim Sterling
"What he's not telling you is what he REALLY did at the convention, which is get drunk and spew out cunt jokes."

Factually inaccurate:

Just shouting cunt is not a joke, which is what I was doing. :-)
ScottyG's Avatar - Comment posted on 07/04/2009 12:52
ScottyG
Heh, looks like fun aside from the crowd struggling to see. Reminds me of the few other small cons I've been to.

Small conventions can be fun, and I think it's great that they're putting the effort into making it something that at least is fun for their fans and community.
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