Gamest


was a Japanese video game magazine that specialized in covering arcade games. Published by Shinseisha, it first began in May 1986 and originally published bi-monthly, later changed to be a monthly-issued magazine in the late 1980s. The magazine also featured the annual "Gamest Awards", which hands out awards to games based on user vote. The magazine had a heavy-focus on shoot 'em up arcade games, but would also cover games from other genres. Gamest originated from the bi-monthly fanzine VG2 Newsletter from the early 1980s. The magazine ran for several years, with its final issue being released in September 1999. Following the bankruptcy of publisher Shinseisha, many editors would move to ASCII and create a successor magazine, Monthly Arcadia.

History

Gamest arose from the bimonthly fanzine VG2 newsletter which was also called VG2 Union magazine edited by Uemura Bankita.
On the cover of the first issue of read "Game book Gamest - High score magazine for fans of games". Initially it covered arcade games with an emphasis on 2D Shoot 'em ups. From issue 6 on, it appeared monthly and from issue 116 the magazine was published twice a month.
In the mid-90s, the magazine covered mainly the then booming beat 'em ups. 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 ASCII who launched the arcade game magazine Monthly Arcadia.

Table of contents

Gamest was subdivided into the following sections: