console foreplay

The tricks you do to a failing console in order to make it play games. Usually the tricks make the problem worse in the long run, resulting in longer periods of foreplay as time passes. Here are some examples:

-Constantly restarting a PS1 or playing the in-game music as an Audio CD 'till the PS1 finally starts the game. Sony used poor quality CD drives for the original Playstation and the PSOne, which failed after some years, resulting in the console not being able to start a game (it either throwed an error, or read the game CD as an audio CD). The trick mentioned above warms up the drive and temporarily solves the problem. Unfortunately, those constant start-stops of the CD drive make it wear out faster.

-Blowing on a NES cartridge so the NES can "see" it. Nintendo made the American version of the NES look like a consumer electronics device, including a VCR-like loading mechanism. Needless to say, it was poorly made and failed over time, and the pins of the cartridge didn't made proper contact with the pins of the console anymore. By blowing into the cartridge, you sprayed a thin layer of humidity on the pins, which helped them made contact (though most people thought it was dust being blown away). Unfortunatelty, the humidity gradually oxidized the pins and made the problem worse.

Not to be confused with go wild with the solder iron, which involves an real attempt at repair instead of silly voodoo tricks like the above, and may actually result in a pernament fix.