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| TIM has a logo ! |
We continue to follow the adventures (or misadventures?) of Takeo Ueyama (上山武夫) during the arcade industry Golden Age.
Part I is here.
A brief Summary
TIM quickly grew close to a promising company: Shin Nihon Kikaku (新日本企画), the future SNK. Together, they rode the wave generated by Space Invaders.
The two companies announced their merger in the press, but it remained just an announcement.
With the end of the Invader Boom and its alliance with Shin Nihon Kikaku, we can guess that TIM had to manage by alone to move its stock of Space Invaders games.
Alone? Really?
The Conversion Era
Convert or Disappear
Converting a game consists of replacing the ROM on the game's PCB, if the hardware capabilities are sufficient. Otherwise, an additional PCB is added to the main PCB to increase performance.
The company primarily concerned was, of course, Taito.
The person who speaks best about it is perhaps Tomohiro Nishikado (西角友宏), the creator of Space Invaders:
"Since we had leftover circuit boards, the company probably wanted to dispose of them somehow. I myself was interested in technologies like sprites, so I was researching new boards. But the sales department would come to me saying, 'Nishikado-kun, please do something about the surplus board inventory.'
With these kinds of boards, if you change the ROM, you can run a different program, right? I thought that just by swapping the ROM, we could create different game boards without much cost, so when I proposed this, the sales team said, 'This is great!' (laughs). Personally, I wanted to make just one or two titles at first and then focus on developing new boards, but as a result, I was told to 'concentrate on developing games using repurposed boards for a while.' I probably spent about a year and a half creating games using the Invaders board.
During that time, other companies were steadily creating original boards. Sprites were becoming commonplace and mainstream (to incorporate into circuits), so other companies began making advanced games with intense action using sprites. They were making games that our boards couldn't handle, and we fell a bit behind.
However, the sales department was grateful. Apparently, it helped retain customers (arcade operators). As a result of releasing new titles through ROM swaps, they were pleased that 'Taito takes care of us until the end.'
Back then, the mindset was that boards were disposable. Every time a new title came out, it would be like 'throw away the old board and buy the new game board,' but as a result, we ended up supporting new titles on the Invaders board for a while, so I heard that the sales team earned the customers' trust."
Tomohiro Nishikado would thus work on programming three games before being transferred to another department. TIM would take interest in the first two of them, those directly based on Space Invaders technology.
Lunar Rescue
Lunar Rescue (ルナレスキュー) takes up the space theme. The objective is to transfer little men between the moon and a spaceship in space. You must therefore make vertical round trips while avoiding enemy ships and their projectiles.
Just like Space Invaders - Part II, Lunar Rescue was developed by Tomohiro Nishikado and his assistant Tetsunosuke Hatori (羽鳥鉄之助).
Tomohiro Nishikado had previously cited Galaxian Wars (Universal) as the only game that impressed him among all the conversions made by competing companies. Strangely, he doesn't make a direct connection between Galaxy Wars and Lunar Rescue, despite their similarity.
Thus, according to Tomohiro Nishikado, Lunar Rescue draws its inspiration from Atari's Lunar Lander, which he wanted to simplify:
"Since it was like a simulation, I thought, 'Can't we make this easier?' It felt like turning a so-called novel, a realistic novel, into a manga, you know? I thought about making that kind of game, trying to create an easy-to-understand game, and that's how I came up with 'Lunar Rescue,' I think. So the concept of descending and landing on the moon is the same, but I added a bit of story—rescuing people and then returning to the mothership. To be honest, at the time, it wasn't a game I put tremendous effort into. It was more like I was told 'just make something for now,' but you know, looking back, 'Lunar Rescue' has been praised as quite interesting, and people rate it pretty highly, so it's quite surprising to me now."
Balloon Bomber
The inspiration behind Balloon Bomber (バルーンボンバー) is the Fu-Gō Balloon Bomb.
Here the player controls a cannon that must intercept all the balloons flying overhead. Each bomb dropped from a balloon creates a hole that blocks the cannon's passage.
