Before Spotify, before Youtube

There was Multimedia

In the 90s, an incredible new medium emerged...

The advent of CD-ROMs made it possible to deliver music, movies and games to people's homes, all in one single, plastic package. Radio and TV were still the primary domains, but a new format was taking shape that would be an early, and wildly inventive, herald of the digital age.

In 1995, Launch Magazine, one of the first and few "digital magazines", was released, realizing the concept of multimedia to its fullest potential. Instead of just a collection of articles and videos, readers interacted with Launch like a point-and-click FMV adventure game, exploring a small city where every building led to a game, a cartoon, or an exclusive interview.

It would be simple to dismiss Launch as a bizarre novelty of an awkward era in media, but Launch was far more than a tech demo. Hidden within over 50 discs is some truly incredible entertainment journalism and cultural artifacts. Candid, casual interviews with legends like B. B. King and Chris Cornell. Behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at classic 90s cinema. Entire cartoon series from animators who would go on to help shape Adult Swim and more. Due to the interactive environment these are stored in, these experiences were in danger of being lost to time after Launch ceased publication in 2001.

That's where The Launch Archive comes in. This is an ongoing project aimed at not just preserving the interviews and animations Launch collected over its half-decade run, but presenting them as they were originally meant to be experienced in their interactive format. Utilizing Copy's v86 engine, this archive allows you to boot up and play each Launch CD in our collection as closely as possible to how they would have run in their debut years. No need to download, no need to fiddle with QuickTime. Just click and play.

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Note: The Launch Archive functions by emulating a Windows-era PC. As a result, mobile devices and browsers may not be able to fully interact with the Launch interface without a mouse or pointer device.