IREM Collection series

[XoPachi]

Seriously hope R-Type Leo and Armed Police Unit Gallop get ported.

[Steven]

The chance of them, or anything else, being ported is somewhere around 0%. These are almost guaranteed to just be a ROM with a software emulator. Things have actually gotten real ports, like X68000 Cotton, but that was a very special and rare case.

[hamfighterx]

To throw some guesses out there on lineups for the future volumes:

Vol. 2 (shooters): R-Type 1, 2, and Leo

Vol. 3 ("fight"): Undercover Cops, Ninja Baseball Bat Man, and... IDK, Blade Master? Maybe their 2D versus fighter, Superior Soldiers (aka Perfect Soldiers)?

Vol. 4 (more shooters): Armed Police Unit Gallop, In the Hunt, Mr. Heli

Vol. 5 (platform): Hammerin' Harry, and I'll go with my heart here and say GunForce I and II

[Bassa-Bassa]

You can discard Bat Man as that's being remade currently by the koreans who remade Snow Brothers.

I'd also discard R-Type 1 and 2 because Tozai itself still sells R-Type Dimensions.

In the Hunt, being on Arcade Archives by another unrelated company, seems highly unlikely as well.

And the "platform fun" bit sounds to me too childish to couple Hammering Harry with the Gun Forces (which are rarely described as platform games, anyway), so I'd bet for HH's home sequels or Yanchamaru and sequels, as this collection clearly wants to explore Irem's home releases. There's Tonma as well, which is a must for a collection like this.

I don't have any faith in Tozai or Inin though, so to me it's bad news as everything appearing here pretty surely won't get a Hamster release. This collection may very well be the reason why they stopped with In the Hunt, indeed. But hey, that's just me.

[jehu]

To throw some guesses out there on lineups for the future volumes:

Vol. 2 (shooters): R-Type 1, 2, and Leo

Vol. 3 ("fight"): Undercover Cops, Ninja Baseball Bat Man, and... IDK, Blade Master? Maybe their 2D versus fighter, Superior Soldiers (aka Perfect Soldiers)?

Vol. 4 (more shooters): Armed Police Unit Gallop, In the Hunt, Mr. Heli

Vol. 5 (platform): Hammerin' Harry, and I'll go with my heart here and say GunForce I and II

Hoping that this is at least somewhat accurate. Would do a lot to get me invested. I want Leo, Mr. Heli, Gunforce, Gallop, Undercover Cops and Ninja Baseball especially. We'll see if they deliver.

[pja]

The chance of them, or anything else, being ported is somewhere around 0%. These are almost guaranteed to just be a ROM with a software emulator.

By that logic almost none of the rereleases these days are ports, most are almost certainly some form of emulation. I don't see why it's a bad thing anyway, as long as they run fine.

[XoPachi]

The chance of them, or anything else, being ported is somewhere around 0%. These are almost guaranteed to just be a ROM with a software emulator. Things have actually gotten real ports, like X68000 Cotton, but that was a very special and rare case.

I just mean being released at all for modern platforms.

[BrianC]

In the Hunt, being on Arcade Archives by another unrelated company, seems highly unlikely as well.

I dunno. Two of the three games in the first collection are already on ACA.

[SavagePencil]

I would not be surprised if they do some earlier titles, like Kung-Fu Master or Vigilante, to have broader coverage.

And is it required that these are all arcade games? Any way they'd do an R-Type Tactics or the like?

[Jeneki]

And is it required that these are all arcade games? Any way they'd do an R-Type Tactics or the like?

Image Fight II didn't have an arcade version, so I would assume that's not a requirement.

R-Type Tactics may or may not have a remake coming. Search for news last year and you'll find a few articles about it.

[Ghegs]

R-Type Tactics may or may not have a remake coming. Search for news last year and you'll find a few articles about it.

Pre-orders for R-Type Tactics' physical versions are already up.

[SavagePencil]

Again, nothing is stopping them from duplicating titles offered elsewhere (as pointed out earlier). But Tactics was just an example; could we see Sqoon or Rocky Rodent or early games to give a broader perspective of the history of Irem? Not that I'm advocating for it...

[Bassa-Bassa]

In the Hunt, being on Arcade Archives by another unrelated company, seems highly unlikely as well.

I dunno. Two of the three games in the first collection are already on ACA.

Hmm, right. This overlapping is quite an exotism. It'll be interesting to compare both versions, specially being originally games displaying at 55hz - the ones which better show the emulation quality.

[NAVVARR]

I was going to shell out for this- now I'm going to hang fire.

Too many unknowns- Rtype Leo is the dealbreaker for me.

I'm not sure it's exactly flying off the shelves- seems to mostly be 90% stock left at the moment.