Balloon Bomber was created in about a month and a half by Tomohiro Nishikado and his team: Tetsunosuke Hatori and ? Shimizu (清水).
Balloon Bomber required the addition of an extra PCB to the Space Invaders hardware, whereas a ROM change was sufficient for Lunar Rescue.
Tomohiro Nishikado doesn't seem to hold Balloon Bomber in very high esteem:
"Lunar Rescue isn't so much, but Balloon Bomber... well, you know, it's basically the same as Space Invaders, right? Except there are fewer enemies and the ground gets holes in it. I don't really think it's a work one can be very proud of." (page 30)
And What About TIM in All This?
It's clear that the main selling point of these two games lies in the fact that they share the same hardware as Space Invaders.
The target market for these two games was operators who needed to give their Space Invaders games new life at low cost.
I hypothesize that no PCBs of Lunar Rescue or Balloon Bomber were commercialized, but only conversion kits.
- At the beginning of 1980 (page 3), Taito granted manufacturing licenses for Lunar Rescue to four companies: Sega, Logitec (ロジテック), Shin Nihon Kikaku and TIM.
- Balloon Bomber seems to have been less convincing to the market because Taito only signed a licensing agreement with TIM.
But TIM could have simply bought conversion kits from Taito to use on its stock of PCBs. With a license, TIM had the right to have these kits manufactured by a third party to commercialize them.
We can deduce that TIM saw the Space Invaders conversion kit market as an opportunity to exploit.
This may have worked for a time, but the Space Invaders hardware became increasingly obsolete with the release of Galaxian (Namco) at the end of 1979.
Conversion, a Parallel Market in the Arcade Industry
The first arcade video games did not contain executable code: they operated using TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) technology.
In these machines, transistors and logic circuits reacted directly to each other. There was no central processor to coordinate everything, and operation depended on the physical design of the circuit.
This purely hardware architecture sometimes gave slightly different behaviors from one machine to another, due to the tolerances of electronic components.
The introduction of the microprocessor, starting in 1975 (notably with Midway's Gun Fight, based on an Intel 8080), revolutionized video game development. Games could now be written as code, which simplified design and increased flexibility and execution speed.
Thanks to this new architecture, it became possible to modify a game—partially or completely—by changing the ROM containing the game program, something impossible with TTL logic.
The conversion market (or rather the "conversion kits" market) was born from this evolution. It began notably with brick-breaking games. Not immediately after the release of Breakout in 1976, but later, around 1978.
Companies began modifying these games to add features: score management, new brick layouts, ball behavior, etc.
These companies sold either complete PCBs with modified ROMs, or simply the ROMs that operators could install themselves.
By changing the ROM—or adding a small complementary PCB—it even became possible to create an entirely new game, as long as the base hardware remained compatible.
It's not related to TIM but, for example, in this advertisement from Chūbu Center (中部センター), the game Rat Patrol (ラットパトロール) is obtained by modifying Micon Block (マイコンブロック), the game sold by Chūbu Center and Shin Nihon Kikaku.
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Rat Patrol seems to adopt the design of Head-On and can be played by two players simultaneously. There's also mention of machine guns and mines. Although based on Micon Block technology, Rat Patrol is therefore a completely different game.
The event that caused the conversion market to explode was, of course, the end of the Invader Boom. As we have seen, there was strong demand from operators to convert Space Invaders games and their clones into something new.
TIM is one of the players in this market, but it is far from the only one.
The Conversion Market Attempts to Organize Itself
The main issue hiding behind this market is that of copyright. Developing a conversion kit involves reproducing technology developed by another company and extracting the code it has written. This is, of course, reverse-engineering.
Until the very beginning of the 1980s, reverse-engineering was widely practiced without the various players in the sector seeing any harm in it.
With today's perspective, we immediately associate reverse-engineering with piracy.
But in 1980, the reasoning was rather "why talk about piracy when the final product is different from the initial product? Piracy is copying a product identically, isn't it?"
