Hacker News Reader

Comment by dedicate | Hacker News Reader

I feel like the real story isn't 'Can We Save Commodore?' but 'What IS Commodore anymore?'. If it's just a trademark disconnected from its original tech, you're not reviving a legend, you're just starting a new company with a famous name.

View on HN

Commodore as a company died long ago, as can be seen in Deathbed Vigil (a video recorded by one of the employees on the last day).

For a long time it has been misused and nearly disappeared. It is about 40+ trademarks owned by a holding company. It could have been worse if this was scattered among a lot of different entities. So, this is still kind of a big deal as they can acquire all of them

Famous with old people.

The new generation has no idea

There are people now that know what a Commodire 64 is but have never heard of an Amiga. The C64 made a cultural impression that lasts today. I'm not sure why but anongst those born after both machines had had their day, quite a few have an idea what the C64 was.

Talking to the younger generation about the 8 bit era is wild. I mentioned that my first system (TRS-80) had 4k to someone and they expressed surprise at that you could get a monitor that good back then.

> There are people now that know what a Commodire 64 is but have never heard of an Amiga. The C64 made a cultural impression that lasts today.

I would claim that in my generation (people born after Commodore's heyday), those who are interested in retrocomputing topics (a minority) are similarly aware of the C64 and the Amiga and their cultural relevances.

> I mentioned that my first system (TRS-80) had 4k to someone and they expressed surprise at that you could get a monitor that good back then.

Admittedly didn't register with me at first but this is hilarious.

Seems like a made up interaction tbh. When would you just say “my trs80 had 4k” without specifics 4k of what unless the other person first said something like “my first computer only had 8MB of RAM” in which case they know from context you’re talking about memory, or you out of nowhere say “my trs80 had 4k” to someone and they have no idea what you’re talking about and ask if you mean the monitor.

I assure you it is not made up. Obviously it's not the literal words I used, I'm working from personal recall, not notes. It would have been part of a larger conversation I was having. From memory it was part of my answer to the question "how long have you been programming?"

Oooh, book 'em Danno!

You'd think thats the case but all these retro Youtubers seems to have inspired a new generation to take up the mantle. I attend the Vintage Computing Festival(the one in NJ) each year and post pandemic it has been filled to the brim with young GenZ era people interested in experiencing the computers of yesteryear. Is it enough to make this venture worth it? We shall see. All the Retro Computing Youtubers including this one must have some demographic data to help fill inn the picture.

wrong. little idea but not no

The only 'real' claim I could see to saving Commodore would be something adding backwards compatability this late in the game. It would be of dubious utility, but it would give a claim to legitimacy. Otherwise you might as well let it stay dead because there isn't anything to be gained from using it.

Just watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN8r4LRcOXc

Kind of the same situation with Atari

Reply on news.ycombinator.com