Irem | Code Like It's 198x

Irem’s name described its first trade, supplying game machines. In 1985 the American magazine Electronic Games spelled it out as “International Rental Electronic Machines of Osaka, Japan”. Two years later the same company made R-Type, a shoot-’em-up that CRASH’s arcade reviewer called “undoubtedly the most impressive coin-op of the lot, and one of the hardest to get to play – because there’s almost always a crowd round the cabinet!” Before that it had already produced Moon Patrol and Kung-Fu Master. In America and Britain, though, those games often reached players under someone else’s name.

Fast facts

Founded: As IPM; public sources give 1974. Renamed Irem by the early 1980s.
Base: Osaka, Japan, in the 1980s; its parent company was the monitor maker Nanao.
Founder: Kenzo Tsujimoto, who also founded Capcom.
Best known for: Moon Patrol (1982), Kung-Fu Master (1984), R-Type (1987).
Games business: Stopped in 1994. Irem Software Engineering, set up by Nanao in 1997, took over the development team.

IPM, Irem and I.R.M.

The company’s early history is patchy in English-language sources, and they do not all agree.

Wireframe’s 2019 history says it was first called IPM Corporation, that it entered the video game business with a copy of Taito’s Space Invaders called IPM Invader, and that the name Irem at first stood for International Rental Electronics Machines, later changed to Innovations in Recreational Electronic Media. It names Kenzo Tsujimoto as Irem’s founder, as ACE did in 1991 when it called him “a veteran of the Japanese video game industry and founder of Irem (producers of R-Type)”.

Tsujimoto also founded Capcom, and here the sources diverge. Capcom’s own chronology starts in May 1979 with I.R.M. Corporation, a company in Matsubara, Osaka, set up to develop and sell game machines. Wikipedia, citing Japanese press profiles, gives IPM’s founding as 1974, has IPM renamed Irem Corporation in early 1979, and treats I.R.M. as a separate company that Tsujimoto set up the same year while still running Irem. In that account the monitor maker Nanao, which built screens for IPM’s cabinets, became Irem’s majority shareholder in 1980, Tsujimoto was replaced in 1982, and he left in 1983 to form Capcom.

So Irem and I.R.M. share a founder, an Osaka base and nearly the same name, and came into being in the same year. No public source found here explains how the two were related, and Capcom’s chronology does not mention Irem at all. The 1974 date and the 1979 renaming rest on Wikipedia and the Japanese articles it cites, not on period magazines.

What is not in doubt is the ownership by the late 1980s. Wireframe describes Nanao as Irem’s parent company when R-Type was made.

Arcade games in other companies’ cabinets

In its early years Irem’s games often went out under another name. Electronic Games introduced Red Alert in March 1982 as a game “from Japan’s Irem”, in which the player defends six cities from air attack. In America, Williams sold Moon Patrol: 1983 magazine charts list it as “Moon Patrol (Williams)”, and the home versions from Atarisoft carried Williams’s copyright. Video Games explained in May 1984 that Irem was “a company probably best known for its creation of Moon Patrol and Motorace USA”, the second also sold by Williams under a licence from Irem.

Vidiot noted in 1983 that Williams had “acquired this Japanese game which is quite unlike their others”: a “landbound rover” that “shoots in two directions against attacking spaceships and roadblock rocks” and can bounce over potholes. Wireframe says it is “widely credited” as the first mainstream game to use parallax scrolling, with layers of scenery moving at different speeds to suggest depth.

Irem also made arcade versions of home computer games. In 1984 it released a coin-op Lode Runner, licensed from Broderbund. Video Games noted the reversal: usually an arcade game came home, and this time a home game was going to the arcades.

Kung-Fu Master followed in 1984. Computer and Video Games’ arcade column described it in April 1985 as one of the “hard-hitting, breath-taking fast games for Kung-Fu adepts”. In America Data East sold it under licence. In Britain U.S. Gold released the home versions in 1986, and CRASH gave the Spectrum version 56%. According to Wireframe, Takashi Nishiyama designed both Moon Patrol and Kung-Fu Master, and Kung-Fu Master helped start the beat-’em-up genre. Nishiyama then moved to Capcom, where he worked on the first Street Fighter, and in 1988 to SNK.

