Yes, there are effective (but not perfect) alternatives to a black/white/smart boards.

I use a tablet PC (actual tablet PC with digital pen) (not an Ipad, see below) hooked up to an data projector. "Templates" for the lecture are distributed (via website) prior to the lecture, so students can print them off and bring them, and I use exactly those slides (as pdfs) and annotate them during the lecture.

The advantage is that one can have copying-intensive material already on the template: quick reviews of previously covered material, statements of theorems, complex diagrams and graphs that would be troublesome and time consuming to create in real time. Below a statement of a problem to be solved, or theorem to be proved, there's plenty of white space so that I can write the solution/proof etc and the students generally do the same on their version. The students are very enthusiastic about it, saying it allows them to think, rather than copy things down, and like the fact that there's a record of the whole lecture which can be posted later.

The quality of the handwriting is very good, as good as pen on paper. It would not be on an Ipad (I've tried) which was not set up for use of a pen; the result there is very clumsy.

A disadvantage of the system is that one does not have the massively parallel aspect of multiple boards. One can easily scroll back to refer to something already done, but sometimes it's nice to be able to point to two or three things at once.