backtop

Hardware The Commodore PC is Back
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - March 7, 2007 3:57 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 68 comment(s) - last by Souka.. on Mar 14 at 12:43 PM

CommoreGaming.com displays an ominous countdown ticker
Commodore re-enters the market as a purpose built gaming PC

The Commodore is ready to make a splash back into the computer world with a new gaming computer that will be shown later this month during CeBIT in Germany.  Specifics of the computer remain scarce, but Commodore CEO Bala Keilman promises that the new Commodore PC is going to bring the Commodore brand back into the gaming industry.

"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," Keilman said in a statement. On the Commodore Gaming website, only a graphical teaser is posted for what will come.

The Commodore gaming PCs will be shown on March 15th, and will be live demo machines which will be playable. "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," said Keilman.

It appears that the PCs will be available for the European market on release, but the company did not rule out a launch in North America and Asia.  Commodore expects to make more more announcements soon.

The problem with a Commodore comeback is that the gaming market today is nothing like the one that the C64 entered 25 years ago -- Alienware and VoodooPC are two of the top tier companies already producing gaming PCs.  Also, the Microsoft Xbox360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii are all strong competitors of PC gaming, with 41% of U.S. households reportedly now having video game consoles. 

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
The question is will it come with Windows?
By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 9:32:42 AM , Rating: 5
Wlcome Back.
Will it come with Windows or a new version of the AMIGA OS?

Lets see if anyone remembers these:
LOAD ,8 ,1
POKE - PEEK
DISK NIBBLER or a HOLE PUNCH?
MINER 2049 and EPYX SUMMER OLYMPICS
How many bytes did the VIC-20 have on boot?

Showing my age now.




RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By rushfan2006 on 3/7/2007 10:50:51 AM , Rating: 3
I love this thread..lol..its like strolling down memory lane with all these posts referring to the glory days of the C-64.

Yep guys I remember all that stuff...the 1541 drives, the cassette drives (remember those damn games that came on cassette tapes...lol, load "*",4,1 anyone? LOL).... I remember sitting for hours punching in code from Computer Gazette and COMPUTE! magazine to run the "hot game" of that issue....I remember one was just a graphical scene for christmas...talk about times changing, back then it was "fun" for me to type in all this code and see what it does. Today's generation that grew up on consoles would think watching paint dry is more exciting and they just wouldn't get it.

I remember Miner 2049, Wasteland was one of my favs -- if re-done in today's graphics and with today's sound....my god that game would rock. Mail order Monsters, Racing Destruction set...lol...Mule...Elite....Bard's Tale (when an RPG was REALLY an RPG!!)...Ultima, Phantasy, Wizardy, Might and Magic -- all of them is what RPGs were meant to be... ;)

Zork, Suspended...all the Infocom titles...you think today's crowd of gamers would enjoy them? LOL....I had a blast figuring those games out.

That's when you had to THINK to conquer a game.

Oh well I could go on...

Thanks for bringing the memories back...lol.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 11:35:18 AM , Rating: 2
I even typed in the Pitfall Harry flyer Activision sent out.

Back then at one point I thought when you cleared the screen you lost your program until I learned LIST. LOL. Thats where I initially learned to program in Basic.


By jbrave on 3/8/2007 5:09:37 PM , Rating: 3
Wow, your post really triggered a flashback! When I was a kid, I started out programming on an Apple II, then an Atari 400 (I spent most of my teenage years writing games for that machine). At school, we had the Apple II and some Commodore PET / CBM machines. When the C64 came out, I talked my computer teacher into getting a whole stack of them for the computer lab. Your post literally flashed me back to doing exactly what you said: cls,(or was it clear?) list! I wrote some astro-dodger games for the PET's, our one IBM PC, and and the C64, but the C64 wouldn't scroll the screen downward like the PET's would, I had to write it backwards, with the stars (asterisks) scrolling up the screen instead of down... I got a B in computers because I spent all my time writing games instead of doing the "official lessons"!


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By GoatMonkey on 3/7/2007 11:43:58 AM , Rating: 3
Yeah, MULE was great. I never see anybody else list that one.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By SpaceRanger on 3/7/2007 12:25:43 PM , Rating: 2
Mail Order Monsters FTW!


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By Gatt on 3/7/2007 1:25:11 PM , Rating: 2
God I loved that game,

Wish game developers would spend some time thinking along those lines again. Racing Destruction Set rocked too!


By dever on 3/10/2007 3:03:31 PM , Rating: 1
I had forgotten about Racing Destruction Set. I don't know if I've enjoyed many games as much as that one since.


