Kino's Big List of Irem Staff

Today, we'll be doing a deep dive on one of the premier arcade giants of the 1980s. We're all familiar with enduring classics such as R-Type and In The Hunt, but who were the talented men & women that created them?

Not an easy question to answer, as it turns out.

It was common practice at the time for Japanese arcade companies to force their employees to use pseudonyms, as a preventative measure against rival studios wanting to poach their talent. Irem took it further than most: staff credits were almost completely nonexistent up until 1992, so they'd hide their initials and pseudonyms among the default high score names.

It gets worse. Their earliest games don't even have scoreboards. Apart from Takashi Nishiyama mentioning that he debuted on Uniwar S as a designer, we have next to no information regarding Irem staff from 1978 to 1982. From '83 onward it becomes easier, as scoreboards began to appear in their games; unfortunately, most of them up to Spelunker's release are either complete nonsense, or just spell out some kind of hidden message when read a certain way.

Determining real names is not an easy task. Largely, this is because very few ex-Irem employees have any sort of public presence nowadays, and the ones that do tend to be extremely hesitant to divulge the true identities of their former colleagues.

The sound staff are the easiest to keep track of; most of them have come forward in recent decades to take credit for their work. The planners, the graphic artists, and programmers, however, are much more elusive.

For earlier Irem games, we have interviews with Scott Tsumura and Takashi Nishiyama to go by (though predictably, they mainly focus on Moon Patrol and Kung Fu Master's development). Later Irem titles that featured heavy involvement from the future NAZCA team also tend to be fairly well-documented, thanks to an interview given to Youtube channel RGT back in 2014, and more recently, to Bitmap for their "Metal Slug: The Ultimate History" book. For everything else, I was on my own.

So in embarking on this mission, what did we have to work with?

Firstly, the only arcade game that had a staff roll containing full names was Meikyuujima. The catch is that this was actually one of a handful of games developed by Irem's parent company, Nanao.

Next, the Japanese and Overseas releases of their arcade games would occasionally have differing score tables. In the case of Gunforce and In The Hunt, when you compare them side by side, you'll see the initials in the Overseas scoreboard correlate to the aliases used in the Japanese one.

A couple of later period console titles (such as Sol Moonarge for PC Engine, and Rocky Rodent on Super Nintendo) had Irem developers credited by their full names, which was helpful for uncovering a few members of the arcade division.

Getting any further than that required a lot of scouring the depths of Irem alumni Twitter accounts for any nuggets of information, cross-referencing names on Mobygames, DMing various industry professionals, and a few lucky breaks here and there. The results of my labor have been edited and laid out before you on this very webpage by my beautiful and staggeringly intelligent girlfriend mycophobia in a selfless act of pure magnanimity, who also definitely did not write this sentence. There will also be sources and other supplemental material in the discussion thread. So without further ado...

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UNIWAR-S

Takashi Nishiyama (Designer)

MOON PATROL
Scott Tsumura (Producer)

Takashi Nishiyama (Planner/Designer)

Motoyuki Yoshioka (Programmer)

Ichirou Takagi (Sound)
ZIPPY RACE

Read vertically: IREM NO TRAVERSE USA WA TOTEMO III WA, or "IREM's TRAVERSE USA IS REALLY GREAT"
Scott Tsumura (Producer)

Mitsuru Kawai (Designer)

Ichirou Takagi (Sound)
TROPICAL ANGEL

M.K = Mitsuru Kawai (Designer)

N/A = Masanori Morita (Sound)
10-YARD FIGHT
Scott Tsumura (Producer)

Masanori Morita (Design/Sound)
THE BATTLE ROAD

Read vertically: IREM CORP THE BATTLE ROAD O YATTEKURETE DOUMO ARIGATOU MATA TSUGI O OTANOSHIMI NI, or "IREM CORP THE BATTLE ROAD HAS ARRIVED, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT TIME"
Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
LODE RUNNER

Read vertically: IREM KABUSHIKI KAISHA NO GAME WA YOI, KONO GAME O SHIRANAI HITO WA YATTE NE, or "IREM CORPORATION'S GAMES ARE GOOD, PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW THIS GAME SHOULD TRY IT". This is also the default scoreboard for Lode Runner II and III.
Scott Tsumura (Producer)

Masanori Morita (Sound)

Mitsuru Kawai (Planner/Object Designer)

Takashi Nishiyama (Planner/Designer)

Mr. Masuda (Planner/Designer)

Mr. Imada (Planner/Designer)
KUNG FU MASTER
Scott Tsumura (Producer)

Takashi Nishiyama (Planner/Designer)

Motoyuki Yoshioka (Programmer)

Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
LODE RUNNER II
Masato Ishizaki (Planning/Sound)
LODE RUNNER III
Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
LOT LOT

N.H     = N.H. (Planner)

