Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
Encyclopedia
is a video game by Hudson Soft
Hudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...

 originally released in 1984 for the NEC PC-8801
NEC PC-8801
The NEC PC-8801 was an early Zilog Z80-based computer exclusively released in Japan, where it became very popular, by NEC Corporation in 1981. It was informally called the "PC-88"....

, NEC PC-6001
NEC PC-6001
The NEC PC-6001 was the first of the NEC Corporation personal computer line. There were several versions of the PC-6001, including the PC-6001 MK2, the PC-6001 MK2 SR, and the PC-6801. There was also an American version, called the NEC TREK, or NEC PC-6001A...

, FM-7
FM-7
FM-7 is a home computer released in 1982 in Japan.The Fujitsu FM-7 was Fujitsu's first entry into the Japanese home computer market, and for their debut computer, they chose to come out with a 6809-based personal computer very similar to Radio Shack's Color Computer.-Hardware:*Two MC 68B09 CPUs @...

 and MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 Japanese home computers.

It was ported on May 27, 1988 to the Famicom
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

, and February 8, 1991 for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 in North America. It was also released on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 in Japan on January 19, 2010 and in North America on February 8, 2010.

The characters are primarily cartoon-like anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

 fruit & vegetables. In recent years the game has developed a small cult following
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

 through the use of NES emulators. The game cartridge is increasingly difficult to find, and has been sold on sites such as eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 for as much as $30 U.S. but can be found at short prices such as $2.50.

Plot

Taking the role of Sir Cucumber, a knight, the player is assigned by King Broccoli (now deceased) to defeat the evil Minister Pumpkin who has kidnapped Princess Tomato. Early on, Sir Cucumber gains a sidekick, Percy the baby persimmon
Persimmon
A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family . The word Diospyros means "the fire of Zeus" in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant...

, who offers advice and helps throughout the quest (and always calls Sir Cucumber "Boss").

In-game description

"Many growing seasons ago, there was a place where vegetables lived happily, and in perfect harmony. One day, Minister Pumpkin betrayed King Broccoli. He kidnapped Princess Tomato and stole the Turnip Emblem. He took them to his castle in the Zucchini Mountains. He sent his cruel Farmies out to terrorize all the vegetables in the Salad Kingdom. Shortly thereafter, the poor King died from the loss of his beautiful daughter. But he promised you, brave Sir Cucumber, the Princess' hand and the kingdom if you bring them back safely. God speed Sir Cucumber! Hurry! Saladoria is down this path. The Zucchini Mountains are over yonder."

Gameplay

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom plays similarly to a text adventure, though due to the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

's lack of a keyboard accessory, the possible commands are represented by buttons which line both sides of the screen. The commands are fixed and do not change during gameplay. Primarily, the game consists of still screens with the exception of the "finger wars", mazes and occasional animated character, such as the octoberry and fern birds.


Commands within the game are: MOVE, LOOK, CHECK (used to examine things), TALK, TAKE, USE, GIVE, BUY, HIT, FIGHT (also called "finger wars", challenges enemies to rock-paper-scissors
Rock-paper-scissors
Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two people. The game is also known as roshambo, or another ordering of the three items ....

), PRAISE (for flattery), DUMP (for getting rid of inventory items, since you can only carry a limited number), ITEM and PERCY (to get help from your sidekick Percy Persimmon after rescuing him; he always refers to you as "boss"). The only way to "lose" is by not being able to determine which action is required to advance (i.e.: there is no way for the player, Sir Cucumber, to "die" except for in one specific "finger wars" battle).

Levels

The game uses a password-based system to return to different levels. The levels in the game are as follows:

1. The Field/Spinach Heights

2. Orange Park

3. Saladoria Prison

4. Return to Spinach Heights

5. Resistance Base

6. Peanut Plateau

7. Sopville

8. Minister Pumpkin's Castle

9. Return to Orange Park/Cabaret Celery

Remix version

Giovani Akira Faganello in association with Pixeltemple has created a PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...

/HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

  fan
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...

 version of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom called "Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom - REMIX". This version, which is currently offline has updated graphics for the first level, and are made to match the original game graphics. Graphics for all other levels are the same as the original NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

version and it mostly retains the same dialog from the original game.
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