Cleaning up atari vcs/2600 carts

I've been having trouble with running a copy of river raid my partner picked up recently, so at first I did the obvious thing and tried isopropyl alcohol (it usually works good for cleaning up dirty/dusty contacts, it got our spider fighter cart to spring to life for instance), and yet trying that still did nothing; the cart simply refused to boot. Given that, I tried researching on-line some other options, but initially came up with basically no results. It seems most people think of "cleaning carts" as making it look aesthetically pleasing, which is not at all what I want, I just want a working cart that doesn't feel disgusting to touch which is, well, most carts I find lol !

After a while though (by which I mean less than a week if memory serves), I remember the 8-bit guy did a video about cleaning/restoring some old game cartridges he picked up that either didn't work or worked intermittently, so I decided to watch it to see what his technique was, and, classic 8-bit guy, it was baking soda. Given that he didn't even seem to bring up any worries regarding harming the circuit board or anything of that sort, I decided to try out cleaning the pins like that, which first involved removing the peeling label - I can always stick it back on with tape or glue if need be, and I imagine a replacement label wouldn't be hard to find or make either.

Well, I'm proud to see it's a lot easier than it seems, although it is a bit time consuming. Still haven't booted her up yet, but the circuit board doesn't seem damaged (I gave it a rinse+draw of water and then also used some isopropyl alcohol just in case), but it certainly looks leagues better. Gonna power it up tomorrow morning and see how it goes, worst thing's worst a replacement cart shouldn't be too expensive, although it'd certainly be frustrating; I imagine it should work flawlessly now though, the contacts were originally Disgusting looking, even after two wipes of isopropyl alcohol via q-tip !!

AMMENDUM (OCT 09 2024)
To quote the 1956 film The Blob, "it didn't work." Really frustrated, lmao. I might have not rubbed enough crud off, but I'm also worried I rubbed too much off? I'm not certain. Regardless, I might end up trying to use the method once or twice more, and if it doesn't work, well, it's not a rare game so there's not much harm nor much foul. Still, it is supremely frustrating that things often don't simply "work" like they should for me. Eh, oh well. I'll keep y'all updated on if I can get the game running.