Japan Game Machine Association
The players in the conversion industry felt so confident in their rights that they created a structure to represent them (page 3):
"On January 20th, manufacturers who modify TV game machines, which have been attracting attention recently, held a meeting at Hotel Sunroute Tôkyô in Shinjuku (ホテルサンルート東京) and decided to establish the 'Japan Game Machine Association' (全日本ゲームマシン協会) with the aim of unifying the point of contact for negotiations with original manufacturers, among other purposes.
This was promoted by Chairman Ueda (上田) of Seikō Seisakusho (セイコー製作所), who served as organizer, and forty-seven companies have already joined, with the secretariat and officers established as follows:
Secretariat address: 2-23-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō, New State Manor (東京都渋谷区代々木二の二十三の一、ニューステートメナー). Telephone: 370-2860.
President (full-time): Mamoru Hosokawa (細川守).
Directors: Isao Hiraiwa (平岩重男) (Kyūgo / キューゴ), Takeaki Sugawara (菅原武彰) (Daiwa Giken / 大和技研), Gen'ichi Takiguchi (滝口玄一)(Nittō Jihan / 日東自販), Satoshi Kawakami (川上智)(KM Shōkai / ケイエム商会), Takara Murata (村田宝)(Seikō Seisakusho / セイコー製作所), Takeo Ueyama (上山武夫)(TIM / ティアイエム), Isamu Yamashita (山下勇)(IY Kikaku / IY企画).
In addition to unifying the point of contact, the association also aims to jointly develop game software and make collective purchases of parts, and hopes to incorporate as a legal entity in the near future."
The companies involved in the conversion industry thus came together in a large association with no fewer than 47 members. Takeo Ueyama is not just a simple member, but a director.
The Japan Game Machine Association (JGMA)(全日本ゲームマシン協会) aims to be an equivalent to the Japan Amusement Association (JAA)(全日本アミューズメント協会). Note the similarity between the two names.
The JAA is the main Japanese association representing arcade game manufacturers. It also has sections representing game center operators and equipment suppliers for amusement parks.
The JAA positions itself as the representative of the legal, even virtuous, side of the industry. It is not a homogeneous block, however. Not everyone agrees and the JAA is torn between different schools of thought.
Intellectual property for video games was not yet protected in Japan in 1980. The issue of conversion kits was still new. One can sense that the JAA was struggling to take a position. Faced with this initiative from the JGMA, one might expect a virulent response from the JAA. Its response will be lukewarm at best (page 3):
"On January 28th, JAA held its 40th Board of Directors meeting at Hotel Kokusai Kankō (ホテル国際観光) in Tōkyō, where they deliberated on the fiscal 1979 settlement of accounts and business report, as well as the fiscal 1980 budget and business plan in preparation for the general meeting to be held in February. Additionally, the AM Division (Division Chairman: Masaya Nakamura (中村雅哉)(Namco)) made the following report on the so-called copy-modification issue (the following quoted section is from the minutes):
'Regarding the TV game machine modification issue, on December 20th of last year, the AM Division Chairman and the Executive Director visited the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy to explain the situation and discussed their views on the matter under the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law.
The Agency stated that:
(1) Collecting game machines, modifying them, and selling them constitutes a violation of the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law.
(2) Even if machines are modified by unauthorized third parties, manufacturers may be held responsible in case of accidents.These preliminary opinions were expressed.
Based on these opinions, a joint meeting of the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law Committee and the Unfair Competition Prevention Committee was held on December 28th to examine the TV game machine modification issue. As a result, it was determined that the association needed to indicate its direction, and therefore a statement would be issued.
The content is as follows:
(1) Manufacturers will not assume any responsibility for products that have been modified without the permission or consent of the original manufacturer.
(2) If you wish to modify machines you own, please consult with the original manufacturer without fail.
(3) Original manufacturers will actively respond to modification requests when they are made.
(4) Regarding modifications of products manufactured by other companies, efforts will be made to facilitate arrangements for operators through consultation with the original manufacturers.
It was decided to publish the above as a request statement in the association's journal and other publications.
