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The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy is a 1991 platforming video game made for the NES by Taito.

The story is as follows: Fred and the others were enjoying a nice peaceful day in Bedrock when an eccentric billionaire from the 30th century by the name of Dr. Butler drops by in a time machine and kidnaps the family pets Dino and Hoppy to add to the Orbit City Zoo. Before leaving, Butler destroys the Great Gazoo's own time machine and scatters them around the area. In order to rescue Dino and Hoppy, Fred and the others must journey through Bedrock and beyond to find the missing time machine pieces, travel to the 30th century, and face off against Dr. Butler.

The player controls Fred during the game. Fred comes armed with a small club and can let loose with a chargeable whack. He can also make use of an ax (which flies up at an arc before coming back down), a slingshot, and an exploding dinosaur egg. Use of all of these special attacks, however, requires the use of white coins that can be acquired by defeating enemies in the various stages, so the player must take care that they don't run out of them, especially before facing a boss.

Aside from a sequel in the form of The Flintstones: The Surprise At Dinosaur Peak, this game would otherwise be lost to obscurity... were it not for the existence of a certain Mario-themed bootlegged version of the game: Super Mario 7, better known as 7 Grand Dad. Existing since the mid-1990s and made infamous through Joel of Vinesauce discovering it, the bootleg stars Mario dressed in Fred's clothes but otherwise plays exactly the same. The bootlegged version of Mario on the title screen (a recolored version of Fortran from Dian Shi Ma Li nicknamed Grand Dad) and the game's 8-bit version of the theme quickly became infamous, thanks to both the aforementioned Joel and the maker(s) of "high-quality video game rips" known as SiIvaGunner. Thanks to all that, an unofficial sequel 25 years after the initial game's release aptly named Grand Dad Reboot was released in July 2017, based on its own bootleg-verse instead of the original Flintstones' world, with inspiration taken from other bootleg games Joel played. Another fangame based on the SiIvaGunner characters was in production called Grand Dad Mania; sadly, it was cancelled in early 2017.


This game provides examples of the following tropes:

