Yoshio Imamura
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Yoshio Imamura is a Japanese game developer. He started working for Taito in the late 70s. He was the first leader of Taito's in-house sound team Zuntata, where he went by "Ima". He also played soprano saxophone and timpani during the group's live performances. In the west, Imamura is perhaps best known as the composer of the arcade game Elevator Action.
Yoshio got into music when his sister was listening to The Beatles. When he was in junior high school, he played guitar in an instrumental music club and was then exposed to folk music. In high school, he played more classical music on the saxophone. When Imamura attended college, he was studying fiber optics, but also took an interest in jazz music. Around age 20, Imamura joined the city band, but because they didn't have much room for saxophone, he switched to percussion.
Around 1978, Imamura joined Taito, though it is unknown how he was made aware of the company's hiring. His first work was when he wrote the coffee break music to the game Lunar Rescue, released in November 1979. In March 1980, he scored the first game with continuous in-game music, Balloon Bomber. He also became close friends with Michiyuki Kamei, the sound designer for Space Invaders.
In 1981, Taito created their first sound development department, Laboratory 5, in which Imamura led the department. This was due to Imamura being the only one who could read music (the other being Tomohiro Nishikado, Space Invaders creator). He founded the lab with two other people known as "Ono" and "Tanaka", who he also credits for developing Taito's sound hardware.
In 1983, the group disbanded when Naoto Yagishita, Hisayoshi Ogura, and Tadashi Kimijima joined the company and became the lead sound designers. Imamura then decided to upgrade the sound hardware in Taito's games from an AY-3-8910 to a MSM5232. He had also proposed using the YM2151 by Yamaha Corporation, but due to disagreements between the two companies, only a handful of games use it. When Taito's in-house sound team Zuntata was launched, Imamura acted as the liaison between Zuntata and Taito. Fortunately, negotiations with Yamaha were later successful, and Imamura designed the YM2610 with Yamaha's specs. Later, this technology would be superseded by Ensoniq with their OTIS sound sytem.
In 1990, Yoshio took over Tomohiro Nishikado's position as the head of the consumer division. As a result, he stopped working in video game audio and became a producer instead. He left Taito at an unknown date and later worked at Sammy as the general manager of the AM Development Division. He was also a director at Joytec for a time before leaving the company.
Yoshio currently plays percussion in an orchestra, though is no longer involved in the game industry.
Gameography
| Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979-??-?? | Lunar Rescue (ARC) (ルナレスキュー) | Released as a bootleg in the USA as Destination Earth. | |
| 1980-??-?? | Balloon Bomber (ARC) (バルーンボンバー) | ||
| 1982-??-?? | Alpine Ski (ARC) (アルペンスキー) | ||
| 1982-??-?? | Birdie King (ARC) (バーディキング) | With Shin Yasuda. | |
| 1982-??-?? | Jungle Hunt (ARC) (ジャングルキング) | ||
| 1982-??-?? | Wild Western (ARC) (ワイルドウエスタン) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Chack'n Pop (ARC) (ちゃっくんぽっぷ) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Elevator Action (ARC) (エレベーターアクション) | ||
| 1984-11-?? | Ninja Hayate (ARC) (忍者ハヤテ) | Sound Director | |
| 1985-06-28 | Elevator Action (NES) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger. | |
| 1985-??-?? | Elevator Action (MSX) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger | |
| 1985-??-?? | Elevator Action (SG1) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger | |
| 1985-??-?? | Time Gal (ARC) (タイムギャル) | Sound Director | |
| 1986-03-?? | Elevator Action (PC88) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger | |
| 1986-03-?? | Elevator Action (X1) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger | |
| 1986-05-?? | Elevator Action (FM7) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger | |
| 1988-??-?? | Chase H.Q. (ARC) (タイトーチェイスH.Q.) | Sound Design with Naoto Yagishita, Eikichi Takahashi, and Shiro Imaoka. | |
| 1991-08-09 | Elevator Action (GB) (エレベーター アクション) | Unknown arranger, possibly Iku Mizutani. | |
| Unknown | Uchuu Senkan Yamato (LD) (宇宙戦艦ヤマト) | Sound Effector [sic] with Eikichi Takahashi and Tsukasa Nakamura. |
Image Gallery
Interview.
Links
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/10376.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
- w.atwiki.jp/gmcomposer/pages/14.html - GameMusicComposerMemo (Japanese).
- japanesepcgamesnews.seesaa.net/article/474589357.html - Interview (featuring Michiyuki Kamei.)