Additionally, numerous advertisements regarding the modification and sale of TV game machines have appeared in the Nikkan Sports (日刊スポーツ) newspaper, and there is also mention of another organization's name, which may cause confusion with our association. Therefore, instructions were given for the AM Division Chairman to issue a cautionary notice to third parties regarding compliance with the regulatory measures under the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Law for game machines and other electrical products, to be published in both the Tokyo and Osaka editions of the Nikkan Sports newspaper.'
The notice was published in the Tokyo edition of 'Nikkan Sports' dated January 26th and the Osaka edition dated the 30th, and the 'request statement' was issued under the name of the AM Division Chairman rather than the association's name."
If we read between the lines a bit, the JAA's response can be understood as follows:
1- Conversion kits are prohibited for safety reasons.
2- You can still install them with our authorization.
3- In case of conflict with a company that manufactures conversion kits, we will seek an arrangement with them, rather than going to court.
The JAA will not hold this position for very long.
The conversion industry has no future, but it will soon give birth to the massive industry of outright piracy. The JGMA carries within it the seeds of this. Let me explain.
The Piracy Era
Gentlemen of Fortune...
We don't know the full list of JGMA members. But we know that of its directors. Some of them will quickly go bad. Let's take a look into the crystal ball:
**Masaaki Ueda (上田正明), CEO of Seikō Seisakusho**
At the time of the JGMA's creation, Seikō Seisakusho was already involved in piracy activities. Its name appears in the lawsuit between Taito and ING Enterprise (アイ・エヌ・ジ・エンタープライゼズ). The trial report indicates that in 1979, ING Enterprise received PCBs of different games from its customers to transmit them to Seikō Seisakusho. Seikō Seisakusho would change the ROMs on the PCBs to install Space Invaders instead, then send the PCBs back to ING Enterprise.
**Isao Hiraiwa (平岩重男), president of Kyūgo**
Kyūgo is a major game center operator based in Fukuoka (Kyūshū island). It's also a national-scale distributor, a video game producer, an import-export company, etc. The name Kyūgo comes up often when talking about bootleg commercialization. For example, in the United States, Midway sued Kyūgo for exporting a Galaxian bootleg to the US. In Japan, Kyūgo commercialized Donkey (a clone of Donkey Kong), Jackson (clone of Zaxxon), Frog (clone of Frogger), etc. It was ultimately Sega that sued Kyūgo in 1982. The two companies reached an agreement and Isao Hiraiwa made a public apology in 1983.
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| Nakayama (Sega), Hiraiwa (Kyûgo) and Komai (Sega) So much tension... Game Machine (page 3) |
A few months later, one of his sons was arrested at the border between Canada and the United States with six suitcases containing 134 bootlegs of Pac-Man, Popeye and Galaga, worth $60,000 (page 16).
**Takeaki Sugawara (菅原武章), president of Daiwa Giken**
Note that here Game Machine writes Takeaki Sugawara's name with the kanji 菅原武彰 instead of 菅原武章. Misspellings of given names are common, particularly when talking about a person who was still obscure at the time.
**Isamu Yamashita (山下勇), president of IY Kikaku**
In 1982, Isamu Yamashita was at the head of a distribution company called Union (ユニオン). Union maintained good terms with Nintendo and other game manufacturers. But at the same time, Union helped Kyōdō Kikaku (共同企画) manufacture copies of Donkey Kong Jr. by providing them with a copy of the machine shortly after its first presentation by Nintendo (source).
Union is also accused by Data East of having produced a copy of Burger Time called Cook Race (page 2)
**Takeo Ueyama (上山武夫), president of TIM** also has his place on this list. We'll soon see why.
Considering the profile of the JGMA's directors, we can guess that the members are not all angels. Doesn't the JGMA hide a den of pirates?
...Partners in Crime
Let's return to the article announcing the creation of the JGMA. There are still two points that interest us.
The article indicates that "the association also aims to jointly develop game software and make collective purchases of parts".
If we look into the crystal ball again, we can see that these two points are characteristic of the piracy industry in Japan in the early 1980s.
**(1) Independent companies manufacture the same bootlegs.**
For example in 1983 (page 2), Sega accused Marubishi Electronics (マルビシエレクトロニクス) (a company belonging to the "Jackson group," according to Game Machine) of manufacturing and selling Penta (ペンタ)(clone of Pengo).
