“Commodore” announces new gaming PCs
At the upcoming CeBit electronics show in Germany on March 15, a company called Commodore Gaming is scheduled to release a new line of gaming PCs for the European market.
“25 years ago, Commodore launched the best selling personal computer of the late 20th Century, the C64, and defined the early computer games experience for millions of people worldwide,” said Bala Keilman, CEO for Commodore Gaming. “We are privileged and excited to bring the Commodore brand back to the gaming community and mark a new chapter in its history with this exceptional machine. We’re sure that it will deliver what gamers need and want.”
Details are scarce on what exactly will be offered by these new Commodore PCs, although the CEO promises that some “very exciting aspects” of the machines will be revealed at CeBit. Likely, they will simply be high-specced gaming rigs in the mold of Alienware and Voodoo PC, but the old Commodore name always adds a hint of intrigue.
The original Commodore Business Machines (CBM) was started in Toronto in 1954 by the infamous Jack Tramiel, whose favorite saying was “Business is war.” Jack had served in the Navy in World War II, and wanted a high-ranking military-sounding name for his new typewriter repair company, but Admiral and General were already taken.
Commodore’s greatest success was with the Commodore 64, introduced in 1982. The “Volkswagon of computers” ended up selling 22 million units, more than any other individual personal computer model. In 1985, Commodore introduced the Amiga, after purchasing the company from a startup. The Amiga’s high resolution color graphics, graphical user interface, preemptive multitasking, and four-channel sampled stereo sound made it seem like it came from the future, but criminally incompetent Commodore management limited sales and the company itself went bankrupt in 1994.
Commodore’s remaining inventory, technology, and patent portfolio were sold to European computer manufacturer Escom, then acquired by Gateway Computers when Escom itself went bankrupt a few years later. Dutch computer maker Tulip Computers NV purchased the right to the Commodore brand name and logo in 1997. Tulip started selling Commodore-branded peripherals such as USB keys and CD-Rs in 2003, but this is the first time that the brand has been attached to a computer since Commodore folded in 1994.
Source: ArsTechnica
Filed under: Gaming, Technology
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Wait…Commodore is still a company? I thought Apple and Microsoft and IBM and AMD ate them alive and sacrificed them to the Matrix.