It's happened to all of us before. We return home to find a package waiting for us on our doorstep. The one we've been waiting for all week. We know exactly what it is; Thee Game!

We lift up the package and skip into the house like a 90 lb. wood nymph. As we make our way to the game room we rip the package open not even bothering to clean up the cardboard fragments we leave in our path. We take but a few seconds to gaze upon the beauty of our new purchase and absorb it’s essence before we lovingly place it into our Sega Genesis. We push the power button and sit down in our chair and...love quickly turns to hate. The television screen is black.

We curse the eBay seller to spend an eternity in Hades for having sold us a defective game, but wait my friends all is not lost. 91% of all Sega cartridges people throw away still actually work!

Whaaaa...

It's true and all it will take to get that game working again is a little simple video game maintenance. One or more of the following may be required to get the game to work but after trying each of these steps it should work. If not, don’t blame me there is that other 9% of Sega cartridges that truly are broken. If you have one of those ask for a refund.

Getting Your Game to Work:

1. Blow Hard-We have lungs for more than just breathing; We have them for huffing and puffing into a Genesis game in hopes it will work once the winds have blown all the dust from it. So take in a DEEP breathe and blow firmly into the underside of the cartridge. I like to act as if the cartridge is a harmonica moving it from side to side while blowing. I start by blowing horizontally, followed by blowing vertically. (No jokes please.) This may look funny but it will work; Hopefully. If not move onto the next step.

2. Clean the Game: Some people use a paper towel but I prefer using a Q-Tip to clean my game. It's all personal preference. Once you have your Q-Tip dip it into a small amount of rubbing alcohol. With your Q-Tip gently go over the each side of the cartridge. After this take the dry end of the Q-Tip and dry it off. Let the game sit for 10-15 minutes to dry. Once dry put it into your Sega Genesis and you're ready to play.

3. Line It Up-This isn't scientific but over the years I've found that often times it's just a matter of how you insert a game. Just like when a Flashlight won't work well because the bulb base will not make good contact with the battery, the metal contacts on your game oftentimes do not make good contact with the game system contacts. So this may sound like Voodoo science but is the easiest way to get the contacts to link properly with each other.

Try putting the cartridge in from various angles. One angle should get the contacts to connect properly and then you'll be off and running.

These are the only 3 things you will need to do in order to get your games to work. People make a lot of ruckus about static electricity and magnetic electricity causing the game not to work properly in my opinion this is all a bunch of hogwash. I've cleaned over 500+ Sega Cartridges and got everyone to work by just using the three simple steps above.

Storing your Sega Cartridges:

Some game collector's and "experts" use scare tactics when talking about storing game cartridges. If you don't store them just right "Moisture, Corrosion, Magnets" will destroy your collection and console! Your games will be ruined, ruined I tell you if you don't store them in plastic bags with two static free laundry sheets!

It's just not true. Use your own common sense when storing games. I've bought games and systems from friends who stored them in cardboard boxes in musky basements for years on end and they work just as well as games that were stored in airtight bags.

In Closing... I hope these steps along with your own common sense will help you get those troublesome games working because after all is said and done video games are meant to be played.

Now for the Zen part…Oooohm.