ABOUT

A survey of home console shooting games written by Hiroyuki Maeda and published by Sansai Books in its Game Lab Library series on 20 February 2026, making it the newest book in this collection. Where most genre references organise around the arcade, this one takes the living room as its subject: the shooting games released on home consoles in the 1980s and 1990s, from Epoch's Cassette Vision and the Famicom through to the PlayStation and Dreamcast.

More than 700 titles are covered across 208 pages, taking in both arcade conversions such as Xevious and Gradius and console originals such as Star Soldier and Thunder Force III, the games around which Japan's home score-attack culture grew. Vertical and horizontal scrolling shooters are the focus, with representative light-gun, action and 3D shooters picked out; FPS, TPS and flight simulators are deliberately left aside. For anyone tracking port histories and console exclusives, its scope is unusually close to a complete map of the era.

CONTENTS

• More than 700 console shooting games, 1981-1999
• Hardware span: Cassette Vision and Famicom to PlayStation and Dreamcast
• Arcade conversions: Xevious, Gradius and others
• Console originals: Star Soldier, Thunder Force III and others
• Selected light-gun, action and 3D shooters

DESCRIPTION

A complete roundup of the shooting games released on home consoles in the 80s and 90s. One volume surveying the history of the genre, from the Cassette Vision and Famicom through to the PlayStation and Dreamcast: arcade conversions such as Xevious and Gradius alongside console originals, with selected light gun, action and 3D shooters.

80年代・90年代に家庭用ゲーム機で発売されたシューティングゲームを総まとめ。 カセットビジョンやファミコンから、プレイステーション、ドリームキャストまで、シューティングゲームの歴史を一望できる一冊。 アーケード移植のゼビウス、グラディウス、家庭用オリジナルのスターソルジャー、サンダーフォースIIIなどなど、700タイトル以上を紹介。 縦スクロール＆横スクロールをメインに、ガンシューティングやアクションシューティング、3Dシューティングも代表的なものをピックアップして掲載していく。 ※本書では、アクションシューティングやFPS、TPS、フライトシミュレーターなどについてはごく一部以外は掲載していません。

Translated by this site from the publisher's Japanese blurb.

GAMES IN THIS BOOK

Xevious 1982 Namco Star Soldier 1986 Konami Gradius 1985 Konami Thunder Force III 1990 Technosoft

DETAILS

WHERE TO GET IT

Searched by ISBN, so a shop that has this exact edition will show it and one that does not will come back empty. Most of these were printed in Japan and never distributed elsewhere.