The Commodore 64 is officially back. Just months after signing the paperwork to acquire the original brand and assets, Commodore 64 Ultimates are slowly rolling off the assembly line, and some units may end up in customers’ hands before the holidays.
This news comes straight from Commodore’s CEO. periphrastic (aka Christian Simpson), who posted a video from the meeting room.
old and new
The new Commodore 64 Ultimate: Basic Beige looks like an almost perfect copy of the original system, but when it’s on Comodoro.net On Trameil’s website he writes: “It’s not a replica. It’s not an emulation. It’s Commodore.”
Unlike some of them, e.g Atari flashback The Commodore 64 Ultimate is a game console with a classic body but with largely replaced components and contains a “faithful copy of the original motherboard.”
That may be true, but in addition to the original ports, the new Commodore 64 offers options that weren’t available in 1982, including HDMI and USB-3. There is also a new Ethernet port. The computer also has WiFi. Commodore also promises modern printer control, a faster system (thanks to more memory) and more sound processors. In other words, they have taken a series of steps for our modern technological age.
The emphasis is on nostalgia, however, and the company emphasizes that the system will support more than 10,000 original games, as well as “dusty old cassettes, CRT televisions, data sets or hard drives.”
Part of me embraces this warm and fuzzy tech nostalgia like a beloved stuffed animal from childhood. One look at the beige Commodore 64 Ultimate immediately transports me to a simpler time when I could work on a school assignment and print it out on a dot matrix printer that I could hand in whenever I wanted the next time I saw my teacher (no emails!).
However, this feeling is temporary and I am left with the unpleasant feeling that there is no longer a place for this computer in the modern world. It will end up in the hands of hundreds (if not thousands) of enthusiasts who will open it and then try some of the older programs. But at some point, or even shortly thereafter, the Commodore 64 Ultimate will gather dust on the shelf and be scrapped in favor of a more powerful, modern and easy-to-use computer.
We cannot confirm if the Peri fits your fireplace BUT we can confirm that hardware production is underway and the first 500 BASIC Beige units are in their final packaging. For more information, check out our latest shipping update bit.ly/4iliOq9 #Commodore #C64U
♬ Original Sound – Commodore Official
In the face of classical reality
I hate to think like this because I love classic technology and have a hard time throwing anything away. Sometimes I wish I still had my old Commodore 64 (or the Commodore 128 we bought later). But I know this feeling will pass soon.
I have a collection of old portable electronic games from the 1980s that I pull out from time to time to see if they still work. Usually it takes five to ten minutes and then they are back on the shelves or in a box.
I’m afraid this is the reality of this exciting project.
So yes, the latent teenager in me is excited about the Commodore 64 rising from the ashes and wants one, but my grown-up, realistic self wonders out loud: so what?