R-Type

R-Type appeared in 1987. The player flies a single R-9 fighter through eight levels against the alien Bydo Empire, each level ending with a guardian that fills much of the screen. CRASH’s October 1987 arcade column explained its two new ideas. Holding down fire charged the ship’s gun, and releasing it let loose “a more deadly beam”. A pod could be collected and attached to the front or back of the ship, or fired off across the screen “useful for clearing out infested areas”.

It ran on new 16-bit hardware. Wireframe says Nanao designed it; the MAME emulator’s driver identifies the board as the Irem M72, with an NEC V30 processor running at 8 MHz, a separate Z80 for sound and a Yamaha YM2151 sound chip. An Irem developer, quoted in a Japanese interview later translated into English, described the team’s aim: “the huge battleship in stage three, the erotic-yet-grotesque enemy designs, the wave cannon… our goal at Irem is to impress you!”

It had a long life in arcades. ZZAP!64’s coin-op top ten still listed it, credited to Irem, in September and November 1988, a year after CRASH first saw it.

R-Type at home

In Britain the home computer licence went to Electric Dreams, a label of Activision (renamed Mediagenic in 1988). Its advertisements promised versions for the Commodore 64, Spectrum, Amstrad, Atari ST and Amiga, at £9.99 on cassette and £24.99 for the 16-bit machines, under the slogan “It’s behind you”.

Activision guarded the licence closely. In autumn 1988 U.S. Gold was about to publish Katakis, a German shoot-’em-up that ZZAP!64 described as “very much in the R-Type mould”. Activision, “who hold the license from Irem to produce the official R-Type conversion”, thought it close enough for legal action, and U.S. Gold withdrew the game. ZZAP!64 had already duplicated Katakis as its cover tape and had to replace it at the last minute. Katakis came back, changed, as Denaris. Amiga Computing later reported that its programmers at Factor 5 were then hired to write the official Amiga R-Type: “Katakis was such a good R-Type ripoff that the Germans were chosen to produce the official version”.

The conversions varied widely.

ZX Spectrum: Bob Pape’s version was a CRASH Smash at 92% in the 1988 Christmas Special. “This has got to be the arcade conversion of the decade (well at least the past three months),” wrote one reviewer. CRASH added a joke about the Katakis affair: “According to Mediagenic’s lawyers, R-Type is a highly original arcade action shoot-’em-up.” Sinclair User called it “possibly the best space shoot-’em-up conversion ever”.
Commodore 64: ZZAP!64 gave 72% in March 1989, praising the scrolling but calling the multiload “disastrous” and the tune “annoying”.
Amiga: Amiga Computing gave Factor 5’s version 86% in August 1989: “R-type is the benchmark by which other games of this ilk must be judged.”

Consoles got their own versions. Hudson Soft’s PC Engine conversion impressed The Games Machine in July 1988, which found its scrolling, explosions and sprites “astonishing” on a console that loaded games from a small card. Sega’s Master System version scored 87% from Julian Rignall in Computer and Video Games in March 1989. In the magazine’s awards that year, the PC Engine R-Type was runner-up for the console award.

After R-Type

According to Wireframe, Irem followed R-Type with other striking action games, among them Image Fight, Mr. Heli, Dragon Breed and X-Multiply. R-Type II reached arcades in 1989, and Image Fight came to the NES in 1990 under Irem’s own name. In 1993 Irem released In the Hunt, an underwater shoot-’em-up in which the player commands a submarine.

Then Irem stopped. Retro Gamer reported in 2008 that the company’s management “ordered all game production to be abandoned in 1994”, which left the Super Nintendo game R-Type III looking like the end of the series. In 1997 Nanao set up a new company, Irem Software Engineering, which took over Irem’s development department that July. Its first big project was R-Type Delta for the PlayStation. Series producer Kazuma Kujo told Retro Gamer: “For three years out of the five between R-Type III and Delta, Irem had completely stopped game production.”

Staff who had worked on In the Hunt had left around the time Irem stopped making games, to form Nazca, whose Metal Slug reached arcades in 1996. Around 2011, Wireframe reports, Irem decided to pull out of the games industry and concentrate on slot machines. Irem Software Engineering now describes its business as software for pachinko and pachislot machines, plus console and smartphone games.