[kayagayasati]

Switch Watch said today in their Physical video that Irem Collection is getting a Japanese release. Any verification of that? 5 volumes of 3-4 games each is a lot to pay. Would gladly wait if I knew what would be on the North American or Japanese release. Does anyone have any information about these non SLG releases?

[jehu]

Interesting transmission from Gematsu today.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/05/irem-co ... ew-details

An additional press release from ININ / Strictly Limited included in the article is quoted as saying the following:

Some of the greatest and most requested action arcade games will be available to modern gaming platforms. With iconic action titles such as R-TYPE, Air Duel, or Hammerin’ Harry, irem shaped the games industry since the 1980’s and was one of the leaders in the arcade era. With very few exceptions many of these titles have never been brought to modern console platforms or remained Japan-exclusive. Most of them even have never seen a release on physical media up until now. So ININ, Tozai Games, and irem are finally joining forces to bring them to modern console gamers. Tozai Games and ININ will be responsible for Japanese as well as worldwide digital releases on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.

This is general language about IREM's legacy, I understand, but is there enough here to speak of a hint that these games will be in the collection? The one that gets me is Air Duel - who thinks it's 'iconic'? It seems so specific an inclusion that it got me speculating that these are all in for the package. Hammerin' Harry has to be the game that fits best with 'platforming fun,' right?

[hamfighterx]

In the Hunt, being on Arcade Archives by another unrelated company, seems highly unlikely as well.

I dunno. Two of the three games in the first collection are already on ACA.

Hmm, right. This overlapping is quite an exotism. It'll be interesting to compare both versions, specially being originally games displaying at 55hz - the ones which better show the emulation quality.

Yeah, I wouldn't assume that an Arcade Archives version (or other modern release) existing means a game won't show up here. Seems pretty common these days that compilations feature games we've seen Hamster release as stand-alone. See also: Darius, Wonder Boy, a lot of Namco stuff (e.g., the new Pac Man collection), etc. Or Capcom putting games from their Belt Scroller and Street Fighter collections into their OTHER Arcade Stadium collections.

Besides, these irem collections could still add something by including console ports of the arcade-only titles. Image Fight is on AA, but the irem compilation also includes the NES and PCE versions.

I'd honestly be kinda surprised if they DON'T re-release R-Type 1 and 2 on one of the shooter volumes (hopefully with Leo and/or III also showing up). That's the biggest name recognition of any irem property, and aside from adding Leo or III, there are lots of console variants of the first two games they could include that would make a comprehensive collection pretty intriguing even for people who have purchased other versions like Arcade Archives or R-Type Dimensions. R-Types is still my personal favorite, but OMG can you believe it's 25 years old now?

[Bassa-Bassa]

I'd personally be surprised if they're doing an R-Type 1-2-3 volume and haven't made of it the very first one in the collection. There're many things to cover if they really want to and an R-Type standalone collection will sell well enough whenever it happens and will always be justified just for being R-Type. But after reading the press release jehu linked to, I'm not sure these people can surprise me anymore:

The first volume of the irem Collection is an updated homage to the Japanese-exclusive Arcade Gears series (released in the 1990s on Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation)

Acknowledging in a press release a compilation by a third party which has nothing to do with any of them is weird, but homaging it when it was actually nothing special aside of the price it goes for these days is even weirder. So whatever if it comes from this company.

[cfx]

Is that really any weirder than having a line of games called S-Tribute?

The Saturn is my favorite classic console and I still think that is bizarre marketing.

(Saturn was my favorite, period, but with ACA and M2 today it's hard to choose between Saturn and PS4.)

[Bassa-Bassa]

Is that really any weirder than having a line of games called S-Tribute?

It is, even if only because the Saturn thing is what lets them justify the emulator they bought to easily dispense their rereleases of old titles.

Saturn is a thing to always love and homage at least for a Japanese. Arcade Gears or Xing never ever were, and particularly in the West.

[cfx]

I think that makes perfect sense for games like Cotton2 where the original game was on Saturn (or ST-V depending on your POV) and games like Idol Jyanshi Suchie-Pai which were much extended compared to the arcade originals.

I think it's weird when it's games like Elevator Action Returns where yes, they've emulated the Saturn version, but the Saturn version isn't unique compared to the arcade game.

I wonder if there's ex-Xing staff at one of the involved companies, or some such reason why that was brought up?

Xing certainly did good work, and I miss them along with Family Soft, Fill-in Cafe, New Corporation, and a number of other dead small developers from the era.

[Bassa-Bassa]

My point was that, more than weird (which it still is), it's just cheap. Properly emulating say, the original EAR, is a much harder task when you already have a universal Saturn emulator running.

