Project Moon unearthed - origins of Triangle Service

[Pretas]

Gameplay video
Disk image download (this is doujin freeware, so there shouldn't be any problem with sharing it here)

Project Moon is an X68000 doujin shmup made in 1995 by Toshiaki Fujino, who would later become the founder and president of Triangle Service. The disk image was included as a hidden bonus on the INH Trizeal superplay DVD, which no one seems to have been aware of until recently. It will play in an X68k emulator.

The game is very brief, only four short stages long, and amateurishly designed. There aren't even any powerups. However, it's a curious insight into the origins of the style and ideas that Fujino was already formulating, which would be developed on much more fully in G-Stream 2020/DeltaZeal, XII Stag, and Trizeal. The ship design closely resembles that of Trizeal, as well as its shot and missile attacks and the game's enemies. As for the music, it's surprisingly high quality, and definitely worth a listen.

[KAI]

Wow, I'm ripping this game's soundtrack. Thanks.

[Jeneki]

A lack of powerups isn't amateurish, it's ahead of its time.

[BIL]

Fuuuck... stage 2 BGM gots tha funk!

[trap15]

Wow, very interesting game. Music is fantastic, I wonder who made it. EDIT: I should have finished watching the video

1995... He had to have been like 15 or something Judging from the picture from his recent interview, I'd say even that's a stretch... he doesn't look much past 30.

[Pretas]

Music is fantastic, I wonder who made it.

Kouichi Fujiwara. The only other credit of his I can find is the music for the N64 game Chameleon Twist 2, which may not be the same person.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

The shrinking ship looks interesting. Didn't he work on the Raiden Fighters games at Seibu Kaihatsu also?

[EmperorIng]

It's like a newgrounds shmup, before there was newgrounds. =O

[trap15]

Music is fantastic, I wonder who made it.

Kouichi Fujiwara. The only other credit of his I can find is the music for the N64 game Chameleon Twist 2, which may not be the same person.

I found another credit for him on "Momotarou Densetsu Happy". Interesting to hear that about Chameleon Twist 2, I'll have to look into that one.

Very interested to look more into this particular fellow.

The shrinking ship looks interesting. Didn't he work on the Raiden Fighters games at Seibu Kaihatsu also?

Only things I know concretely is:
He worked on Raiden Fighters Aces
The artist for Raiden Fighters did the art for G-Stream.

[Pretas]

It's like a newgrounds shmup, before there was newgrounds. =O

Not quite. Newgrounds started as a Neo-Geo fanzine newsletter, hence the name.

[Ed Oscuro]

lol those bosses

Deep Forest music is amazing though. Lots of bullet patterns because SuperDeadite isn't shooting enough things, but it's nice to see how much the X68000 can push out.

The artist for Raiden Fighters did the art for G-Stream.

holy fuck, my bon- yeah that's awesome

It's like a newgrounds shmup, before there was newgrounds. =O

Not quite. Newgrounds started as a Neo-Geo fanzine newsletter, hence the name.

[Herr Schatten]

I've had that DVD since release, but I was totally unaware of this. Is there other similarly intersting bonus stuff on it?

Anyway, interesting game. Just fired it up and gave it a go. Surprisingly tough, and it plays a little like a Psikyo shooter in that if you don't eliminate certain threats quickly, you're going to run into trouble. The idea with the shrinking ship is neat, but the middle form feels oddly weak compared to the bi and the small one.

[SuperDeadite]

This is the only bonus on the DVD. Note if you put the disk in Drive 0 it boots up in 15khz, but if you boot with it in Drive 1 it will display in 31khz. The game is fun, but some enemies take a LOT of hits, I just wanted to get a full video up anyway, hence I jacked up the lives.

Oh by the way, I got something truly amazing in this morning. Stay tuned.

[z0mbie90]

Thanks for sharing this, I didn't know anything about this, real intresting to hear.
Also I really like the tune on Stage 2

[Herr Schatten]

1995... He had to have been like 15 or something

21 to be precise. There's a little timeline in the booklet that came with the Insanity DVD. The timeline's in English, even, but parts of it are unreadable due to shitty choice of font colours.

So in that timeline we've got:

1995 Project Moon
1997 [unreadable] frontier
1999 B[unreadable] girl game

I'm intrigued by those last two. Does anyone have any idea what could be meant?

(Interestingly, G-Stream does not appear in that timeline.)

[Pretas]

What's the story behind Oriental Soft (publisher of G-Stream), anyway? Their only other release was 1945k III, an unlicensed mishmash of Psikyo's Strikers series, developed by "Team Muhaha." There must have been some shady stuff going on. Not to mention the notoriously poor manufacturing quality of the G-Stream boards, and the fact that the MAME romset seems to be an unfinished prototype. There's another version with an alternate title screen that no one's been able to track down, which could be the finished product. We will probably learn more once the 360 version comes out.

Somehow Fujino managed to retain the rights to G-Stream, even if he had to rebrand it as DeltaZeal.

