The Flintstone ROM

The FlintStone ROM

It’s me, I’m talking back after several months of being absent from the forums. I’m not trying to start anymore theories here, I’m putting that to rest as of today, I think I want my own Life back. You’ve all been incredibly supportive, I’ve had a few stressed out times, and now I’m right back to where I started, here on the same old forums talking about something new.

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About a week ago my nostalgic mind started to act up again, I went out seeking an old NES game that I had been wanting to play for some time. Yes, while I was away I didn’t even touch the PS1 that you sent me, and I enjoyed the gifts you all sent as ‘get well soon’ gifts. I’m just not sure I’m okay with sharing everything with you. I mean it’s one thing sending me notes, sending me gifts is like something I never thought I truly deserved.

Sorry for rambling on about something else, I always get lost in my own writing. Well, here it goes, about to tell you all the reason why I may not be as active on this forum as I once was. One of you was considerably helpful with my request I sent in a thread a few days back, you got back to me within around an hour? Possibly longer but I was out for those hours either way.

Some of you recommend searching the entire forums in search of an Alpha Version of the game, and one of you even sent me a pre-made copy of the game. As much as you have been all helpful, I don’t think any of you would have ever sent me something like this:

Sent with an attachment file at exactly 12PM, a message was also sent with it discussing how the team behind this were all meth-heads. Look, I don’t know that if that’s true or not, either way you are just as fucked up as them for sending me this file. After downloading it through some old website, apparently it was due for heavy maintenance, going to remove several thousands of ROMs, files, pirated games, pirated software, stolen movies. Yeah, all that good stuff that I was quite proud to be part of.

I received a Private Message on the Forums!

- Fugative19

“Hey there Alan1995 I can see that you still haven’t had any luck with your search for the FlintStone game, I actually found a copy you could use, just uploading it now…”

This user in particular was the one who sent me the file, I am unsure whether it’s the same user who sent me the message. I mean the email was random intervals, and the username attached to that was also quite random. The PM sent to me through the forums was by ‘Fugative19’ he / she was the one who sent me the link to this file.

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I was told several times by this file thanks to stupid popups as the installation progressed. Some kind of extractor, wanted to know whether I wanted to allow access to it, whether I wanted to download ‘Tungle’ whether I wanted to install ‘Tunnel OX’ not even sure what the heck these files were. They were all asking me to install something, after finally getting through the installation’s advertisement madness.

It was already pre-built with several other files locked in a folder along with administrator approval being needed for every single time I wanted to move this folder, or even when I wanted to rename something. Not sure why it was highly secured, there was even a readme file connected to all the other random files.

''Hey Alan

Thanks for installing me, I sure am happy to be part of being that helpful person. I’m not quite sure whether you are Alan or not who has installed this file, I did send it to some others. It’s kind of like a test really, some kind of Alpha test for you all.''

Have fun ; )

Weird, the user clearly wanted to be known for being the one who helped me. I was tempted to send that user a message saying thanks for the nice readme file, thanks for the game too. It was so much easier downloading it for free rather than searching endless days, weeks? Months even just to find a stupid game that my mind craved. On start-up it loaded with an emulator that I wasn’t quite sure of, it looked similar to one I had used before. A very popular one amongst the nostalgic fans of emulators. NES Emulator, it had many options to choose from but that’s not important. My friends, what loaded up next is the reason why I’m making this post.

13/03/06

Lengthy or not, I want you all to know that this user should not be trusted in this community. I don’t wish to start a war with this individual, I’m just spreading awareness for those unfortunate who happen to receive a message from this user. I tried to find you all evidence that this message was sent to me on the forums, but some reason I can’t find it. It’s like it was removed or something, I’ll still look for it though. I’ll keep you all updated don’t worry.

- Alan

15/03/06

Alright, so I ended up searching into the folders that were given to me. I’ve come across several things that I would like you all to know of: ‘Virus warnings’ I’ve had quite a few virus warnings, and I’m unsure whether or not it’s real or not due to my friend who I believe is a computer whizz kid. Well, he hasn’t really helped me much lately. Nevertheless, I’ve told you all in a long blog post that I won’t be talking about anything other than the game. I’m sorry for rambling on again.

The Readme file has changed guys! After loading up the game I was greeted with the basic Main Menu screen with some funky music that doesn’t seem quite like Flintstones. It now says:

Update 0.0.1: Thanks for installing me into this PC, I’m happy that you chose me. - Fixed a few bugs - Ironed out a few problems that weren’t really kid-friendly - Taken out several cutscenes that were quite bad? Yeah.

