yes, we've solved it.
it does leave me with a few more questions, though -
i notice all other load.ini's use the moon0000.tga, and that displays normally.
for some reason, this particular load.ini uses moon0010.tga, which gives me the square moon.
not only that, but i have substituted the moon0010.tga entry with every possible one in the range, from moon0001 through to moon0025.tga. any of these entries results in a square moon.
only using the 'default moon entry', ie: moon0000.tga, do i get a normal moon.
now, i'm assuming that if it is set to 0000, then the game will, from there, load the correct tga required as per the mission date...?
at least that's how i assume it to work, otherwise we would forever be stuck with the moon on the same phase, and never see a change.
now, what is the point of this load entry? is it redundant? do we even need it in the map load?
why am i the only one this has happened to? are we alone in the universe? why are we here?
we could discuss this more, but i don't think this is the best thread for it.
for now, we can call this particular case, solved and closed.
big thanks for all the help, gents.