During the 1980s, game company Namco started making awesome robots. Robots! But Namco was not alone.
https://kotaku.com/namco-maker-of-games-builder-of-robots-5606063
Space Invaders developer Taito also took the know-how it attained from the arcade business and funneled that into building its own bots. In 1983, Taito created a walking, talking bot named “Yumemaru” as well as a guitar-playing robot.
Yumemaru was controlled by a remote-controlled joystick and moved about on wheels (however, his legs appeared to be walking). It could even apparently hold a basic conversation!
Since Taito has become a part of Square Enix, the company seems to have left is robot-building days behind it.
TAITO’s Retro Promo Robos (1983) [Plastic Pals]