M. Tagu = Momoko Taguchi (Graphics)

K. Oda  = Koji Odagiri (?)

N/A     = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
HORIZON

Masanori Morita (Sound)
LODE RUNNER IV

Read vertically: TV GAME BAKARI YATTEIRU KARA ONNA NI MOTENAINDAYO, KURAI SEISYUN DA NE, or "YOU DON'T GET ANY GIRLS BECAUSE YOU ONLY PLAY VIDEO GAMES, A DULL YOUTH DON'T YOU THINK"
Hideshi Tatsuno (Planner)

Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
BATTLE BIRD
Mitsuru Kawai (Designer)

Masanori Morita (Sound)
SPELUNKER

The score table is unique, as it's mostly meant to be read diagonally
Yasumi Tozono (Planner)

Motoyuki Yoshioka (Programmer)

Takeo Sumita? (Programmer)

Masato Ishizaki (Sound)

Misako Hamada (Graphics)

Susumu Takahara (?)

Ms. Okamoto (Graphics)

Momoko Taguchi (Graphics)
SPELUNKER II

YACCHAN  = Yasumi Tozono (Planner)

R. SHOBU = Ryouichirou Shobu (Programmer)

ZAKI. M  = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)

MISACHAN = Misako [Surname unknown] (Programmer)

TARACHAN = Yoshihito Tagami (?)

NOBURIN? = ??? (Graphics?)
YOUJYUDEN

NORIBOZ  = Masanori Morita (Sound)

SUMI.    = Takeo Sumita (Programmer)

TOMY!    = ??? (Graphics)

MISACHAN = Misako [Surname unknown] (Programmer)
KAIKETSU YANCHAMARU

N.HANI**   = N.H. (Planner)

HAMADA??   = Misako Hamada (Graphics)

MISAKO     = Misako [surname unknown]? (Programmer)

N/A        = Masanori Morita (Sound)
R-TYPE

ABIKO    = Shinji Imada (Planner, some BG Gfx)   [Scoreboard credit: ABIKO]

SUM      = Takeo Sumita (Programmer)             [Scoreboard credit: SUMITA]

AKIO     = Akio Oyabu (Graphics)                 [Scoreboard credit: AKIO.O]

MISACHAN = Misako [surname unknown] (Programmer) [Scoreboard credit: MISAKO!]

SCLAP    = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)               [Scoreboard credit: MASATO]

YOSHIGE  = Yoshio Shimizu (Minor Graphic asst.)  [Scoreboard credit: N/A]

KINTE    = Mitsuru Kawai (Producer)              [Scoreboard credit: N/A]
MR HELI NO DAIBOUKEN

Y. Tagami  = Yoshihito Tagami (Planner)

Y. Shimizu = Yoshio Shimizu (Object Graphics)

M. Hamada  = Misako Hamada (Background Graphics)

T. Tanabe  = Tomohiko Tanabe (Background Graphics, some Boss Graphics)

M. Ishida  = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)

K. Odagiri = Koji Odagiri (?)

R. Shobu   = Ryouichirou Shobu (Programmer)

Momoko T.  = Momoko Taguchi (Graphics?)

T. Sumita  = Takeo Sumita (Programmer)

Hiroki S.  = Hiroki S. (Graphics?)

N/A        = Masato Ishizaki (Producer)
NINJA SPIRIT

TATSUNO.H = Hideshi Tatsuno (Planner)

AKIO.PAPA = Akio Oyabu (Object Graphics)

HIROKI    = Hiroki S. (Background Graphics)

KIYOSHI.K = Kiyoshi Kitabayashi (Tool Programmer?)

OHGI..... = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)

MOMOKO.T  = Momoko Taguchi (Graphics?)

SUMI      = Takeo Sumita (Programmer)

KOSASANZO = Takuji Kosasa (Programmer)
IMAGE FIGHT

ABIKO  = Shinji Imada (Planner)

NABE   = Tomohiko Tanabe (Background Graphics)

SYU.S  = Naoko Iida (Graphics)

OHGI   = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)

MOMOKO = Momoko Taguchi (Graphics?)

