Clean and Mystical Ninja in that photo? Well, aside from it being an amazing crossover idea we’ll probably never see, Magic Erasers are how I cleaned all the marker off that cart! I bought this copy of Mystical Ninja for the N64 from Blockbuster back in the day for only $10. Check out the front and back of the Turtles carts I just bought: (if you’re buying on eBay and need more pictures, ask the seller!). There’s not a lot you can do to fix up the label in a safe way that maintains its integrity, and that’s probably the most nostalgic part of the cart anyway. I would strongly recommend looking for carts that generally have a fairly clean/minty label, even if the rest of the cartridge is a disaster. So let’s walk through how I cleaned these bad boys-I documented it best I could with photos! Before buying… There was permanent marker on the back of one Turtles II, and a huge sticker on Turtles III. Both carts were in good enough shape on the front label, but the cartridge contacts were disgusting. To demonstrate, I recently picked up both Turtles II: The Arcade Game and Turtles III: The Manhattan Project on NES (I’ve got some Turtle mania and NES nostalgia right now-I also just found Hyperstone Heist and Fall of the Foot Clan!).

Not only is it important to maintain your games, but like I mentioned in my practical game collecting in 2021 post, you can save money buying old carts in rough shape! So how do you get your cartridges nice and minty looking? I’m here to help! Here are a few of my tried and true tips for cleaning game cartridges. I like things very neat! I’m the designated “cleaner” in the family, and that practice extends to my game collection too.

Video game cartridge cleaner