This is the return of Commodore that fans have waited, but the probability are still against

In 1994, Commodore He crashed and burned. Once a giant of domestic calculation in the United States and Europe, the company has been canceled by bad management and bad guys. The carcass has been collected and the pieces resold so many times that it was difficult to keep track, but with each new owner the inevitable has arrived: an attempt to make a quick dollar slacking the famous logo C = on any old garbage.

The fans observed with horror how the brand appeared on the mediocre web.it All-in-one PC, the bizarre name Gravel in Pocket Media Playphone and the Commodore smartphone. There was even a lounge shredder. So when Retro YouTuber Cristiano “Perifraptic” Simpson Announced that he wanted to buy what remained of Commodore and give him a new life, questions were asked. Chief among them: does the world still need commodore?

When I am 64 years old

Commodore as a brand initially focused on writing machines and calculators, but his days of glory arrived with the rise of domestic micros, causing rapid rebirth as Commodore International Computing.

His greatest success was the Commodore 64, which hit the weak point between convenience and potential. While the CPU was slow, powerful graphics and a surprisingly capable sound chip (which remains revered today) has pushed creativity on both sides of the Atlantic. Over 5,000 commercial games were released during the maximum splendor period of the machine and over 15 million units were sold, making the C64 still one of the best -selling single computer models ever.

This is this Legacy Simpson aims to relaunch. Initially, he looked for a license agreement with the owners of Marchi Commodore, imagining “official” boards of directors and replacement components as part of an inclusive conglomerate and suitable for the community. These plans snowed during the discussions and Simpsons found themselves guaranteeing an agreement for the purchase of Commodore for a “low -digit” sum. Now it acts as CEO of Commodore and promises to revive the company in a sustainable way, one who will not repeat the failures of the past.

But that’s where things become difficult. Simpson does not actually have the original society because that company no longer exists. The dismemberment of the 90s of Commodore means that the current iteration has a series of brands, but the essential parts of the ecosystem remain scattered. The ROM ROM and Amiga rights (16 -bit micro of Commodoro) belong to Cloanto and Amiga Corporation. Amigaos is controlled by Hyperion Entertainment. And apart from the strange flirtation of the mass market mass market, such as the C64DTV Joystick all-in-one and plug-and-play Thec64 miniImportant developments that counted in the last 30 years have all of come from the community, not from the brand.

Computer for the masses

It is for these reasons that Simpson finds himself walking on multiple bows. He must avoid alienation enthusiasts who have kept the flame of the Commodore alive and does not imply that only his new commodore confers legitimacy. He must collaborate in close contact with the owners of other key pieces of puzzles and authorize the Commodore brand in an affected quite interested in interested third parties. And to recover that seven -digit sum, the new Commodor must sell quite new hardware, which means going beyond a decrease in fans.

For now, Simpson’s initial game is strongly based on nostalgia, not only for the C64, but for an entire era. The new Commodore website launches the company as a “digital detoxification brand [that’s] based on digital minimalism. “It represents social media, glorifies the beautiful old times of” techno optimism “-by appreciating the 80s until the mid-90s-and suggests that Commodore can help users to recover their childhood, but the company also wants to be seen as an innovator with an eye on the future and this is a type of branch of brands. AND original; past AND future.

Suitably, the debut product of this iteration, the Commodore 64 Ultimate, embodies these tensions. The $ 500 gold blind Edition of the founders and a case discussion Starlight Edition Don’t scream digital minimalism exactly. But the $ 300 Basic beige AND The spitting image of the original hardware. All bridge models authenticity and modernity by supporting the original C64 peripherals and current connectivity, including the HDMI 1080p output so as not to have to hunt on a CRT TV. Inside, they are all the FPGA-Array of field gates of field-things in the end mean the simulation rather than the less accurate emulation found in the Chinese retro palms and on the economic plug-and-and-play devices.