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- │ E D I T O R I A L │
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- ║ THE EXPLOSION OF ELECTRONIC MAGAZINES ║
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-
- This being the first issue of yet another electronic publication, I felt
- it would be an appropriate time to write about the seeming explosion of elec-
- tronic publications. Not only publications about computers, but also publica-
- tions about music, society, and the good life.
-
- The first big-time, graphical electronic publication in my memory would
- be GameBytes, the by-now well-known magazine that reviews games in their one-
- megabyte files, with two-megabyte graphical add-ons. GameBytes is a quality
- publication, and it set off the frenzy that we are in now dealing with elec-
- tronic publications.
-
- Now, the electronic magazine has moved to the relatively new frontier
- of CD-ROMs. Interactive Entertainment, for example, is a magazine which sells
- issues on CD at $9.95 a shot. IE features tons of talking reviews, articles,
- and free games and demos. Many paper magazines also include CD-ROMs, which are
- jam packed with demos, utilities, reviews, and more.
-
- What effect do these magazines have on the paper industry? None whatso-
- ever, so far. But as technology slowly goes mainstream, I expect that more and
- more of these electronic publications will see the light of day. Not only can
- they store much more information than even the largest magazine, they can also
- store _interactive_ bits of data, which of course the public goes crazy about
- (evidenced by the effect that the buzzword "interactive" has on many people).
- And I'm not complaining. Such magazines are easy to use, easy to read, and have
- lots of great and innovative features.
-
- In short, I hope to see a new generation of publications on CD-ROM. Not
- books, mind you - those belong on paper - but magazines, which are perfectly
- suited to an electronic medium. CGW is only a very, very, very tiny part of
- this ongoing revolution. In fact, I don't even consider my publication to be
- a magazine. Rather, I like to call it a "newsletter," which describes its com-
- pact size more accurately. We can't even hold a candle to those CD-ROM mags
- that happen to be 100 times our size in terms of megabytes. But hey - everyone
- can do _something_.
-
- Editor, CGW
- DJPS31D@prodigy.com
-
- -=≡<CGW1>≡=-
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