[trap15]

1995... He had to have been like 15 or something

21 to be precise.

That would put him at 39!? He doesn't look nearly that old in that picture! All that shmupping must have stopped the aging process

There's a little timeline in the booklet that came with the Insanity DVD. The timeline's in English, even, but parts of it are unreadable due to shitty choice of font colours.

So in that timeline we've got:

1995 Project Moon
1997 [unreadable] frontier
1999 B[unreadable] girl game

I'm intrigued by those last two. Does anyone have any idea what could be meant?

I'm intrigued as well. Mind putting up a high-res scan/picture? Maybe someone can figure them out.

[KBZ]

wow, I'm so happy to hear about this. I've owned the DVD this whole time and never knew.

[BPzeBanshee]

What's the story behind Oriental Soft (publisher of G-Stream), anyway? Their only other release was 1945k III, an unlicensed mishmash of Psikyo's Strikers series, developed by "Team Muhaha." There must have been some shady stuff going on. Not to mention the notoriously poor manufacturing quality of the G-Stream boards, and the fact that the MAME romset seems to be an unfinished prototype. There's another version with an alternate title screen that no one's been able to track down, which could be the finished product. We will probably learn more once the 360 version comes out.

Somehow Fujino managed to retain the rights to G-Stream, even if he had to rebrand it as DeltaZeal.

To be clear, trap15 and I are pretty confident that Oriental Soft (1945kiii) is separate from Oriental Soft Japan. There's a bit of allusion to the relationship between them and Oriental Soft on the 'SOS from Triangle Service' page regarding XII Stag (note that a lot of G-Stream's content is in turn used in XIIStag, and is also in the same year of release), which is quite a sad read, but I'll put the excerpt here:

XIISTAG, originally, was supposed to be produced by a company I worked for.
However, I couldn't find the expenses or secure the space for it.
And they had not paid me my salary for several months.
I was living from hand to mouth.
This is where I was at that time.
Nevertheless,
I really wanted to complete XIISTAG,
moreover, I had some "samurais" who felt the same way.

It would seem that Oriental Soft (Korea) stopped footing the bill for G-Stream at some point during it's development, which may have led to a rushed release. Quite a few choices of the hardware design seem to imply going cheap, some of which has resulted negatively. I wonder if there's more info on the Famitsu article, maybe if blackoak or someone with good Japanese skills can translate it we might find out more.

RE: Project Moon, I found about about this not a few days before this thread was made. Pretty interesting game, albeit a bit Baryon-looking. Clearly this is the game where XIIStag gets its font design from.

[SuperDeadite]

1995... He had to have been like 15 or something

21 to be precise. There's a little timeline in the booklet that came with the Insanity DVD. The timeline's in English, even, but parts of it are unreadable due to shitty choice of font colours.

So in that timeline we've got:

1995 Project Moon
1997 [unreadable] frontier
1999 B[unreadable] girl game

I'm intrigued by those last two. Does anyone have any idea what could be meant?

(Interestingly, G-Stream does not appear in that timeline.)

From the interview part:
1997 = Gun Frontier Saturn version.
1999 = I don't know, but it's for Playstation (In the interview Fujino mentions he hates this genre, but was forced to work on it, and that's all that's really mentioned.

[Skyline]

I'm actually surprised that the INH DVD interview hasn't been translated yet. G-Stream was talked about, albeit with a blurred-out screenshot, if I remember correctly.

Also, the developer of 1945kIII is actually Promat, based on the end credits.

[Udderdude]

Guy had a rough life as a developer. Even if I don't like the style of shmup he made, at least he was dedicated.

[Herr Schatten]

I'm intrigued as well. Mind putting up a high-res scan/picture? Maybe someone can figure them out.

Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner here. It wouldn't make a difference, though, as the text parts in question do not only blend in with the background, they have the exact same color, thus rendering the text completely invisible.

[psoslayer]

Guy had a rough life as a developer. Even if I don't like the style of shmup he made, at least he was dedicated.

Is he dead?

[trap15]

That would be the end of an era

Nah, he's still alive and doing great stuff

[Koa Zo]

I'm intrigued as well. Mind putting up a high-res scan/picture? Maybe someone can figure them out.

Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner here. It wouldn't make a difference, though, as the text parts in question do not only blend in with the background, they have the exact same color, thus rendering the text completely invisible.

I have them scanned from way back when the DVD was released. I have to resize and figure out how/where to upload them
The text background contrast is good for what I have.

the last page ends with a pixelated screenshot of Snatcher.


edit: just realized I bumped an old thread, going to post the scans in "Triangle Service Confusion" thread since that provides a great definitive overview

[KAI]

Sorry about the necro bump. As promised (1 year ago) here's Project Moon's soundtrack.

[trap15]

Dude this kicks ass

Thanks a ton.

[Captain]

Oh damn this music.

looks fun to play too, although far from perfect.

PS 7:06 THUNDER FORCE?