Okay, I have no idea what to think of this apart from some kind of cruel practical joke made by the user him / herself. Not the faintest clue on whether or not it was there before either. I didn’t read much into the Readme file; I don’t usually read those kind of files due to it just being a ‘thank you’ message as common as they come. Due to character limit I’m going to have to post a second post on this.

- Ala

15/03/06

Hey again everyone, I was away for an hour in case you wondered where I went- I helped move things around the new house. Anyways, I opened up the game again after it had crashed due to some audio error. Again I wanted to ask the user for some assistance on this ‘audio error’ but I kind of thought more about it being a one-time bug. After reopening it with a steady hand locked around the mouse’s surface.

The funky music was no longer there, it was now taken over by the theme song of The Flintstones, ripped from the original game no doubt. It delayed a little behind the audio, I could hear like slight voices through it all, kind of like Fred Flintstone’s famous catchphrase: ‘Yabba Dabba Doo’ it didn’t sound right through, it was all distorted with the mixed in theme tune.

I started the game being greeted to the first screen where I actually get to see the nostalgia returning to me. Fred Flintstone standing outside the bedrock house, pink mountains behind him, slight blueness mixed behind that with the classic NES overlay at the very bottom of the screen. Nothing seemed unusual here, I couldn’t wait to dive into this game again.

Just as I moved to the right of the screen the blueness was now black, the pink mountains still remained. The bedrock houses that went alongside the background were a little disjointed. I wasn’t sure what to think at this point. The bottom screen didn’t even have the right words on it. ‘POW’ was missing, just a black bar over that. ‘P=02’ wasn’t even showing up, it just said three letters: ‘E A T =’ The heart bar was empty as if the game had just started me off with zero lives remaining. Nothing really worked properly either, the controls were a little delayed after moving from Point A to Point B. I’ll keep you updated.

19/03/06

Sorry guys I didn’t get much sleep lately, been on and off the computer trying to get things done. I’ll finish off where I left you all with the faults with this game. I’ll now explain the three-hour experience that I wish I never really let devour in my daily life.

- Screen One

The platforms were all in place with the music playing in the audio. Fred Flintstone was missing an eye every time I went backwards due to being curious on what was there. The first enemy I encountered was a dinosaur, the green one that I kind of remembered at the time. It wasn’t too difficult to kill it, I then moved onto the second part of the first screen as it displayed a text box:

F= F A T

Weird, I moved on further as the game progressed as normal, that beautiful steady pace that I loved about NES games. The screen shook a little like there was earthquake going on or something, strange I don’t remember the original game being like that. Another text box displayed:

D= D E A T H

What looked like basic coding displaying through the textbox, I was unsure whether it was just glitches or actual gameplay. The textbox closed after holding down two keys due to the first key not working correctly. I pressed on forwards to the third screen where the green grass was no longer showing, the game itself was now grayscale. Just as it changed, so did the heart bar- now displaying the light green I was used to. The screen flashed a few times, black to then grayscale showing that old black and white theme that I loved in many other games. I was about to put this game to rest, uninstall and just find a better edition it. One that wasn’t pirated, but I have to admit the weirdness in this ROM just hit the right notes on me.

19/03/06

Just about to say night to you all but I came across something that I thought I’d share with y’all. The game stopped responding after entering one of the secret screens. I found several things in that area, I don’t really want to share it all with you as ‘SPOILERS’ but I came across two sprites standing near the walls with three enemies inside each other. One looked like a badly drawn NES barney rubble, the second looked like betty who was on the ground flat. Stretched over the screen was Fred’s face looking horrified with two black eyes staring at me. I didn’t find this secret screen again after reopening the game. I actually found another screen that allowed me to read things that weren’t there before. I found two objects in the game that interacted with me displaying text boxes. NPCs should have this but a tree? A freaking rock? What the actual fuck.

The Rock Displayed:

R= R E A D M E

I tried to read what the tree said guys, but I really had no luck with it whatsoever. Maybe you can translate it or something, to me it looks like a bunch of numbers.

