The Flintstones (1988)/Walkthrough

You shall first have to start by connecting your Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, Commodore Amiga, or Sega Master System (and cassette recorder, for the ZX, CPC and C64 versions) to your television, and then switch all three (or both, in the case of the MSX, Amiga and SMS versions) of them on; you shall then have to place the cassette (or disk for the MSX and Amiga versions, or cartridge for the SMS version) of Grandslam Entertainment's Tegue Interactive-developed 1988 action game The Flintstones into the cassette recorder (or the console itself, for the MSX, Amiga and SMS versions), rewind it unless it is your first time playing it, type in LOAD "" without leaving a space between the quotation marks, and press Enter to load the program into the console (or wait for it to load automatically, for the MSX, Amiga and SMS versions). You can then press 0 to start the game, 1 and 2 for parts 1 and 2 of "practice", 3 and 4 for Kempston and Sinclair joystick control (if connected), or 5 for keyboard control - and in the Amiga and SMS versions, these keys are replicated by using the joystick (or gamepad) to move the highlighter up and down the menu, and pressing the button on the joystick (or / on the gamepad) to confirm the choice. Once you choose to start the game, the foreman at the Rockhead and Quarry Construction Co. (which is where Fred worked!) will pull the tail of a bird sitting on a perch, causing it to squawk at the top of its voice, and Fred will slide down the tail of a dinosaur and walk home off the left side of the screen (this is based upon the show's second opening theme, used from 1962 to 1966).

Level 1

When Fred gets home, Wilma shall say "PAINT THIS WALL NOW FRED." to him, to which he will reply "OK WILMA THEN I'M GOING BOWLING WITH BARNEY."; sadly, the texts are not rendered as speech samples by Wilma and Fred's voice actors, Jean Vander Pyl (1919-1999) and Alan Reed (1907-1977), as the latter died eleven years before the game was created. Fred has a time of five hourglasses to paint the wall (the "cover" and "brush" meters at the bottom of the screen indicate how much of the wall he has covered and how much paint he has left upon his brush, and once the latter is depleted he will have to climb back down the ladder and go over to the bucket on the ground to replenish it) but he also has to watch out for his daughter Peebles escaping from her playpen and drawing on the wall (but she can only reach the lower half of it, and shall not do it if it has been painted, so it is advisable to paint that half of the wall first), so if she draws on the wall, he shall have to pick her up, put her back in the playpen and paint over her drawings (even though she shall just escape from it again after a short period of time) - and once he has painted the wall completely he will proceed to the second level.

Level 2

When Fred sets off for the bowling alley with his neighbour Barney Rubble in his car (with a time of one "hourglass" to get there) he shall use his feet to make the car go faster; use left to slow him down, right to speed him up and the action key (or button) to make him jump over rocks (if the car runs over too many of them, it shall lose a roller, which means that you will have to go back for a replacement roller, use up to jack the car up, fit that replacement roller to the car, use down to jack the car back down again and get back into it before continuing on). Once Fred has arrived at the bowling alley, he will say "YABBA DABBA DOO, I'M GOING TO BE GREAT TONIGHT BARNEY!"; for the ZX, CPC and C64 versions, you will now have to turn the cassette over to Side 2 before Fred proceeds to the third level (just like in Creative Sparks's Danger Mouse in the Black Forest Chateau after the end of Part 1).

Level 3

When the pins in the bowling alley are set down by three cobras, use up and down to move Fred up and down at the top of the lane and hold the action key (or button) as that "speed" meter at the bottom of the screen increases, then release it once it has reached the desired speed; you can then use left and right to make him add left- or right-hand spin to his throw, and when the ball hits the pins, the word "BAM" will appear on the screen, as the number of pins knocked down is added to your score. Just like in real bowling Fred gets two shots per frame (except for in the sixth and final one where he gets three) - and you will also have to sit through the cobras resetting the pins and Barney's CPU-controlled shots after each one, as he is prone to cheating. Once Fred has managed to beat his cheating neighbour fairly, a newspaper with the text "BEDROCK BUGLE EXCLUSIVE! PEEBLES MISSING. LAST SEEN CRAWLING TOWARDS THE NEW GRANITE FLATS. WORRIED MOTHER CALLS FOR SEARCH." will appear, on the right side of the screen; he will then proceed to the fourth and final level. It is also worth noting that after a time of one "hourglass" passes, Fred will throw the ball automatically.

Level 4

When Fred and Barney arrive at the Granite Flats, all Barney will do is walk back and forth at the bottom of a chain, so it is up to Fred to rescue Peebles in a time of six "hourglasses"; you will first have to climb up the aforementioned chain that Barney is walking back and forth at the bottom of and jump to the right onto a magenta platform, then walk onto an elevating platform (which will go up once Fred stands on it), and jump up three times to avoid three angry-looking flying boulders (as coming into contact with them will make the hourglass drain faster). You will now have to jump up to six more magenta platforms in turn while avoiding an angry-looking bird-like dinosaur and a fourth angry-looking flying boulder - and once you have done so, you will have to jump up to three white platforms and the first floor in turn while avoiding a fifth angry-looking flying boulder, then jump up to two more white platforms in turn to collect a hard hat while avoiding two more angry-looking flying boulders. You'll then have to retrace your steps back to that first white platform, jump over to the other side of the first floor, and jump up to eleven more white platforms in turn, while watching out for: any amount of falling bolts, three jumping nuts, and an eighth angry-looking flying boulder (but the hard hat will protect you from the first two, and the latter will also disappear if they land on you while you are wearing it); once you have done so, you will have to jump onto a rope and climb down it to the girder below, while watching out for four more angry-looking flying boulders, then pick up Peebles, and retrace your steps back down to the ground. Once Fred has made it back down onto the ground (where Barney is still walking back and forth), the text "YABBA DABBA DOO. OH FRED WHAT A HERO YOU ARE! NOW THAT PEEBLES IS SAFE YOU CAN GO TO THE DRIVEIN MOVIE WITH BARNEY, BETTY AND WILMA." will appear on the screen (but Betty, who was Barney's wife, did not actually appear in this game, except for on the title screen, and both her dress and Wilma's were wrongly-coloured in that of the Amiga version).