The Emperor's Fruit Salad: A Turboquest

THE EMPEROR’S FRUIT SALAD: A TURBOQUEST

by tornado cub

OST for an imaginary Sega Megadrive Game

(recommendation: all the text, level descriptions etc. are included in the YouTube video, where screen recordings of the songs being tracked are supplied as proof of authorship. More fun to watch it there!)

(main intro:)

Tomorrow is the Emperor’s birthday, and in accordance with ancient tradition, he is to be prepared the Imperial Fruit Salad for his breakfast. For this dish, the five rarest and most delicious fruits are gathered from the furthest reaches of the Empire. The honour of preparing the fruit salad has fallen to your best friend, the Palace Chef Ruki. But oh dear, something has gone awfully wrong! Ruki woke up this morning to discover that the fruits have escaped! If the Emperor doesn’t receive his Fruit Salad, the consequences for Ruki will be dire!

Can you capture the fruits in time for breakfast tomorrow? Torpo the Flying Ray will speed you across the Emperor’s dominions to hunt down these sneaky delicacies! You will travel across sea and mountain, desert and volcano, and even fly up to cloud province! But do not tarry, the clock is ticking!

Level 1 - Surf Papaya

Blue skies! Lush palm trees! Scintillating waters! The Surf Papaya likes to hang out just under the waves. Can you find it? Beware of sharks!

Level 2 - Cloud Melon

What a sight! Clouds stacked upon clouds as high as the eye can see, Torpo flies you to their dizzying summits. The Cloud Melon must be hiding in here somewhere! But be careful, the clouds are not all as friendly as they look!   

Level 3 - Snow Cherry

Brrrr! It is fu-reezing! Through snow drifts, through driving blizzard, into the ice caves to find that elusive Snow Cherry! Watch out for icicles and chasms! 

Level 4 - Dune Guava

So hot! Torpo thinks he might melt! The desert stretches into infinity! The heat makes your head spin, and you see strange shapes everywhere! Where oh where is that Dune Guava? Mind the quicksand!

Level 5 - Lava Pear

Smoke and soot fill the air! Somewhere among the nooks and crags of this accursed volcano that Lava Pear must surely be found! Those rivers of molten rock aren’t fooling around, don’t touch! And let’s hope the volcano doesn’t wake up!  

...

“Well done!” says Torpo, “You’ve captured all five fruits, we’ll easily get back to the palace in time, and Ruki will be OK!”  

“Thank goodness for that!” you reply. 

Torpo lowers his voice, “There’s one fruit so rare that even the Emperor has never tasted it….” 

“Oh?”

 “Under normal circumstances this would be unthinkable, but after what you’ve pulled off today, I think if anyone deserves to taste it, you do…”

 “Not the Emperor? Wouldn’t that be treason?” 

“What the Emperor doesn’t know can’t hurt him. Or you either.”

With that, and with you on his back, Torpo takes off and soars UP UP UP past the clouds, past the blue and into the black, faster and faster towards a twinkling in the distance… 

Special Bonus Level 6 - Star Peach

!!!

—

Composed in Deflemask for the SEGA Megadrive soundchips, first to fifth of June, 2021.

All tracks are loops, all tracks fade after 1 loop cycle.