How to get all NES games to work quickly: My special trick

Recently, I've been having some trouble with getting some of my NES carts to work. Some work perfectly with very minimal cleaning, but other titles don't work as well. Unfortunately, even when some of the carts appear to be running properly, I still encounter game-breaking glitches eventually. With Strider, I can make it to 1/3 of the way through the first level with everything appearing normal and then the game freezes. When playing Gremlins 2, a much worse glitch occurs: the game freezes after about 15 minutes of play. The games look totally normal before the point of freezing, so it is so frustrating when it feels like everything is going fine and you learn that you are starting from scratch again.

Look at this sleek NES clone! Too bad it's super expensive!

This has prompted me to look into NES clone systems. They are all top loading, which means that not only do the games load reliably, but they are also less prone to glitch out. They are fairly reasonably priced, for the most part, and some even have wireless controllers. The clone systems are generally fairly small, slightly bigger than an NES cartridge. However, there are some major problems with them. I've watched numerous YouTube videos of these clone systems and it is clear that they don't properly emulate everything. Graphics and sound are impacted, and for some reason, certain games like Castlevania III aren't compatible with the consoles at all. I've also read many reviews where people have mentioned having to return a few broken systems to finally get to one that works, which is a huge hassle.

This one isn't as pretty.

Just when I was about to bite the bullet and purchase one of these clones, I've discovered that my glitchy games actually load just fine when I am pressing down on the cartridge after loading it into my NES. When I stop pressing them down, they stop working. To keep them down, I jam an NES cart into the system at an angle, and things that did not play before now magically play without fail. At first, I thought it was just a fluke, but I've tried it with a number of games and it seems to work. I have not encountered a single glitch that has ruined my gameplay experience since I've started to do this. Games that previously had the flashing white screen now immediately work. Try this out at your own risk!