At almost the same time (page 6), Orca (オルカ) and its subsidiary Gurinbī Shōji (グリンビー商事), made public apologies to Sega in Game Machine magazine for having manufactured and sold Penta.
And there are many examples of bootlegs sold by companies with no apparent connection to each other.
Frog (clone of Frogger) is manufactured and sold by Daiwa (ダイワ)(of the Jackson group), but also by Kyōdō Kikaku (共同企画), by Kyōei (キョウエイ)(of the Falcon group) etc.
Junior King (clone of Donkey Kong Jr.) is manufactured and sold by both Jackson and Falcon (ファルコン).
Etc., etc, etc...
Generally speaking, the rules are not the same in the "classic" arcade industry and in the "parallel" industry. One cannot simply associate a bootleg with a single company. The notion of ownership does not apply. Games belong to everyone and no one at the same time. We can see that programs are shared without this posing a problem.
**(2) Independent companies use the same components.**
When observing PCBs, we often find certain identical electrical components from one bootleg to another, whereas we don't find them on the PCBs of the classic players in the sector.
For example, we often find hydroelectric capacitors of the KYOEI brand (no apparent connection with the company associated with Falcon) or TEC brand film capacitors.
These components are generally attached to bootlegs from companies like Falcon, Jackson, Kyōdō Kikaku, etc. but not on PCBs from Namco, Taito or Nintendo (Sega a bit though).
I don't want to be too categorical on this point and it wouldn't be solid proof in all cases. In any case, it's quite possible that these companies made bulk purchases of components.
All this to say that we can think that the piracy industry made its nest in that of the conversion industry. The Japan Game Machine Association (JGMA) was one of the stages in this transition. We have also seen that a certain number of clues suggest that the companies engaged in piracy cooperated with each other.
The Japan Game Machine Association, Three Articles and Then Gone
From its creation, the JGMA struggled to organize itself, not to mention playing its role as "point of contact for negotiations with original manufacturers".
In the May 15, 1980 issue of Game Machine magazine (page 2), we learn this:
"On April 27, the 'Japan Game Machine Association' (chairman of the board (理事長) Isao Hiraiwa), an organization of arcade-machine modification businesses, held an extraordinary general meeting on the 14th floor of the New State Manor Building. At this meeting, the association amended its Articles of Incorporation regarding executive positions and carried out a complete re-election of its officers.
This had been planned since the organization's founding; it was simply delayed by one month from the originally scheduled date in March.Due to the amendments, the number of directors was set at seven and auditors at two, and the position of 'chairman' (会長) was abolished.
Following the re-election, Mr. Isao Hiraiwa was re-elected as chairman of the Board., and Mr. Takeo Ueyama was elected as executive managing director (専務理事).
Additionally, at the same meeting, the resignation of Mr. Masaaki Ueda from the role of 'Special Advisor' (特別顧問) was approved. (Further details regarding executive positions will be reported as they become known.)"
Not everything is clear. Notably, what happened to the former full-time president Mamoru Hosokawa? We will never know.
What is certain is that Takeo Ueyama is promoted within the association. He is number 2, as executive managing director.
The position of chairman of the board occupied by Isao Hiraiwa within the association is typically a representative position. We can even assume that it's Takeo Ueyama who manages the current affairs of the JGMA.
But obviously nothing is clear when talking about this association.
Months pass without hearing about the JGMA. Then Game Machine delivers the following information (page 3):
"It appears that the 'Japan Game Machine Association,' an organization of TV game machine modification businesses, has recently undergone major changes in its executive members and has also relocated its office.
Although this has not been officially announced by the association, according to individuals connected with it, Masaaki Ueda of Seikō Seisakusho has assumed the position of Chairman of the Board, and the association's office has been moved inside Seikō Seisakusho.
The details of the association's activities remain unclear, but compared with its establishment on January 20, things now appear to be considerably different."
What appears above all is that the JGMA has become an empty shell. We will hear nothing more about it.