Discussing the subject some time ago with a friend way more knowledgable than me, Xing were never actual developers - they were a mid-tier mass media company which hired small studios for their videogames. That is, the Arcade Gear games were not developed internally and their qualilty as ports actually were almost always subpar, I'm afraid. Their pre-Arcade Gears rereleases (Gussun Oyoyo, Wolf Fang...) were better made. Nothing like the beloved New, Ving or Rutubo.

[cfx]

My point was that, more than weird (which it still is), it's just cheap. Properly emulating say, the original EAR, is a much harder task when you already have a universal Saturn emulator running.

Discussing the subject some time ago with a friend way more knowledgable than me, Xing were never actual developers - they were a mid-tier mass media company which hired small studios for their videogames. That is, the Arcade Gear games were not developed internally and their qualilty as ports actually were almost always subpar, I'm afraid. Their pre-Arcade Gears rereleases (Gussun Oyoyo, Wolf Fang...) were better made. Nothing like the beloved New, Ving or Rutubo.

Aha! I just realized that I had Xing confused with Ving. I mean, I knew Ving was a separate company, but I was mistakenly attributing the Taito ports that Ving did but that Taito distributed, as being by Xing instead.

I only have the Xing Gun Frontier, which at the time I didn't know what a mess it was, but do now.

I think I did have Gusson Oyoyo at one time and that was ok, but if it had any flaws compared to the arcade original I wouldn't have known the difference.

And Ving was the one that should have been in my list of lamentably gone developers, not Xing.

Ving games always had great arragned OSTs too. Years ago when I was more stupid than I am now, I had an FM-Towns Marty, and had some of the Ving ports on that. Some of those were quite good, some were ok, but they always had great soundtracks.

While still an oddball comparison, I wonder if the mention of Arcade Gears is because of the specific titles in this first collection, since Image Fight and X-Multiply were part of that series, and that also was, as far as I can recall, the only other console port of X-Multiply. That is, ignoring ACA but they're probably not going to want to mention that.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Sapporo-based Ving were awesome. As an early adopter of a Japanese Saturn and preferring arcade games over any other genres, they always were one of my companies to follow. Unlike with Xing, never regretted any purchase. They priorized port quality over sales, so they always picked the target system which just could do the games enough justice. Their output for the Towns is crazy considering the platform's low impact. Yet, they were there from the beginning till the very end. Much like with the Saturn. Bubble Symphony was ported basically by 3 people! They of course could not last.

They didn't have any game distributed by Taito, mind. They always acquired the license from them to publish the ports by themselves. The only exception being Layer Section, where Taito hired them to secretly develop the Saturn port for them. They really had to be on very good terms with each other, considering.

I wonder if the mention of Arcade Gears is because of the specific titles in this first collection, since Image Fight and X-Multiply were part of that series

They explicitely say they're homaging Arcade Gears: Image Fight & X-Multiply, indeed. So they designed their Volume 1 precisely after it. Hence the weirdness. I think it was here where I read the boss at LRG is a Saturn fangirl or something, which would explain so much.

[cfx]

Layer Section was what I was thinking of, because I saw it mentioned here before; I didn't know of that otherwise. Then I wasn't sure if Ving did anything else like the Darius games for Taito.

Ving's arranged OST for FM-Towns Operation Wolf was one I always remember:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1HkBHwUWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqSequB7tlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d6a1g1KZ0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na6-aw-CMp4

[gbaplayer]

I recently contacted SLG regarding R Type Leo and they told me that they are not 100% Sure about the games in the future Volumes.

[hamfighterx]

They explicitely say they're homaging Arcade Gears: Image Fight & X-Multiply, indeed. So they designed their Volume 1 precisely after it. Hence the weirdness.

That really is weird as hell.

[cfx]

Switch Watch said today in their Physical video that Irem Collection is getting a Japanese release. Any verification of that? 5 volumes of 3-4 games each is a lot to pay. Would gladly wait if I knew what would be on the North American or Japanese release. Does anyone have any information about these non SLG releases?

It is explained on the SLG page for the first volume:
https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/co ... ystation-4

Please note: Strictly Limited Games is exclusively doing this physical edition worldwide (apart from Japan), there will be no other physical edition of irem Collection Volume 1 from ININ games, no retail version, they will just publish the game digital. Tozai will publish the game only in Japan both digital and physical.

So, no ININ Games physical releases for these.

[Steven]

The "Strictly Limited Games is exclusively doing this physical edition worldwide (apart from Japan)" part gives me hope that there will be Japanese releases. That would be great.

[cfx]

Yes. Note the last sentence:

Tozai will publish the game only in Japan both digital and physical.

Of course, SLG can't speak for Tozai and plans could change, but it would appear there will be a Japanese physical release.