If you’re the kind of person who actually reads this blog, then you are more than aware that Commodore are the mac daddy home computers of the 1980’s. From the vic 20 to the Amiga 1200, these were prosperous times for our beloved Commodore. Some of us had the C64, primarily for gaming, others had the later plus 4 which had a word processor and spreadsheet built in, further down the line there was the Amigas, these new babies used disks rather than tape, which provided a much needed speed boost in loading times. But whatever your flavour, the commodore is a strong name in the retro hearts of anyone 30+.
So bring on the news, the Commodore brand is coming back, this time not as a bespoke system, but as a chasis of retro goodness, fiitting in the neccessary pc components found in small form factor computers, the c64 breadbin lookalike for instance comes in a range of diefferent packages, from a bare bones for custom builders at a cost of $250, to a duel core atom processor, 4GB Ram, nvidia ION2 graphics, 1TB HDD, and an optional bluray drive for $895. They are shipping world wide, though you may have to use stickers to have the correct key labels. well the mac comes with American keyboard layout so no biggy right?
As for the Commodore OS, apparantly this isnt ready yet so you’d need to be armed with a windows 7 licence if you’re not comfortable with Ubuntu or similar linux distros. When the OS is ready it will be mailed to you, and should be a commodore version of linux, with emulation and a classic games package at the ready. Apparently there will be options at boot up to choose between the direct c64 emulation, and the windows environment if you have that installed. Simples. ooo, Goosebumps.
The breadbin C64 is not the only computer on offer, there are other all in one keyboard computers such as the new Vic Pro, which can be customized or comes with intel core 2 duo or quad, and the intel graphics chip 3100, similar to that in the new 13 inch macbook pros. The top end Vic Pro costs $1195. Sadly these are still not that good for modern games, except maybe minecraft, which may be playable with basic settings, but hey, that’s good enough for the griggers right? xbox is where the real games are had, or the snes hey benny?
Well what are you waiting for head on over to http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_Home.aspx to order yours now. Or wait and see what the amiga line up is.