By frobizzle on 3/7/2007 6:22:48 PM , Rating: 3
M.U.L.E. was and still is the best game ever. It was great as a single player and it was even better as multiplayer. I run a C64 emulator on my PC and have an image of M.U.L.E. It is still better than anything I have come across for the PC! Too bad Electronic Arts refuses to port it to the PC! :-(


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By catavalon21 on 3/7/2007 9:12:34 PM , Rating: 2
Ah, yes, M.U.L.E. - compliments of the Bunten Brothers from high in the hills of the Ozarks. I'm still on the lookout for Chrystite.

Also, Microsoft (yes, they wrote programs for the C64) Flight Simulator for the C64 actually required 2 joysticks - one for the throttle and one for pitch/yaw. Took getting used to, but worked quite well. Yeah, those were the days!


By Laughing all the way 2220 on 3/8/2007 1:48:14 PM , Rating: 2
Who remembers Beach Head and Silent Service? Yeah EA's collection of Summer and Winter games was a blast. Who remembers the Basement Boys and Fast Hack 'em? I must have had like 50 games and what was the best was you could play them again and again and again and it would still be fun. There haven't been any games out like that since. Games today you play once and that's it.

And who remembers having to replace the power supply- lol!


By Misty Dingos on 3/7/2007 11:50:49 AM , Rating: 2
Wasteland Rocked! Elite was the bomb! And Wasteland did come back as Fallout 1 & 2. I may just have to drag my old 128D out of the attic and see if it still works.


By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 11:59:38 AM , Rating: 2
My Buddy had a 128D and never ran it as one. Only ran it in Commodore 64 mode.

Plus 4 or C16 anyone. :)


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By Souka on 3/7/2007 3:55:45 PM , Rating: 2
Heh... I had an Apple ][+ (thats Apple 2+ for you noobs) back in 79'

One day my friend down the street called me and said he had a "real computer". I went and saw it....graphics were better (COLOR!) but I just laughed at that poor pathetic cassette drive....my god, how slow.

My first Apple games were Castle Wolfenstein and Ultima (the original).


By MobileZone on 3/8/2007 3:22:42 PM , Rating: 2
Oh yes, I had the same problem with a school buddy... I had an Apple 2e and he had the Commodore. It was an eternal discussion about which was better. I had to agree that the sounds and graphics of the Commodore 64 were a bit better, but I loved my Apple like anything else.

Now I hate Apple(mac).


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By JonB on 3/7/2007 10:55:29 AM , Rating: 2
those aren't too hard

Load ,8 ,1 was to load a program from device 8, unit 1 (usually the only 1541 drive you had)

Poke and Peek were used to read a memory area, then put a new value into that area

Disk Nibbler - single sided floppies were a pain, but with the nibbler, you could use both sides. Make Flippies, not Floppies

Didn't have Miner, but played Summer Olympics a lot. The Skeet Shooting was great if you had a track ball.

but I never owned a Vic 20. :(

How about Easy Script and Superbase64? Essentially equivalent to old WordPerfect and dBaseIII+ only it remained floppy based.

Or the thermal color printer from Okidata, the Okimate!!

or did you have that funky plotter from Commodore. That was a demon possessed.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 11:32:28 AM , Rating: 3
We have a Winner. Yes they were easy. Not so easy firing up those old brain cells any more. Heck I used to calibrate 1541 hard drives using an osciliscope and a test disc. Look for the cats eyes.

YES the Okimate with its tri color ribbon. LOL.

No on the plotter but I did have a thermal printer from someone that I dont recall the name of.

Remember Line Numbers when programming: 10 GOSUB 40

Bring back the Joystick and Wico Trackball!!

I have the Commodore 64 emulator running on my X-box. I think the last game I played was Ghostbusters on it a long long time ago. I even bought the Commodore 64 on a Joystick that was out not long ago but I still havent removed it from the box. If only I had time to tinker with all the things I wanted to.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By ted61 on 3/7/2007 12:06:56 PM , Rating: 2
Do you still remember how to sync one of those old oscopes? I don't think fluke made the automatic portable 1ghz color models in those days.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 12:09:56 PM , Rating: 2
Yup. I had to connect the probe to the special ground connection and zero it out.

I bought mine from a newspaper. Remeber printed ads.

Thing was huge but worked great and was Dual trace.


RE: The question is will it come with Windows?
By ted61 on 3/7/2007 12:15:07 PM , Rating: 2
I am forgetting what a cathode ray tube is. How do you expect me to remember a newspaper?

Give speed, automation and dynamic links.

They still need us old guys around to explain harmonics.


By Mitch101 on 3/7/2007 12:21:11 PM , Rating: 2
There was a time between Dinosaurs and E-Bay/Craigs List when Newspapers existed.

Im sure there is something on Discovery about this ancient technology thought to have been created by Aliens or Al Gore.