Checked a few manual booklets I had, but none said you had to hold reset before turning it off. However, they are all SNES games. The issue was known for NES games, though.

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I am guessing turning the power off actually sent a small discharge to the cartridge, which could erase your saved data, while pressing the Reset button before turning it off cut the power to the cartridge, preventing it.

Yay, payment went through and I just received tracking information.

Nope. The tracking information isn't very detailed, but I expect it will probably be around a week...

** EDIT **

The shipping company has it! It left Chicago this morning! For some reason, it went from Michigan to Illinois...

Fixed. Essentially, it traveled approximately 249 mi West (by road; estimated 4 hour drive) whereas the end destination was approximately 333 mi North of the origin (by road; estimated 5 hour drive)... This morning when it allegedly left Chicago, it was approximately 479 mi away (by road, thanks in part to Lake Michigan; approximately an 8 hour drive).

Yeah, I'm sure it's something along those lines. As an end user waiting for a package, it's fun to joke about how clearly lost it is, typically with the illusion that a van and driver are assigned to the safe delivery of a single package across the country!

But you are paying for the driver's food, beer, tires and gas. And if something happens, your package is lost but not others (which would make you feel even worse).

Also, your next goal. Full list of the games too.

But the gold makes the transistors fire faster! Real gamers use gold plated cartridges.

Neat, good luck!

Or not. When I order from newegg they usually ship from the NJ warehouse. If I get the cheap/free UPS shipping, it gets here overnight. Leaves the hub in NJ the night I order it, gets to the hub near me by about 2-3AM and seems to get sorted immediately, ends up at the local sort facility by around 5AM and gets thrown on a truck and delivered.

When they used to ship FedEx it wasn't nearly as fast. On a few occasions they actually held my package because it was "ahead of schedule."

I'm talking ACTUAL guaranteed overnight service. They usually charge an arm and a leg overtop of the usual expensive options.

But when I order from ncix, UPS's 2day option is usually faster than most of the other options. It usually gets here the day after it was shipped out. But then I'm not far from vancouver and the 2day shipments are sent by plane, and get here in under a few hours. Also, UPS seems to deliver to my area earlier in the day than FedEx or anyone else. FedEx likes to say "Sometime before 5pm", and with UPS the delivery gets here around 11am.

Then clean it!

20 year old electronics collect all sorts of havoc in their lifetimes.

Luckily, the NES cartridge accepts a standard phillips screwdriver to unscrew and access it's innards.

There are people who sell replacement connectors, and "game bits" that allow you to open up the console.

Most often times, the controllers also just need to be disassembled and clean.

I recommend an alcohol solution for the contacts on the game cartridges and console connectors for a good non-residue clean.

use q-tips and lots of them.