ZUN Soft

Background

ZUN Soft was the early business alias of game developer Jun'ya Ōta, known by his psuedonym ZUN, creator of the Touhou Project franchise. ZUN developed the first five games of the Touhou series for the NEC PC-9800 personal computers during 1997-1998. These games were published by Amusement Makers, a student game development club that Ōta was a member of. Since the release of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil in 2002, ZUN changed the name of ZUN Soft to Team Shanghai Alice. Touhou Project remains one of the largest doujin franchises in Japan, with various official manga publications made by ZUN and multiple fanworks and fanart being made.

1st Logo (August 15-December 29, 1997)

Visuals: On a black background, a large blue ball moves around the screen leaving a trail of other transparent balls, while white particles are shown moving around behind it. "ZUN soft" fades in front of the screen in white, before the text wipes into "東方 project". The text fades out, along with the rest doing so later.

Technique: 16-bit animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on the first three Touhou PC-98 games, Highly Responsive to Prayers, Story of Eastern Wonderland, and Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream.

2nd Logo (August 14-December 30, 1998)

Visuals: On a black background, multiple firework particles emerge on various parts of the screen as the red "ZUN Soft" and the blue "東方 Project" fade in, with the former at the left and the latter at the right, each having dust behind according to each of the text's colors. The logo remains on-screen for a few seconds before it fades out.

Technique: 16-bit animation.

Audio: An ominous arpeggiating theme with faint firework noises.

Availability: Seen on the last two Touhou PC-98 games, Lotus Land Story and Mystic Square.

Final Note

Since the release of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, newer Touhou games utilize no logo or have the "Produced by Team Shanghai Alice" credit shown on the "work of fiction" disclaimer screen.