KOSAS  = Takuji Kosasa (Programmer)

AKIO   = Akio Oyabu (Some Enemy Design)

N/A    = Yoshio Shimizu? (Graphics)
MEIKYUUJIMA

FAN     = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)

NORIBOZ = Masanori Morita (Sound)

SCLAP   = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
VIGILANTE

M.K = Mitsuru Kawai (Object Graphics)

R.S = Ryouichirou Shobu? (Programmer)

TOM = "TOMY" (Background Graphics)

N/A = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)

N/A = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)
DRAGON BREED

NABE     = Tomohiko Tanabe (Object Graphics)

ROKUJIZO = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Background Graphics)

MOICHI   = Moichi Matsumoto (Programmer)

FAN      = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)

HANIWA   = N.H. (Planner)

N/A      = Masato Ishizaki (Producer)
X-MULTIPLY

SAKOTAROU = Morihiro Sakota (Graphics)

YUKIYAKON = Yukiya Kidani (Programmer)

N/A       = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)
R-TYPE II

TARAKO        = Yoshihito Tagami (Planner)

AKIO.O        = Akio Oyabu (Graphics)

SIMISU        = Yoshio Shimizu (Graphics)

N/A           = Takeo Sumita (Programmer)

N/A           = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)
LEGEND OF HERO TONMA

R.Shobu = Ryouichirou Shobu (Programmer)

Yasu!   = Yasumi Tozono (Planner)

M.T.    = Momoko Taguchi (Object Graphics)

N/A     = Noriko Doura? (Background Graphics)

N/A     = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)
SHISENSHOU

N/A       = Kazuma Kujo (Planner)

Watasan   = Kiyoshi Wataya? (Graphics)

Kamekichi = Kame Yamazaki? (Graphics)

Nishisan  = Kenji Nishi? (Programmer)

N/A       = Masahiko Ishida (Sound)
HAMMERIN' HARRY

West          = Kenji Nishi? (Programmer)

Tree Vallay   = Yukiya Kidani (Programmer)

M. Rice Field = Momoko Taguchi (Object Graphics) 

Miiyan        = Misako Hamada (Planner)

Lucky Susumu  = Susumu Takahara? (?)

Gangy Hiya    = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound FX)

N/A           = Hiroshi Kimura (Music)

N/A           = Noriko Doura (Background Graphics)
AIR DUEL

R. SHOBU  = Ryouichirou Shobu (Main Programmer)

A N D O H = Kenji Andoh (Sub Programmer)

HIYAMUTA  = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)

TSUMI NAG = Kazuma Kujo (Planner)

TAKAHARA  = Susumu Takahara (Graphics)

MR. M     = Mitsuo Kodama (Graphics)
MAJOR TITLE

KINTE  = Mitsuru Kawai (Planner)

MAX.MK = Mitsuru Kawai? (Graphics)

SCLAP  = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)

ANDO   = Kenji Andoh? (Programmer)
POUND FOR POUND

Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)
HASAMU

"unnamed original Air Duel planner" (Planner)

Yasuhiro Kawakami (Sound)
KEN-GO

SAKOTAN = Morihiro Sakota (Graphics)

N/A     = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)
GUNFORCE

N.S/Sadamoto = Nobuhiko Sadamoto (Programmer)

Y.T/Tarako   = Yoshihito Tagami (Planner)

N.K/Kane     = N.K. (Graphics)

ROK/Rokujizo = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Graphics)

N/A          = Hiroshi Kimura? (Music)
ARMED POLICE UNIT GALLOP

OYB = Akio Oyabu (Graphics)

TAG = Momoko Taguchi? (Graphics)

HYA = Takushi Hiyamuta (Music)

DOH = Kenji Andoh (Main Programmer)

TZN = Yasumi Tozono (Planner)

SMT = Takeo Sumita (Sub Programmer)

NKN = "Nakano!"? (Graphics)

NMA = Tomohiro Noma? (Graphics)

SMZ = Yoshio Shimizu (Graphics)
CROSS BLADES

HAN? = N.H. (Planner)

KNTE = Mitsuru Kawai (Background Graphics)

NRIN = ??? (Object Graphics)

HA84 = Shogo Hayashi? (Programmer)

N/A  = Takushi Hiyamuta (Music)

N/A  = Yasuhiro Kawakami (Sound FX)
BOMBERMAN

Yasuhiro Kawakami (Sound)
THUNDER BLASTER

GMC NYAM  = ??? (Planner)

ROKUJIZO  = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Graphics)

KANE      = N.K. (Graphics)

KYOKU     = ??? (Sub Programmer)

KIMURA    = Hiroshi Kimura (Sound)

SCRAP     = Masato Ishizaki (Producer)
DICE DICE DICE

SYU. S   = Naoko Iida (Planner?/Graphics?)

DORA     = Noriko Doura (Graphics)

HI....YA = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)

ROKUJIZO = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Graphics)
BOMBERMAN WORLD

Ikuko Mimori (Sound)

Atsushi Inaba? (Programmer)
MYSTIC RIDERS

M.H = Misako Hamada (Planner)

MC. = Shinichi Hamada (Programmer)

HAY = "Ms. Hys" (Background Graphics)

KIM = Hiroshi Kimura (Sound)

DOR = Noriko Doura (Object Graphics)

ROC = Kazuhiro Tanaka? (Some Enemy Design?)

KAN = N.K. (Minor Graphic asst.)