At this stage in history, one can even doubt whether the conversion industry still exists. Or rather, to be more precise, at the end of 1980, the arcade industry considers that it is possible to modify one's own games but that modifying another company's games is simply piracy.
Companies in the conversion industry must reinvent themselves, or risk being considered pirates of the high seas.
And what about TIM in all this?
TIM, Where Are You?
If we look back a bit, things haven't gone very well for Takeo Ueyama so far. RJ Corporation didn't last long. Neither did Mars Japan for that matter. The JGMA disappeared after a few months without becoming a heavyweight facing the JAA.
Fortunately, TIM remains.
We have no information about TIM for the year 1981, except that the company is a member of the Nippon Amusement Operators Association (NAO).
NAO was born at the very beginning of 1981 from dissensions within the JAA.
There had been different tendencies within the association for some time:
- Those who wanted to be intransigent towards piracy. Game manufacturers were naturally the most radical.
- Those who understood that this industry exists and had a certain tolerance. Many game center operators were found among them.
- Those who were not concerned. Manufacturers of equipment for amusement parks.
The JAA members did not find consensus and the JAA ended up separating into 3 independent associations:
- Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers' Association (JAMMA) which represents arcade game manufacturers (video or not) and kiddie rides (but we also find operators and distributors there)
- Nippon Amusement Operators Association (NAO) which represents arcade operators (but we also find manufacturers and distributors there)
- Japan Amusement Park Equipment Association (JAPEA) which represents equipment manufacturers and amusement park operators
If we observe Takeo Ueyama's career path, we can guess that he is not a radical opponent of piracy. As for TIM's activities, we assume that the company continues its distributor business, without knowing what products it was selling.
In 1982, It's the Crash.
In 1981, JAMMA members launched a crusade to eliminate piracy. Lawsuits multiplied around the intellectual property of video games.
The year 1982 is the climax of this confrontation. Hayao Nakayama, general manager of Sega, then considers that "80% of the domestic market is infested with counterfeits" (page 16). But gradually, judicial decisions are rendered in favor of manufacturers, forcing companies engaged in piracy to pay significant damages. An alternative for them is to declare bankruptcy to escape sanctions.
In this context, we can guess that TIM, like many others, is playing a balancing act. TIM was indeed pursuing illegal activities and ended up getting caught by the patrol.
It's Namco that initiated the prosecution. On the defendants' bench, we also find a company called Sort Denshi Kōgyō (ソート電子工業) and another we've already mentioned several times. TIM was indeed cooperating with none other than Jackson!
The three companies are prosecuted for having manufactured and sold Zig Zag (ジグザグ), a clone of Dig Dug (ディグダグ).
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A fourth company appears in the sources but it's not clear whether it is being prosecuted or not: Fujisaki Denshi Kōgyō (藤佐木電子工業).
If we gather information from different sources [(page 3), (another source), (another source now unavailable)] the order of responsibilities is as follows:
- Jackson is the principal contractor.
- Fujisaki Denshi Kōgyō supplies the PCBs.
- Sort Denshi Kōgyō assembles the components.
- TIM buys the assembled PCB stocks in bulk and resells them to end customers.
Namco released Dig Dug in March 1982. The bootleggers didn't waste time because TIM sold Zig Zag PCBs as early as March 1982. Namco seized the courts and had Zig Zag sales suspended in June 1982. Ten PCBs were seized at TIM's premises.
The trial won't take place until 1984 but it will show that TIM sold 318 PCBs between March and May 1982.
Let's take a step back now. During the trial, Namco claimed to have sold 12,000 Dig Dug PCBs. TIM sold 318 Zig Zag PCBs and still had 10 in its premises. These are modest numbers in comparison. If you look today at auction sites that sell PCBs, you will probably find at least as many Dig Dug bootlegs as original games. In other words, TIM got caught selling copies but other big fish slipped through the net. We come back to what we said earlier. Zig Zag is not the game of a single company but of a multitude.
The AM Show '82
TIM is getting tangled up in a legal quagmire, but the trial with Namco won't take place until 1984. In the meantime, business continues.