Some Kind Of Code? 01010010 00100000 01000101 00100000 01000001 00100000 01000100 00100000 01001101 00100000 01000101 00100000 01001111 00100000 01010010 00100000 01010100 00100000 01001000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01010011 00100000 01000111 00100000 01000001 00100000 01001101 00100000 01000101 00100000 01010111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01001100 00100000 01001100 00100000 01000101 00100000 01001110 00100000 01000100

After moving onto the next screen I came across Level 3, it skipped right to Level 3 without any transition whatsoever. Due to the change of audio, that’s the only way I actually picked up on the fact that it was Level 3. I moved further towards the right of the screen, as it teleported me into a room that looked very similar to the secret one I found before:

In this room I could see carved pixelated text in the background with several words that all related to things from the bible. I won’t go into detail on what it included, but I will tell you that it wasn’t very pleasant. The right of the screen showed a hanging sprite with Fred Flintstone’s vehicle with those famous rock wheels it was remembered for. Behind that was betty laying lifeless on the ground. My character couldn’t move, the controls stopped working as well as the screen too.

Audio played that sounded like what I heard on the main menu screen, I moved a little further to the right after a quick restart as the words: R E A D M E displayed again. I closed the game and went into the Readme file to see what had changed. I came across two new messages that weren’t there before:

Update 0.0.2: Thanks for installing me, I am now your corruptor. - Removed more cutscenes - Taken out the bugs - Broken something but I think it will be fixed in the next update - Added a secret screen

Update: 00.2A: - No longer working on the game.

20/03/06

I really wanted to post this all to you yesterday, I came across new things that the ROM had install for me. The textbox that showed up at the start was now missing, the music was also now on mute. Even the main menu screen was broken, I had to press more than one key again just to get it to respond. I went straight back to Level 3, the game played out like it did before. Apart from the secret scenes that were no longer there.

As I moved further in Level 3, I found myself back at the start of the game. As if it had just looped over and over again, I was greeted with the grayscale returning and the bottom bar was now gone. I could move my character Fred only right, I could no longer go left. As I moved to the next screen, the character stopped responding to my controls. He went on a continuous walk to the edge of each screen, soon stopping at the edge of what looked like the end of a cliff.

As I watched Fred stand there, the hanging sprite returned. Looked a whole lot like BamBam, the kid didn’t move at all. I tried to move back and the game made me move right. Glitch, I was now outside the map just like that, and I went upwards as I moved right. Fred stopped again, I couldn’t control the character yet again. The final screen shown up- the final level which looked heavily modified, there was no boss battle just a cutscene that shown Fred walk over to Barney.

Fred’s pixel classic face was no longer smiling, it was now a sad face with Barney smiling a whole lot more. The smile grew with each flicker of the screen fading in and out. Betty shown up next to Barney with Fred’s car broken with a greyed out Velma lying on the ground next to it. I tried to move as the game stopped responding, I waited a little as the game restarted back by itself. The stupid logo came up with the audio returned.

Velma was now on the main menu screen with a bright red drool of pixels going down the left of the screen. Fred was not there, I could not see Barney, but instead I could see Betty smiling with a wide grin. I tried to start the game again, it didn’t work for the next three tries. I reinstalled the file and went through the same installation, I didn’t get to see the game again. Not in the same way, the game itself was no longer displaying anything unusual.

The Readme file was my last chance to prove it to you all that this user is making original games in his / her own style. It’s not a nice style, I was intrigued by it but I weren’t enjoying it. That Readme file didn’t show anything that I had read before, it just had a ‘Thanks for installing my game’ I didn’t find anything on this file anymore. Even the main menu screen was just original. The audio back to normal, I tried the old file but that one kept crashing. I’ve tried everything to get this file working again, no use, one time it even crashed my PC.

I’m sorry to let you all down with this bad news that I couldn’t retrieve anything that was salvageable as evidence to back up my claims. The old download is on Mediafire if you want to check it out. No matter what though, I’m telling you that the only thing you will find in this file is a Readme file. And that Readme says exactly what I’ve told you before. I’m sorry to let you all down, and I hope you continue to support me either way.

01/01/16

I’m back everyone, I’ll admit that almost all of you are no longer active on this forum. I just thought I’d post something for those wanting to know whatever happened with that user that caused me so much grief with that old Flintstones ROM.

I found out that the user is a female, and she was having been using ROMs to share stories with people. I also found out that she was no longer active on any other forum, and from what I can tell you- I don’t think we’ll see her again. Just thank me for taking out the bad games, along with the bad programmers…

Goodbye.

-Alan