KUI = Ken Kui (Minor Graphic asst.)
HOOK

HONEYHONEY = N.H. (Planner)

SHOUGO     = Shogo Hayashi? (Programmer)

ANDY       = Kenji Andoh (Programmer)

NAKACCHI   = Yasuyuki Nakatsuka (Programmer)

ROKUJIZO   = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Graphics)

KEN        = Ken Kui (Graphics)

KOZO       = Kozo Ogawa (Graphics)

HIROSHI    = Hiroshi Kimura (Sound)

AI AI      = T.A. (Sound)
UNDERCOVER COPS

AKIO        = Akio Oyabu (Graphics)

SUSUMU      = Susumu Takahara (Graphics)

KOZO        = Kozo Ogawa (Graphics)

HIYA!       = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)

FUKU CHAN   = Yuko Fukuhara (Rosa's Voice)

DREW        = Drew Maniscalco (American Staff)

S. SAKOMIZU = Shinichiro Sakomizu (Publicity)
R-TYPE LEO

HIROGON = Hiroya Kita (Planner)

YUKI    = Yukiya Kidani (Programmer)

???     = Atsushi Inaba (Programmer)

SAKOTAN = Morihiro Sakota (Graphics)

HIROSHI = Hiroshi Kimura (Sound)

AI AI   = T.A. (Sound)
MAJOR TITLE 2

KIN = Mitsuru Kawai (Planner)

ZEN = "Zen" (Programmer)

HIR = "Hirokun" (Programmer)

NIG = Masao Niga? (Programmer)

MAX = Mitsuru Kawai? (Graphics)

YOK = Tetsuya Yokota? (Programmer)

KEN = Ken Kui (Graphics)

KOS = Takuji Kosasa? (Programmer)

TOM = Tomohiro Noma?/Tomy? (Graphics)

N/A = Masato Ishizaki (Sound)
IN THE HUNT

TOBI NAG = Kazuma Kujo (Planner)

AKIO     = Akio Oyabu (Graphics)

SUSUMU   = Susumu Takahara (Graphics)

TOMOHIRO = Tomohiro Noma (Graphics)

KEN KUI  = Ken Kui (Graphics)

KOZO     = Kozo Ogawa (Graphics)

TAKESHI  = Takeshi Okui (Graphics)

NOBU     = Nobuhiko Sadamoto (Main Programmer)

NAKA     = Yasuyuki Nakatsuka (Programmer)

AI AI    = T.A. (Sound)
GUSSUN OYOYO

ROKUJIZO = Kazuhiro Tanaka (Graphics)

HIYA     = Takushi Hiyamuta (Music, Oyoyo's Voice)

OJIKI    = Yoshihito Tagami (Gussun's Voice)

FUKUCHAN = Yuko Fukuhara (Emily's Voice)
NINJA BASEBALL BATMAN

N/A                 = Drew Maniscalco (Concept, Character Designs)

ANDREW WHISKEY      = Kenji Andoh (Programmer)

MC.HAMA AMUSE_LIGHT = Shinichi Hamada (Programmer)

AI AI               = T.A. (Sound)

HAYASHI SHO         = Shogo Hayashi? (Sound Programmer)

FUKU CHAN           = Yuko Fukuhara (Special Thanks)

KEN KUI             = Ken Kui (Special Thanks)
SHISENSHOU II

HIROGON = Hiroya Kita (Planner)

YUKIYA  = Yukiya Kidani (Programmer)

???     = Atsushi Inaba (Programmer)

HIYA    = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)
FIRE BARREL

RIKEI = Rikei Hirashima (Music)

HIYA  = Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound FX)
SUPERIOR SOLDIERS

HIROGON = Hiroya Kita (Planner)

ONI.NAG = Kazuma Kujo (Planner)

SAKOTAN = Morihiro Sakota (Graphics)

N/A     = Rikei Hirashima? (Sound)
GUNFORCE II
Yoshihito Tagami (Main Planner)

"Meeher" (Assistant Planner)

Akio Oyabu (Graphics)

Takeshi Okui (Graphics)

Takushi Hiyamuta (Sound)

Atsushi Kurooka (Sub Programmer)

Takuji Kosasa? (Main Programmer)
DREAM SOCCER '94

G.M.C. NYA   = ? (Planner)

M. Kawai     = Mitsuru Kawai (Graphics)

K. Ogawa     = Kozo Ogawa (Graphics)

Ken.Kui      = Ken Kui (Graphics)

J. Adachi    = Jun Adachi? (Graphics)

M. Niga      = Masao Niga (Programmer)

S. Hamada    = Shinichi Hamada (Programmer)

T. Yokota    = Tetsuya Yokota (Programmer)

Y. Nakatsuka = Yasuyuki Nakatsuka (Programmer)

R. Hirashima = Rikei Hirashima (Sound)

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