A diskmag is an electronic magazine that can be read using computers. The term "diskmag" is short for "diskette magazine". The traditional method of exchanging a diskmag with another person was either via the floppy disk itself, as the name would imply, or by dial-up BBS. Todays diskmags are distributed by any means possible, typically through the internet (FTP, WWW, IRC, etc.).

A unique and defining characteristic about a diskmag in contrast to a typical ASCII "zine" or "t-file" (or even "g-file") is that a diskmag usually comes housed as an executable program file that will only run on a specific hardware platform. A diskmag tends to have an aesthetically appealing and custom graphical user interface (or even interfaces), background music and other features that take advantage of the hardware platform the diskmag was coded for.

Diskmags are especially popular and native to the Demoscene and have been known to cross over into the closely neighboring underground computer art scene and warez scenes as well. Some of the more commonly well known English diskmags include Hugi, Imphobia, Pain (IBM PC), Jurassic Pack, RAW, ROM, Generation (Amiga), Undercover Magascene, Maggie (Atari ST).

Diskmags have been written for many platforms, ranging from the C64 on up to the IBM PC and have even been created for video game consoles.

External links

• pouet.net – Contains a wide selection of diskmags for all sorts of hardware platforms