Commodore unveils boutique gaming rigs at CeBIT

While it's certainly tempting to wax philosophically about how Commodore has finally made the transition from 64KB of memory to 64-bit operating systems, the truth is that the company which just announced a line of boutique gaming PC's at CeBIT is far removed from the one that ruled the 80's and enhanced our droll elementary school days with some therapeutic Rampage. Still, the four BTO gaming rigs unveiled by the latest iteration of Commodore -- the XX, GX, GS, and G -- seem to stand on their own as solid machines, offering anywhere from a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo E6320 to a 2.66GHz QX6700 Core 2 Extreme CPU, a single NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS all they way up to dual 8800 GTX cards, between 2GB and 4GB of RAM, and hard drive capacities up to 750GB in an array of RAID configurations. Besides the top-of-the-line specs, these new workhorses give gamers the chance to personalize their paint jobs through a "revolutionary painting process" that may help you forget that your tower isn't shaped like the head of an alien. The revived company's online store will begin taking orders in April, and though pricing structures have yet to be revealed, expect to pay a significant premium for the privilege of bringing Commodore back into your home.

[Photo courtesy of Pocket Lint]

[Jonathan Allen @ Mar 15th 2007 9:21AM]

FUGLY!

[Steve P @ Mar 15th 2007 9:38AM]

Hopefully their keyboards will have a "RUN/STOP" key instead of "Break"

[FrankTheCrank @ Mar 15th 2007 9:39AM]

yawn

[Christian Martin @ Mar 15th 2007 10:14AM]

Was this thing left on a New York sidewalk overnight?

[Mike @ Mar 15th 2007 10:24AM]

GG idiots...you judge their custom paint jobs on one pic that pwns up close. Saw the damn thing with my own eyes.

Here are some better ones.
http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTE3Mzk1NTQ3MW84ZHB2YWtLVU1fMV8xX2wuanBn

[Jonathan Allen @ Mar 15th 2007 11:00AM]

You're right. Those are WAY better......

[Mike @ Mar 15th 2007 10:41AM]

Whoops. Shouldn't have given you that link...here's the one you want

http://www.primotechnology.com/news/0307/commodore/images/01.jpg

Change the number at the end for closeups of the cases (02 is an alt view of 01...skip it).

[Mike @ Mar 15th 2007 2:58PM]

Typing in http://www.primotechnology.com/news/0307/commodore/images/07.jpg made me lol....

But 03 is a pretty sweet case, IMO.

And no, from what is out on the net, they won't be an emulator bundled with them. They'd have to consult their slavemaster Nintendo for game rights (atm), methinks.

[Razor @ Mar 15th 2007 11:26AM]

But will these machines be able to play Jumpman Jr.?

[Rick @ Mar 15th 2007 11:28AM]

Does it come with M.U.L.E.?

[EDawg @ Mar 15th 2007 11:36AM]

I like some sweet ass Red Storm Rising submarine action myself.

[Bucket @ Mar 15th 2007 11:40AM]

Apparently they do come loaded with a Commodore emulator loaded with some games. I'd buy one if they had one in C64 Tan with a color logo.

[myscrnnm @ Mar 16th 2007 12:18AM]

Not bad. I wouldn't say it's my style, but I can appreciate it.

[-bob- @ Mar 16th 2007 5:58AM]

Number 3 is the stand-out, imo. The one shown in the article is a diservice. Perhaps a South Central LA crack dealer wanted his one pimped?

[MasterCKO @ Mar 17th 2007 3:06AM]

Yeah, you gotta wonder why they chose the worst of the bunch for this article.

No taste, engadget. For shame.

[SickManSeth @ Mar 19th 2007 5:33PM]

They should Sell a "heritage edition" with the same specs in a C64 or amiga case.

[BRR @ Mar 21st 2007 1:45AM]

you can see all the skins at the http://www.commodoregaming.com site.

http://commodoregaming.com/pcshop/C-Kin/Ckin+library.aspx

and they do have a tan case, but the logo is black it seems.

[nikster @ Mar 21st 2007 7:09PM]

the skins are awesome - "C64 Sick Beige" is excellent lol.

it's amazing what you can do with a basic box like this. they 'll sell well.

[triforceOFcourage @ Mar 22nd 2007 2:51PM]

From the specs of the Commodore XX Gaming rig:

"Preloaded with a C64 emulator, containing more than 50 classic games"

It does come with an emulator...at least that box does (and I'd highly doubt they'd skip that in the other variations too). As to whether Jumpman Jr.'s on it? Ehh...there's been no word.

[dextro @ Mar 23rd 2007 4:50PM]

Now here's a somewhat original idea, I like it even if most of the cases don't tempt but the plain black does look good :P