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.