The AM Show takes place from September 30 to October 2, 1982. TIM, which now doesn't have only friends, nevertheless managed to obtain a booth there for the first time.
Its participation or not (and that of 3 other controversial companies) gave rise to bitter discussions among the three organizing associations, discussions that will lead to the definitive break in ties between JAMMA and NAO.
Here's what Game Machine says about it (page 19):
"80 companies will exhibit their products at the 20th Amusement Machine Show, and of them, 4 recently turned out to be unauthorized copiers of video games who are under preliminary injunctions which prohibits them from selling such copies, or unfairly despatching individuals to sell such copies. Thus, JAMMA requested that the Show Committee (consisting of 6 representatives from JAMMA, 3 from Nihon Amusement Machine Operator's Association (NAO) and 3 from Japan Amusement Park Equipment Association (JAPEA)) to either exclude the 4 pirates from the exhibition, or have them submit a written statement that they would never sell illegally copied games.
At a meeting held in mid-September, the committee discussed the matter, and, strangely enough, concluded unanimously that they would request the 4 copiers to submit a written statement that they 'would not deal with copies from now on'. In the course of these discussions, though the NAO people admitted indirectly that almost all NAO members were operating unauthorized copies, NAO objected by saying 'What does "recent" mean? Aren't there JAMMA members who are copiers too?' They could or would not understand the fact that almost all JAMMA members are endeavoring to eliminate copies, and as a result merely exposed their hostility to such an admonition.
JAMMA members, such as Taito, Sega, Namco, Nintendo, Data East, Universal, Konami, Sun Electronics, and Irem, are endeavoring to eliminate copies through legal action. On the other hand, as mentioned NAO admitted that many of its members were using unauthorized copies, and even justified copying in some cases. Thus, there is an increasing antagonism between the two associations centering around unauthorized copies.
Apart from the above, NAO will hold its own 1983 amusement trade show in March in Tokyo, while JAMMA will also hold its own trade show in Tokyo sometime between August and October.
JAPEA though has no plans to hold a trade show of its own."
The Games Presented by TIM
TIM is in the crosshairs of quite a few people at the AM Show and there's no question of presenting bootlegs.
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| Game Machine (page 9) |
According to Game Machine's report, TIM presented 3 games:
**Shōgi (将棋) by Alpha Denshi (アルファ電子)**
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Shōgi is Japanese chess. It's an incredible game. You should play it.
Creating a playable shōgi game against the computer was quite a feat at the time. On the other hand, the level of artificial intelligence is very accessible for any somewhat experienced player.
**Royal Mahjong (ロイヤルマージャン) by Nihon Bussan (日本物産)**
Royal Mahjong was released in December 1981. The software that served as the basis for Royal Mahjong is Janputer (ジャンピューター), the first mahjong game with artificial intelligence, released in March 1981. Janputer was developed by Alpha Denshi, by the same person who developed Shōgi (it's a small world!). It was manufactured by Yachiyo Denki Sangyō (八千代電器産業) and produced by Sanritsu Giken (三立技研).
Sanritsu Giken granted a manufacturing license to several companies, including Nihon Bussan. The version of Janputer produced by Nihon Bussan was called Taikyoku Computer Mahjong (対局・コンピューター・マージャン). The differences between Royal Mahjong and its predecessor are minor and consist mainly in the addition of a betting system and a mini-game at the end of each winning round to double the winnings.
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| Janputer / Taikyoku Computer Mahjong / Royal Mahjong |
We're swimming in the gray zone of the arcade, that zone where shady bars or snacks exchange tokens for hard cash. Hidden deep in this gray zone, there are even clandestine game rooms.
As for Janputer, we'll talk about it in more detail in a future article.
**Woodpecker (ウッドペッカー) by Yachiyo Denki Sangyō (八千代電器産業).**
Woodpecker is a run and hide type game. You control a mouse that must go from one house to another to repair them, while avoiding the woodpeckers that roam the screen to catch it. The hardware is close to that of Pac-Man.
It's Game Machine that mentions Yachiyo Denki as the game's manufacturer. It's the same company that manufactured (but didn't develop) Janputer. It's a small world, I said!
