was a Japanese video game magazine that specialized in covering

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

s. ''Gamest'' originated from the bi-monthly fanzine ''VG2 Newsletter'' from the early 1980s. Following the bankruptcy of publisher Shinseisha, many editors would move to

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

and create a successor magazine, '' Monthly Arcadia''. The magazine also featured the annual ''Gamest'' Awards, which handed out awards to games based on user vote.

Description

Published by Shinseisha, the magazine first began in May 1986 and was originally published bi-monthly, later changed to be a monthly-issued magazine in the late 1980s. The magazine had a heavy-focus on

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

arcade games, but would also cover games from other genres. The magazine ran for several years, with its final issue being released in September 1999. ''Gamest'' was subdivided into three sections: , Report, and Comic.

History

''Gamest'' arose from the early 1980s bimonthly

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

which was also called edited by . The cover of the first issue of read . Initially, it covered arcade games with an emphasis on 2D

Shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

s. From issue 6 on, it appeared monthly and from issue 116 (1994) the magazine was published twice a month. In the mid-90s, the magazine covered mainly the then booming versus fighting game genre. In 1999, the magazine was discontinued without a final issue due to the sudden bankruptcy of the publisher Shinseisha. Thereafter, much of the ''Gamest'' staff transferred to the publisher ''

'' (currently

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

) who launched the arcade game magazine .

''Gamest'' Awards

The magazine featured annual ''Gamest'' Awards, which handed out awards to games based on user vote.

Notes

References

External links

''Gamest'' PDF magazine archive
(incomplete)

1986 establishments in Japan 1999 disestablishments in Japan Bi-monthly magazines Biweekly magazines published in Japan Defunct magazines published in Tokyo Defunct education magazines Monthly magazines published in Japan Video game magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1986 Magazines disestablished in 1999 Defunct video game magazines {{videogame-mag-stub