The first pure diskmag CD
It's a long time ago that I thought: Hey, I have already got so many megabytes of diskmags. Only a few more, and you could fill a CD. Seems like I haven't been the only one who had this idea. Mad/os and CY-MAN of the group real.fake have now released a CD that for 99% consists of diskmags: the DiskMag-Pack.
"This cd was created because nobody has done this before", mad/os writes in the info-file of the DiskMag-Pack. "A typical Scene CD like 'Dreams 2' stores only a few DiskMags but never a whole collection. Because of this we created this archive. We needed a lot of time (some months) to sort the collection - we stored as many DiskMags as possible on this CD. And then for every DiskMag a picture, a description of the whole documentation and the menu." An enormous work. But it has been worth it: The DiskMag-Pack is the largest and best documented collection of diskmags available on CD to-date.
Originally the project was focused on German diskmags. That's why the CD contains all German mags its makers could get their hands on, and that's also why the descriptions originally were in German. But German mags alone can't fill a CD. So the project was expanded to German and international (English language) mags. As this did not fill the CD either, some examples of Polish, Hungarian and Finnish diskmag-art have been included as an extra.
After the first edition of the DiskMag-Pack, released in September 1999, had met an unexpectedly big resonance from people living outside German-speaking countries, real.fake have finally also translated all info-files and descriptions to English.
Every copy of the DiskMag-Pack is highly individual and special. This is because the DiskMag-Pack is not professionally manufactured, but it is burnt and its inlay is printed out for every "customer" individually. The big advantage of this method: It allows real.fake to add new diskmags and update the descriptions all the time. When you order the DiskMag-Pack, you will always get the most up-to-date version of it.
The version I have, from October 1999, contains about 500 issues of a bit more than 100 diskmags, plus over 1000 issues of newsletters. The directory structure is clear and allows you to find a particular diskmag fast. It's even easier using the html-based menu, which contains informative descriptions and screenshots of each of the diskmag and newsletter series. The descriptions are also available as raw text-files, for those who prefer it this way. Packers to unzip the compressed diskmags are included as well. As a final bonus, there is a nicely designed program that lists real.fake's productions and even includes some text-files and pictures they released that can be viewed directly in the menu.
All in all the DiskMag-Pack is a CD that does not leave many wishes. It has been really carefully compiled and documented. I find projects like this worth supporting.
For ordering information, check out the real.fake website or contact mad/os.