7 GRAND DAD

This article is about the bootleg game. For other uses, see Grand Dad (disambiguation).

""Mario 7"? Is that the one I played? Let's check it out..."

―Vinesauce Joel, moments before disaster; September 4, 2014.

7 GRAND DAD

The title screen of 7 GRAND DAD.
Source	J.Y. Company Vinesauce Joel
Era	Season 1 (GiIvaSunner channel)
First appearance	"Battle! (Wild Pokémon) - Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire" (January 9, 2016)

7 GRAND DAD is a Taiwanese bootleg game released for the NES. It is a major meme on the SiIvaGunner channel, and the most prominent meme on the channel by far.

Overview

Origins

See also: Meet the Flintstones and Grand Dad

7 GRAND DAD is a Mario-themed bootleg of the 1991 NES game The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy. It was most likely created by the Taiwanese bootleg publisher J.Y. Company in 1992.

There are very few differences between the two games. The most notable difference is the title screen, which is completely changed. The only parts that remain from the original title screen are the blue background, the salmon font color of the game title, a flashing white text saying "PUSH START BUTTON !", and a picture of Fred Flintstone in a gold star (which was originally a part of the Hanna Barbera Super Stars logo). The title screen music, a remix of "Meet the Flintstones", stays the same as well. The rest is completely changed. The title and logo are replaced with a large salmon "7", a picture of a bootleg Mario recolor (later nicknamed Grand Dad) with the character's head overlaid by the Fred Flintstone star, and a salmon "GRAND DAD" in a curious square-ish font. The credits at the bottom of the screen are replaced with white text saying "1992 1". The "1", commonly mistaken to be a bootlegger's nickname, is in fact a level select which can be used by pressing the "Select" button, which causes the number to go up (until 5). This level select was implemented by the bootleggers and wasn't featured in the original game.

During gameplay, the head of Fred Flintstone's sprite is replaced with the head of Super Mario from Super Mario Bros. 3. However, during cutscenes and the basketball minigame, Fred appears unedited, and he is always called by his real name. Finally, the ending credits are altered to say, "PRESENTED BY XXXXX" instead of "PRESENTED BY TAITO". The rest of the final credits are unchanged.

The game was originally distributed in its own bootleg cart, under the title 原始瑪莉 VII (GRAND DAD 3M). Later, it was included in a multicart, Mario 7-in-1 (also known as 7-in-1 YH705 1999), and the ROM for this multicart would spread around the Internet with the rise of the retro game emulation community during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Vinesauce Joel

While it was floating around on the Internet since the 1990s, the Mario 7-in-1 multicart was still virtually unknown outside the emulation community until September 4, 2014, when popular Twitch streamer and YouTuber Vinesauce Joel hosted a stream where he played a number of bootleg NES games. One of the bootlegs he played was the Mario 7-in-1 multicart, which featured seven different games. After playing three other games on the multicart, Joel selected the last game, "7. MARIO 7" on the game select screen, and was presented the title screen for 7 GRAND DAD. Two months after the stream, the highlight video "[Vinesauce] Joel - Insane Mario Bootleg Games ( Grand Dad )" was uploaded to the Vargskelethor Joel and has amassed over 3 million views.

Joel's reaction to the title screen, which most notably started with him shouting "GRAND DAD?! FLEENSTONES?!", became a major meme within his fanbase, and by extension, brought the game itself to the attention of other online communities. Vinesauce fans also created a significant number of fanart and fan games referencing 7 GRAND DAD, mostly via the Mario lookalike character from the title screen. During 2015, several Vinesauce fans created YTPMVs and remixes featuring samples from Joel's reaction (such as "Super Grand Dad 3D World" by Bagelboy), some of which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

SoundCloud

On December 28, 2014, ytp4life created a mashup between the 8-bit version of "Meet the Flintstones" and the vocals of "Levels" by Aviici. According to ytp4life, this wasn't intended to start anything. However, in 2015, from January 19 to January 31, SoundCloud user The Man Man created nine 7 GRAND DAD-related shitposts. On January 31, The Man Man released the album grand dad: the seventh coming, with 7 shitposts related to 7 GRAND DAD. After seeing these, ytp4life was inspired to run the joke into the ground, so he and The Man Man released a bunch of 7 GRAND DAD shitposts to SoundCloud between February 11 and April 3. ytp4life continued using it occasionally throughout the rest of 2015. According to ytp4life, very few others joined in on this until some more respected SoundCloud users started commenting that the usage of 7 GRAND DAD as a SoundClown meme was unfunny and forced. According to Chaze the Chat, "most of them were pretty bad". Starting in October, other SoundCloud users, including Chaze himself and MtH, would start using 7 GRAND DAD jokes in more high-effort posts. According to Chaze, these were meant to ironically make fun of ytp4life and the general situation. It happened to be during this time that Chaze the Chat had the idea for the GiIvaSunner channel, with many of the respected SoundCloud users becoming contributors.

Rips

See also: Meet the Flintstones and Category:Rips featuring 7 GRAND DAD

7 GRAND DAD is SiIvaGunner's most prominent meme. Interestingly, references to the bootleg itself are rarely featured in SiIvaGunner rips. Instead, it's usually referenced indirectly via the usage of "Meet the Flintstones", including the NES version. However, other sub-memes related to 7 GRAND DAD have also proliferated on the channel.

Joel's reaction

See also: Category:Rips featuring Joel's reaction to 7 GRAND DAD

Vinesauce Joel's reaction to the bootleg, most notably the first part where he says "GRAND DAD?!". It first appeared in the GiIvaSunner rip "Nimbasa City Gym: Stage - Pokémon Black & White 2" on February 28, 2016. Most early references to the reaction were incorporated via sentence mixing, although over time it also became a pitch-shifting joke.

Grand Dad

Main article: Grand Dad

The Mario lookalike character featured on 7 GRAND DAD's title screen. Aside from being used to represent and personify the 7 GRAND DAD meme within the SiIvaGunner lore, he also appears in rips occasionally.

The Flintstones

See also: Category:Rips featuring The Flintstones

A few rips feature references to the actual The Flintstones TV show, which can also be considered an indirect reference to 7 GRAND DAD, given the channel's context.

The number seven

As a reference to the title of the game, the number 7 can found littered throughout SiIvaGunner content. This is often done just for theming or as an Easter egg rather than the actual main joke, though there are a number of times where it is played up as a "hilarious joke" as a form of ironic humor.

Trivia

• The last stage of this game features a crossover with The Jetsons.
• Interestingly, there exists a completely unrelated Super Mario Bros. 3 ROM hack called Blue Mario Bros. 3 that features character sprites from The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy.

External links

• Joel - Insane Mario Bootleg Games video from Vargskelethor: Vinesauce Joel
• The whole Insane Mario Bootleg Games stream, featuring 7 GRAND DAD.
• Vinesauce Joel - Reaction to "7 GRAND DAD"
• "Rips featuring 7 GRAND DAD" - YouTube playlist by Aidan Zamboni.