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Shooting Gameside Vol. 0

シューティングゲームサイド

A retrospective compilation issue, published after vol.3 despite its number. The only shmup-dedicated magazine ever published; 13 volumes ran Oct 2010 to Jun 2015.

Year

2011

Publisher

Micro Magazine

Kind

Magazine

Pages

159p

Language

Japanese

ABOUT

Shooting Gameside was the only magazine ever devoted entirely to shoot-em-ups. Micro Magazine published thirteen volumes between October 2010 and June 2015 under its Gameside Books imprint. Strictly speaking these are mooks, a Japanese publishing format halfway between magazine and book: magazine-style issues sold and archived like books, without a periodical code. The series descended from GAME SIDE, itself the continuation of Used Games, launched in 1996 as Japan's first magazine for second-hand games, renamed Yuge in 2002 and GAME SIDE in 2006. When the parent magazine went on hiatus in August 2010, as game journalism moved to the web, its editorial team carried on through genre-specific book series, of which Shooting Gameside was the flagship.

Volume 0 wears its number oddly: it appeared in 2011, after Vol. 3, as a retrospective compilation rather than a regular issue. It gathers the shooting features the team had run in the GAME SIDE magazine era, substantially rewritten and expanded for book publication, at a time when the original issues were fetching collector prices. The headline material includes a feature on Namco's arcade shooting games under the title ARRANGEMENT, a 2007-revision survey of the Gradius series called The Universe of Gradius, a Darius deep-dive titled The Depths of Darius EXTRA VERSION, and an essay strand on the aesthetics of the shooting game. At 159 pages it serves as a condensed record of how the magazine wrote about the genre before the dedicated series existed.

IN THIS ISSUE

Namco arcade STG feature ARRANGEMENT
The Universe of Gradius, 2007 revision
The Depths of Darius EXTRA VERSION
The Aesthetics of the Shooting Game essay feature

DESCRIPTION

The origin of the thriving Shooting Gameside series. Its predecessor was the magazine GAME SIDE; the shooting features from those issues have been substantially expanded and revised and are presented here as a 2011 edition. Those legendary features, now commanding premium prices and hard to find, return. A keepsake volume gathering information on the popular shooting games that fans hold in such high regard. Main features: Namco arcade STG feature ARRANGEMENT; The Universe of Gradius, '07 revision; The Depths of Darius EXTRA VERSION; The Aesthetics of the Shooting Game, and more.

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

GAMES IN THIS BOOK

Gradius 1985 Konami

Darius 1987 Taito

Galaga Legions 2008 Namco

R-Type Dimensions 2009 SouthEnd Interactive

DETAILS

Series

Gameside Books vol.0

ゲームサイド編集部

ISBN

978-4-8963-7378-3

WHERE TO GET IT

Amazon Japan eBay Amazon US Amazon Canada

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.

Library record