Amiga clarifies Commodore rights and the future of AmigaOS
amiga.com43 points by odomus 2 days ago
43 points by odomus 2 days ago
> Forty-two years later, the circle is closing: apart from the "Commodore" and "C=" marks, the principal rights and assets of the Commodore and Amiga eras rest with Amiga.
> Current licensees include A1200.NET, Antstream Arcade, Blaze Entertainment, Cloanto, Commodore, Hyperion Entertainment (and its sublicensees), Retro Games, Simulant Systems, and SpecNext.
So "Commodore" is in the list: hence as I understand it the youtuber from retrorecipes owns the Commodore name and is officially licensed to make C64 and Amiga branded computers.
Quite impressive IMO what this dude managed to pull off.
Unfortunately this is at least 2 decades too late now.
Aside from the diehard fans, it's the behaviour between the companies that stopped me buying their products, and I'm probably not the only one.
I applaud it's finally wrapped up but in a rapidly dwindling fan base they were eroding the value of their own brands - brands that should have been complementary.
I hope now they can recover that iconic status, but I feel it's simply going to go the way Atari is iconic now - mostly trendy t-shirts and retro sales.
I'm not convinced it's "wrapped up". This release sounds prickly and dismissive of the new Commodore company, asserting multiple times that the only thing that doesn't belong to Amiga is the Commodore brand and logo.
It doesn't sound friendly. It sounds like someone who is regrouping for more fighting, and not against the general computing industry, but rather to be king of the tiny hill that is the Commodore retro computing niche.
At this rate, the Amiga will outlive us all, and probably get one last hardware and AmigaOS revision long after our funerals.
"open source" is the string that's missing in that announcement.
The historical source code (AmigaOS git history up to at least when Commodore went bankrupt) should be MIT and in e.g. github.
But that doesn't seem to be what they have in mind.
The shitshow will likely continue.
I've less than zero love for Commodore stuff, I'll admit up front. Even as a retro computing enthusiast and computer historian I think the adoration that Commodore (both the C64 and Amiga) get far outweighs any practical reasoning of what the machines are capable of
But the thing I've truly struggled to understand, particularly with PeriFractic and his bleating of "I OWN THE COMMODORE NAME NOW!" is just
...who cares? If you like Commodore stuff, great. Do things that make you happy. But does having a C64 with "the commodore name" printed on it owned by some slop peddling youtuber (both in his embracement of LLM's and that bizarre "dumb phone but also not" project) truly change anything for fans?
If you're buying an "A1200 accelerator" does the fact it says "AMIGA" on it make it more valuable than if it just said "68K accelerator" or some other generic term?
I stopped paying attention to perryfractic years ago. He used to make interesting videos, but when he started repeatedly faking tearing up at nostalgia and getting his totally uninterested wife on camera, I just stopped being interested
Then also knowing what a mess the Amiga/Commodore licencing is, when he said he bought Commodore but not Amiga, I completely disregarded it as just adding more confusion to the situation (and then there's the insane decision that is the commodore phone)
I think you are greatly minimizing what Mr. Fractic has done, I don't get the phone thing either. He got a lot of the original developers of commodore and the original molds, the guy is a super fan and I can't think of anyone better to continue the brand
Right, I forgot to bleat about how he was a (literal stand-in!) for Hayden Christensen on Star Wars. [1]
He got a bunch of old hats to sign their name to...what, exactly. A C64 on an FPGA? That he tried to lock down before getting backlash from the community? [2]
But none of that answers the question. What's the point?. Are "super fans" just paying through the nose because having something with the word "Commodore" on it truly means that much more to them?
"Mr. Fractic" has done nothing but shell out money and is now trying to recoup his investment. He created nothing (the phone was AI hallucinated for god sake) and seems to just be hoping that folks making actual new equipment around the C64 (and I guess Amiga?) sign on to get his blessed license. But, again. What are they buying?
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190711081426/https://starwarsi...
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/c64/comments/1svq98v/commodore_now_...
You come off bitter for no reason.
The Commodore chunk of retro computing is an extremely small pond. Of which he's an obnoxiously loud voice due to his youtube presence. Much to the chagrin of most of them (and most of us who orbit the greater "retro computing hobby")
> a C64 with "the commodore name" printed on it
It's really not mysterious why something like that would find an audience, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. Their beige C64 Ultimate is a well-executed clone of the legendarily popular original. Compare and contrast with some of the really bad stuff that has had the "Atari" name slapped on it in the 21st century.
Of course the phone is stupid. Regarding the Amiga:
Amiga is now in a position to restore the iconic SoftVoice speech synthesis to AmigaOS. Several versions of the historic Boing Ball demo are also being prepared for release.
Come on. The boing ball demo. I don't know what that is but doesn't it sound awesome?
It plays well into the Amiga fanbase mythology that Commodore and especially the Amiga shoud have been THE personal computer of the masses, not the IBM compatible x86 machines. But somehow in the early 1990 history took a wrong turn.
After its demise the Amiga/Commodore brand and intellectual property was split and changed hands frequently leaving behind a fragmented and often adversarial landscape of companies. So this fragmentation maybe can be seen as an obstacle for the Amiga to once again rise up and get its revenge against the x86/x64/ARM... you name it.
I think therefore Mr. Fractic is the perfect fit for this computer. The idea is a bit... over the top.
I grew up with C64 and Amiga and I still hold it dear in my heart, it had many great games back then, but I'm not buying into the new Commodore thing at all. It comes off as a bit off and goofy, maybe even problematic.
While I'd like to see all Commodore related brands to come together under one roof once again, I think funding it via the creation of new hardware by a for profit company to be ridiculous and ill fated. Let the dead be dead. I would have wished for a non-commercial custodian like entitiy instead, that just makes sure that people who use the brands and IP can do so for a modest fee if it's DIY projects or small companies selling add-ons just so they have the legal security of not getting sued for mentioning Amiga or Commodore somewhere in their texts and releasing all Amiga and C64 hardware and software under a FOSS license for the public to fix and enhance if they like.
But this just seems to me like just another post-Commodore company meddling with the legacy and legal stuff.