A publisher of
hypertexts, based in
Massachusetts. Eastgate prints works of
fiction and
literary criticism, mostly on
CD-ROM these days although a few titles are probably still on
floppies, meant to be read on computers. Most of the writing in Eastgate's catalog is experimental in nature, which isn't as inherent to the medium as old-school literature fans might think; most of Eastgate's hypertexts are also created with their tool
Storyspace. There might be a causal relationship there, as Storyspace encourages the creation of layered works with a lot of conditional links and many means of navigation.
Besides their big-ticket item Storyspace, considered by a quorum of postmodern lit authorities (is that an oxymoron?) to be the most powerful tool out there for the creation of hypertexts (as opposed to web pages), Eastgate started its publishing life with Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story, which they and Joyce handed out on floppies at one of the ACM's early annual Hypertext conferences, and is often cited (probably wrongly, but whatever) as the first major work of hyperfiction.