Nintendo cartridge

A Nintendo cartridge is a plastic casing containing read-only memory chips that stores video game data for Nintendo console systems.

The cartridge slots into the console, making electrical contact with the hardware to load the game.

Cartridges dominated home gaming from the 1980s through the mid-1990s before optical discs became standard, though Nintendo continued using them for handheld systems.

The ritual of blowing into a malfunctioning cartridge—though technically unhelpful—became a shared generational experience: The game wouldn't load until I blew on the cartridge.