Before e-books, even before the Internet, there were already electronic publications. Published via BBSs, Fidonet and other, now long forgotten, data transmission networks. Any one remember packetradio? I like the Dutch entry better, because it contains some more details and pictures. Even sneakernet was considered a pretty reliable and good way of distributing data.
Many of those publication were regularly released, containing stories, but also news and reviews of whatever the magazine was about. Usually called diskmag, because that was the primary means of distribution. Most of the time, there was more than text. The experience was heightened by providing the reader with a nice graphical interface and in many cases a few background tunes.
In this regards, many diskmags still offer a much more immersive experience than any webpage can offer you. Full screen websites are regarded as bad design, by many users. Probably because of their tendency to not focus on one thing for long. Diskmags celebrated the exact opposite: “here is our experience, we take over your entire computer, either you like it or you don’t”. Partly because they had to (DOS wasn’t exactly good at multitasking), but partly by design.
Many diskmags came and went (even I published one at some point in time, maybe more on that in another post), but there is one still worth noting. It’s called “Hugi” and recently the latest entry in the series was released. It can be read online, but I would strongly advice against it. Go for the whole experience.
I must say, I was delighted to see the format being picked up by other people, outside of the demoscene. Artzmania regularly released electronic magazines (ezines), featuring showcases from many very talented graphical artists. They use the generic paperless interface provided by Spotbit. So it’s not entirely customized, but it does give an electronic feel to an old format. It certainly fits the graphical nature of the publication.
I hope we get to see more of this.