There would be plenty of things to dig into around Woodpecker but let's just say that it's obviously an update of another game called Naughty (ノーティ).
In the end, we can see that TIM doesn't offer exclusivity. All the games the company presents are also sold by other companies. This is normal because TIM is a game distributor, not a producer.
Bye-Bye, TIM.
After the AM Show, TIM goes back under the radar.
We hear nothing more about TIM's activities. There's a good reason for that. TIM went bankrupt. This is confirmed much later, during the trial between TIM and Namco (page 3).
The trial began on November 6, 1984 and ended on March 8, 1985. Game Machine notes: "According to sources close to the case, TIM would have already been bankrupt in November 1984. In fact, the company no longer exists and the judgment was sent to the home of President Ueyama of TIM."
During the trial, TIM adopted an empty chair policy and took no action of any kind. At the end of the trial, TIM was ordered to pay 12.72 million yen in damages. Being bankrupt, it's likely that TIM never paid this amount and Namco never received this money.
Moreover, TIM's bankruptcy could date back much earlier.
When Orca's bankruptcy was announced (page 4), we learn this:
"Orca (オルカ) went bankrupt on June 20, 1983.[...] Last year, bad debts occurred due to TIM and Tōkyō Project (東京プロジェクト), and the situation became unsustainable."
Orca manufactured PCBs and TIM was a distributor. We can therefore assume that Orca sold PCBs to TIM and was never able to obtain payment.
In the end, bankrupt or simply dormant, TIM probably stopped its activities after the 1982 AM Show.
A Distributor or a Manufacturer?
On the internet, it's obvious that almost no one knows TIM. The rare people who have noticed its existence mention TIM as a PCB manufacturer.
The main reason is that the PCBs of the game Phoenix (フェニックス) are screen-printed with the reference "TIM-8001" and "TIM-8002".
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| An example of Phoenix PCB with the reference "TIM-8001" silk-screened Picture was found here. |
The other reason is that Orca's bankruptcy is associated with TIM, as we saw above. It's easy to imagine that TIM was part of the Orca group.
Yet this doesn't hold up. Indeed, it is explicitly stated several times that TIM is a distributor active in the Tôkyô region.
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| Well... it's explicit only if you can read Japanese. |
During TIM's trial, everyone's roles are mentioned. TIM's role is limited to buying and reselling PCBs.
I'm not certain why the reference on Phoenix PCBs is "TIM-8001".
In Japan, Phoenix was sold by Taito. Taito's PCBs don't contain this reference.
Internationally, it's the company GGI (ジージーアイ) that commercialized the rights to Phoenix. The PCBs designed by GGI bear the reference "TIM-8001". It's to this company we must turn to hope to find an explanation.
We'll talk about it more extensively in another article.
TMK
Takeo Ueyama had been (or seemed) inactive for years. With the Namco trial completed (in March 1985), he immediately returns to service.
He created a new company in April 1985 (page 2): TMK (ティー・エム・ケ). The company specialized in the sale of karaoke.
Takeo Ueyama goes bankrupt again on December 2, 1985 with a debt of 40 million yen. Game Machine concludes with a sentence that is totally obscure to me: "Mr. Ueyama stated that he was directing legal proceedings for (past) rights holders regarding the issue of the 'utility model of tables equipped with game devices'. If this is true, it is unlikely that this issue will resurface following this bankruptcy."
A brief surge that lasted only a few short months.
Conclusion
The sources stop here.
This article is probably the only place on the internet where you'll hear about Takeo Ueyama.
Viewed from the outside, his career resembles a long series of failures and missed opportunities. But it must be acknowledged that each time he found the resources to discreetly return to the heart of events. He brought his small contribution to the edifice.
In the great History of the arcade game industry, he is at most a footnote but... It's a bit audacious but would History really have been the same without Takeo Ueyama?
In the next article, I hope to talk about the history of GGI, a company at the border of several worlds which, just as well as Takeo Ueyama, found itself several times discreetly at the heart of events. It will talk about the conversion industry, piracy, Janputer, Phoenix, Taito, Orca, etc.
It's a small world.
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