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Commodore USA begins shipping replica C64s next week, fulfilling your beige breadbox dreams (video)
If you're like us, you've probably been holding your breath in anticipation since Commodore USA announced its replica of the famous C64. It promised a keyboard PC that duplicated the original's retro-beige finish, with an Atom CPU and an NVIDIA Ion graphics card under the hood. But despite numerous announcements, and even after a cross-promotion with Tron: Legacy, they've yet to ship any products. The latest word from the company has pre-orders shipping next week, in five different varieties, from a barebones chassis and card reader to the C64x Ultimate – an $895 machine that includes 1TB hard drive and a Blu-ray player. If you haven't been teased enough over the past year of delays, hit the video after the break for more preview images.
Commodore USA puts the new C64 up for pre-sales, unveils far-less-retrotastic VIC-Slim
Now that Commodore USA has sufficiently piqued your curiosity with a revamped Commodore 64 prototype, it's ready to capitalize on the idea. Quite literally, we might add. $595 buys you the basic basic model with an 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 chip, NVIDIA ION 2 graphics, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive -- which it promises to deliver by "early June" -- with hundred-dollar increments adding premium features like an additional 2GB of memory, a Blu-Ray drive, up to 1TB of storage, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth. However, if you're simply looking for a compact keyboard computer (rather than reliving 80's nostalgia) there's another option on tap -- a likely rebadged thin wedge of a machine that Commodore's calling the VIC-Slim. Even at just $395, though, something tells us it won't be the "wonder computer" of 2011.
Commodore Gaming disavows Commodore USA (and its decals)
Remember back in March, when Commodore USA CEO and longtime Commodore user Barry Altman excitedly told us about how he'd spent "the better part of a year" untangling the red tape, finally getting the rights to the Commodore name? As far as we are able to tell, Yeahronimo Media Ventures acquired the rights to the Commodore brand back in 2004, when it changed its name to Commodore International Corporation. Among its many projects are a joint venture with Amsterdam's Content Factory called -- you guessed it! -- Commodore Gaming. Today we received an email from Commodore Gaming's Global Product Manager Taco van Sambeek, informing us that Commodore USA has not been granted a license to use the Commodore name, and that "Commodore USA Ltd. has no legal rights to be using the Commodore trademark." When we went back to the old Commodore USA site, we found a few updates, including this line in the fine print: Commodore trademark logo used pending licensing rights, used above for illustrative purposes only. In case you're curious, the company has also started shipping its "barebones and configured systems" (also known as the Cybernet all-in-one PC). But there's a catch! Your purchase, according to the site, "will not be branded with the Commodore logo or markings. These self-adhesive logo label plates will be shipped to you at no charge when they are available." Thanks for clearing that up. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go order some Silicon Graphics decals to put on our Toshiba Satellite laptop.
The Commodore name licensed again for a line of keyboard PCs
We've always had a soft spot for Commodore computers. Compact, economical, and robust for their day, they were ubiquitous throughout the 1980s. Unfortunately, the machine's glory days are long behind it, with little more than some gaming rigs and the tireless work of Ben Heck to keep the flag flying. But all that could change if Barry Altman has his way. As President and CEO of the newly minted Commodore USA, he's spent the better part of a year crawling through the arcane red tape necessary to get the rights to the Commodore name. And now? With any luck, later this year the company's monumental advertising campaign will have had its effect ("something like you've never seen in your life," as Altman described it to us on the phone this afternoon) and you'll be able to have your very own keyboard computer with the Commodore logo slapped on for good measure. Presumably based on the Cybernet ZPC-GX31, the exact configurations and pricing will all be spelled out soon enough. In the meantime, hit the source link to see for yourself. And please, guys -- make us a beige one, will ya?
Cybernet's all-in-one keyboard computers get an upgrade
It's been just a little over a year since we saw Cybernet's zero footprint, keyboard-only computer -- now the company has upped the line with new features (but mistakenly stripped that shiny red paint job). The new systems -- which harken back to the glorious days of the TI-99 -- now support Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad chips, sport the GMA X3100 graphics chipset, up to 4GB of RAM, a slimline optical drive, and can astonishingly handle expansion via a Mini PCI and PCI-e slot. The all-in-one combos start at $629 and head marginally skyward from there.[Thanks, stagueve]