  • 1-Up: An item with the Fred icon gives the player an extra life.
  • Advertised Extra: Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are visible on the cover, but their sole appearance in the game itself is on the ending screen.
  • Auto-Scrolling Level: The sewer section of the Bedrock level features as horizontally scrolling section where you ride a boat. Later, in Rockula's castle, there is a vertically scrolling section where molten lava rises upwards, forcing you to remain above it.
  • Beak Attack: One of the bird enemies tries to dive at Fred with its beak.
  • Big Bad: Dr. Butler, a Canon Foreigner from the 30th century who kidnapped the Flintstones' pets for his zoo.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: A haunted castle makes up the fifth stage. Also includes some minor Lethal Lava Land elements.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Big Foot boss, found at the end of the jungle stage.
  • Bottomless Pits: The game has several sections of instakill bottomless pits, starting from the first level.
  • Bouncy Bubbles: Bubbles can be stood on.
  • Brats with Slingshots: A slingshot is one of the weapons that Fred can use.
  • Call-Back: When you meet George Jetson in the 30th century level, he cheerfully greets Fred and asks how everyone is doing back in Bedrock, keeping up with the events of The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones.
  • The Cameo: Somewhat unsurprisingly, the setting of the 30th century level is none other than that of The Jetsons (complete with the level music being the show's signature theme song), and shortly after beginning the level you bump into George himself, who can't help you, but does give you some advice on Dr. Butler and wishes you luck.
  • Charged Attack: Fred can charge up his club swing to do more damage. Getting hit causes you to lose the charge however.
  • Collision Damage: Colliding with enemies hurts Fred.
  • Cumulonemesis: One of the enemies is a sentient cloud that tries to blow Fred off the screen.
  • Death Throws: When Fred dies, he is tossed up in the air, flips upside down, and falls off the screen.
  • Dem Bones: One of the enemies in Castle level is a skeleton that chases after Fred after Fred passes it.
  • Directionally Solid Platforms: These are often encountered. Roofs of houses, for an example, are solid from above but you don't bump your head on them from below.
  • Eternal Engine: Much of the final level is taken up by this kind of setting.
  • Excuse Plot: Dino and Hoppy have been kidnapped by a billionaire from the future. Are you a bad enough caveman to rescue the pets?
  • Fight Dracula: Dracula serves as the boss of the Haunted Castle, and Fred must defeat him to recover a piece of Gazoo's time machine.
  • Final Boss: You face Dr. Butler at the end of the final level, of course, and he attacks you with three different weapons, the last being a giant mecha.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: You fight Dr. Butler in his home time period of the 30th century instead of Bedrock.
  • First Town: One stage takes place in the city limits of Bedrock and features run-ins with robbers and crazed motorcyclists.
  • Green Hill Zone: The first stage you play.
  • Hearts Are Health: Fred's health is indicated by hearts.
  • Heart Container: Heart Power-Ups do double time, restoring your energy as well as extending it.
  • In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass: The weak point of Dr. Butler's mecha.
  • Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: They can be found in the Future stage.
  • Instant Bandages: The Final Boss gets these whenever he's damaged enough to move on to the next phase.
  • Jungle Japes: The jungle level, which involves lots of waterfall crossing and vine swinging.
  • Knockback: Fred takes this when he gets damaged, which can be problematic if he's on a ledge.
  • Mana: Coins makes up your ammunition for your secondary weapons/special abilities.
  • Money Spider: Most of the enemies drop currency upon defeat.
  • Nintendo Hard: What the game lacks in length (only eight levels, not including the mini-games), it makes up for it in difficulty. Notably, if you run out of coins with which to use your special weapons, the game becomes a lot harder. Aside from that, the level design and enemy placement can get pretty cruel in certain areas, as well.
  • Pelican Package Pouch: The bonus rounds involve Fred playing basketball against a rival caveman. The pelicans' pouches take the places of the basketball hoops, and after the basketball is tossed in their pouches, they spit it back out.
  • Personal Space Invader: In the water level, Octopi drop down on Fred's head in an attempt to grab him, latching on and damaging the player until they are shaken off.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: The ice level has snow golems that disintegrate after being hit only to merge shortly after.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: Destroying barrels yields powerups.
  • Rise to the Challenge: The haunted castle has a large Lava Pit near the beginning of it that starts rising once you pass a certain point in the level. You must get Fred to the top of the tower before his toes are toasted, obviously.
  • Shared Universe: With The Jetsons, of course.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: There is an ice-themed level.
  • Smart Bomb: An egg item, when dropped, will destroy all minor enemies onscreen and damages bosses.
  • Spikes of Doom: Take form of icicles in ice level and actual spikes in other levels.
  • Springs, Springs Everywhere: Clothed roofs can be used to gain rather large jump height.
  • Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: Coins are as big as Fred's head.
  • Under the Sea: The sixth level takes place underwater.
  • Weaponized Offspring: One of the enemies is a bird that drops eggs that, in turn, hatch into offspring that damage the player.
  • Written Sound Effect: Connecting a hit makes POW text to appear.
  • Wutai: The seventh level is Japanese-themed, for some reason.

7 Grand Dad adds the following tropes:

  • Dolled-Up Installment: Super Mario 7 is one of many oddly numbered bootlegs pretending to be a Mario game while actually being a ROM hack of a completely unrelated game.
  • Head Swap: 7 Grand Dad merely replaces Fred's head with that of Mario, and not all that well, either.
  • Inconsistent Dub: The bootleg is supposedly called Super Mario 7, but the title screen calls it 7 Grand Dad and the cartridge has the text "Grand Dad 3M" on its label.
  • Lazy Artist: There are precisely three changes made to the game: the aforementioned Head Swap, the infamous title screen, and the removal of Taito in the credits. Everything else from the characters to the story is the same, right down to the other Hanna-Barbera characters still being in the game and calling Mario/Grand Dad "Fred."
  • Word Salad Title: The name of the infamous bootleg. It's possible the main character was meant to be Mario's Identical Grandfather.

Alternative Title(s): Seven Grand Dad

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