Sources

Electronic Games vol. 1 no. 2, March 1982, p. 71: Red Alert “from Japan’s Irem”.
Electronic Games vol. 3 no. 3, March 1985, p. 81, coin-op preview: “IREM (International Rental Electronic Machines of Osaka, Japan)” and its Lode Runner coin-op.
Video Games (US) vol. 2 no. 2, November 1983: Motorace U.S.A. from Williams “via a license agreement with Irem”. Chart listings of “Moon Patrol (Williams)” in Video Games, March and April 1983, and Electronic Fun with Computer & Games, December 1982 to June 1983. Atarisoft advertisements, 1984: Moon Patrol “© Williams 1982”.
Vidiot vol. 1 no. 2, February/March 1983: Moon Patrol, a Japanese game acquired by Williams.
Video Games (US) vol. 2 no. 8, May 1984, p. 12: Irem “best known for its creation of Moon Patrol and Motorace USA”; the Lode Runner coin-op.
Computer and Video Games issue 42, April 1985, p. 92: Kung-Fu Master “from Irem Corporation”.
Commodore Magazine and Compute!’s Gazette, 1986–87, Data East USA advertisements: Kung-Fu Master manufactured under licence from Irem Corp.
CRASH issue 31, August 1986, review of U.S. Gold’s Kung Fu Master (Spectrum); CRASH issue 48, Christmas Special 1987, review index: 56%.
CRASH issue 45, October 1987, p. 136, arcade column: R-Type by “IREM Corporation”.
ZZAP!64 issue 41, September 1988, and issue 43, November 1988, coin-op top ten: R-Type, Irem.
ZZAP!64 issue 43, November 1988, p. 11: “Katakis? What Katakis?” (Activision’s licence from Irem, the withdrawal of Katakis, the replaced cover tape).
Your Sinclair issue 35, November 1988, p. 87: Electric Dreams R-Type advertisement (formats, prices, “© 1987 Irem Corporation”).
CRASH issue 59, Christmas Special 1988, pp. 26–27: Spectrum R-Type review (Electric Dreams, Bob Pape, £9.99, 92%).
Sinclair User issue 81, December 1988, pp. 90–91: Spectrum R-Type review.
ZZAP!64 issue 47, March 1989, p. 73: Commodore 64 R-Type review (Electric Dreams/Mediagenic, 72%).
Simon Rockman, Amiga Computing vol. 2 no. 3, August 1989, p. 28: Amiga R-Type review (Factor 5, Katakis and Denaris, 86%).
The One issue 6, March 1989: Katakis returns as Denaris after Activision’s objection.
The Games Machine issue 8, July 1988, PC Engine feature, pp. 28–33: Hudson’s R-Type.
Julian Rignall, Computer and Video Games issue 89, March 1989, p. 95: Sega Master System R-Type (87%).
Computer and Video Games issue 92, June 1989: console award, runner-up R-Type on the PC Engine.
Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue 1, November 1995: In the Hunt, “the Irem sub-aquatic” shoot-’em-up, converted by Xing.
ACE issue 46, July 1991: Tsujimoto as “founder of Irem”.
Mike Bevan, “The making of R-Type Delta”, Retro Gamer issue 51, 2008, p. 71: game production stopped in 1994; Irem Software Engineering in 1997; Kazuma Kujo’s quote.
“Remembering Irem”, Wireframe issue 18, July 2019, pp. 50–51: IPM Corporation and IPM Invader; its early history as a vendor of game hardware; the meanings of the name; Tsujimoto; Takashi Nishiyama; Nanao’s hardware for R-Type; the developer’s quote; later games; Nazca; the 2011 withdrawal from games.
Capcom, “Corporate History”, Capcom investor relations (web, secondary): I.R.M. Corporation, May 1979. https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/company/history.html
Wikipedia, “Irem” (web, secondary): IPM in 1974, the 1979 renaming, Nanao’s shareholding, Tsujimoto’s departure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irem
Irem Software Engineering, company outline (web, secondary): established 15 April 1997; took over Irem Corporation’s development in July 1997; current business. https://www.irem.co.jp/company/outline.html
MAME source code, src/mame/irem/m72.cpp, m52.cpp, m62.cpp and m92.cpp (web, secondary): the M72 board’s processors and sound chip; release years and licensees for Moon Patrol, Kung-Fu Master, R-Type, R-Type II and In the Hunt. https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/irem