Have you seen this video? Commodore - the company that brought us the C64 and the Amiga went bankrupt in 1994 and the following story was without an happy end.
Now this guy presents an idea how to buy the complete Commodore brand and resurrect it, lead by enthusiasts. It is even possible as he is in contact with the current owners of the brand(s) and they seem interested to sell it.
What do you think? As an old Commodore user and fan I'm excited to hear this, but I am also realistic about the market opportunities.
Yeah, I was waiting for the update video that's coming soon before I posted here. Seems like great news. :D
Id love to buy it? Bit short off cash though! ::)
i know this guy, i follow him for years
What would be the point?
It's like resurrecting the Atari 2600. It's happened, it's had its time (which was brilliant AT THE TIME) and it's time is gone.
If you can't compete with current-gen consoles or high spec PCs then it's absolutely pointless.
@GfK, did you even look at the video? It's not about producing a high spec PC with the Commodore name.
As was explained in the video it's about officially owning the Commodore brand and the licence for products to have the Commodore name legitimately. Commodore was broken up and pieces sold off - like 'Amiga OS'. This is meant to unite everything and stop the fighting when something like 'The 64', the modern C64 clone system is to be produced (because several people own part of the pie).
There's an Amiga with a full sized Amiga keyboard (internally again an emulator) coming out soon. This has had delays because of the fighting. With the licence in-place it could officially be again called a Commodore machine. Plus even today there are lots of old computers that are supported with new hardware. The retro community is very popular.
Quote from: Steve Elliott on Jun 26, 2025, 03:35 AM@GfK, did you even look at the video?
No, the OP said all I wanted to know and the person in the video looks like some over-excited weirdo so I don't particularly want to see him fapping away like a good 'un to a bit of news about somebody digging up a fossil.
The Commodore brand is gone. Dead. Kaput. Pining for the fjords. If you bring it back it'll just be like Infogrames changing their name to Atari. It's called Atari, but it's not Atari. Just some twunt in make up and a silly wig pretending to be Atari. Only a minority will even care so again, there's no point.
Keep hold of nostalgia by all means, but don't try bringing it back. It'll only tarnish what once was great.
The brand may be dead but there's one thing to consider. The level of recognition.
Level of recognition.jpg
There is also another example where a "dead" retro brand has been resurrected by a single enthusiast. Polaroid. Their business model is based on a combination of retrofeeling and digital detox. See documentation "An impossible project" from 2020.
Sure, it will not be the same company like back then, but imagine the many enthusiasts out there, living partly in their childhood, dreaming of the "easier times" and have bags full of money.
It may work for Commodore, but it's a big risk.
Quote from: Krischan on Jun 26, 2025, 09:39 AMThe brand may be dead but there's one thing to consider. The level of recognition.
Level of recognition.jpg
There is also another example where a "dead" retro brand has been resurrected by a single enthusiast. Polaroid. Their business model is based on a combination of retrofeeling and digital detox. See documentation "An impossible project" from 2020.
Sure, it will not be the same company like back then, but imagine the many enthusiasts out there, living partly in their childhood, dreaming of the "easier times" and have bags full of money.
It may work for Commodore, but it's a big risk.
You seem to be interested in everything i am! People like us should be doing are own things 8)
Part 2 just dropped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke-Ao-CpI7E&ab_channel=RetroRecipesxCommodore
Quote from: Steve Elliott on Jun 28, 2025, 09:24 AMPart 2 just dropped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke-Ao-CpI7E&ab_channel=RetroRecipesxCommodore
Love 13:02 ::)
The most important information apart from the fact that they are really going to buy it. So it's much less than 10 million dollars 8) Elon could pay for that out of his petty cash ;)
"The future we were promised" sounds like digital detox. The retro wave is still strong and this could work, even if I doubt they can make profit with it. But they don't have to as a PBC which is the best decision to do.
Good news, and let's see how it develops. And they will, no matter what opinion any of us have ;D
Edit: unfortunately he didn't talk about Cloanto, which still owns the Amiga IP like the Kickstart ROMs afaik. This would be needed to resurrect a "Commodore-Amiga" brand too.
pricetag.jpg
These are great news, indeed.
But I wonder what this company is all about:
https://commodore.inc/
??
Quote from: WilliamOfBaskerville on Jun 28, 2025, 04:33 PMThese are great news, indeed.
But I wonder what this company is all about:
https://commodore.inc/
??
I scanned through it and that seems to be a Laptop with the Commodore Label. That's not going to get me spending cash, on a new laptop because it hase a commodore logo name ::)
Now make a Mini C64 like the ZX NEXT with C64, C128, Mega65, or a C64 with a layer 2 and more colors and tripple SID's etc..
Now you have my attention indeed 8)
Baggey
Quote from: Baggey on Jun 29, 2025, 06:57 PMNow make a Mini C64 like the ZX NEXT with C64, C128, Mega65, or a C64
You missed the Ultimate64. (https://ultimate64.com/Ultimate64)
Quote from: Baggey on Jun 29, 2025, 06:57 PMNow make a Mini C64 like the ZX NEXT with C64, C128, Mega65, or a C64 with a layer 2 and more colors and tripple SID's etc..
There is maybe a different way to achieve that, without hardware on a special hardware, a FPGA. But you must "design" the hardware yourself. I do own this one and it simulates, not emulates the original hardware of a C64, an Amiga, Atari ST and many more machines on a single board.
An expensive but interesting piece of hardware: MIST FPGA (https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-binaries)
Edit: you've already mentioned the Mega65
Quote from: Krischan on Jun 29, 2025, 09:20 PMQuote from: Baggey on Jun 29, 2025, 06:57 PMNow make a Mini C64 like the ZX NEXT with C64, C128, Mega65, or a C64 with a layer 2 and more colors and tripple SID's etc..
There is maybe a different way to achieve that, without hardware on a special hardware, a FPGA. But you must "design" the hardware yourself. I do own this one and it simulates, not emulates the original hardware of a C64, an Amiga, Atari ST and many more machines on a single board.
An expensive but interesting piece of hardware: MIST FPGA (https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-binaries)
Edit: you've already mentioned the Mega65
Yeah that's my ultimate go to put my code on an fpga.
You say yours are Simulaters. Mine are full blown emulators. Hardware Sound, even rastering at correct tStates. Ive yet to have ago at M68000 Amiga/Atari ST would be very interesting.
I own a Mister and i have to say the Emulators/Simulators are CRAP :-X
Do you have any links to your projects?
A simulation on a FPGA is always more sophisticated than an emulation by software. Because the logic circuits of the original chips can be reproduced 1:1 in the FPGA, which is important for timings, for example. You can't get closer to the original hardware.
I'm no expert in this nor I have done any projects - I'm only a user here - but it makes perfect sense to do it this way. Of course, software emulators are more practical, it just depends on how purist you are. I also own an Amiga 500 Mini but it's a different approach with it.
For example, I had to buy an old EIZO TFT on Ebay especially for my MIST, because only this one could handle 50Hz, just like my Amiga. It had to do with the 15.625khz Horizontal scan rate frequency that modern TFTs can't display anymore.
And I didn't want to spoil my eyes with my old 1084 (https://crtdatabase.com/crts/commodore/commodore-1084) :o