Commodore Computers Are On Their Way Back With a New CEO and Many of the Original Team Founders

Commodore 64 Ultimate: Starlight Edition.
An updated C64 for today.

Chances are, if you grew up in the 1970s and 80's, the first computer your family owned was a Commodore 64 (or possibly the Vic-20, also by Commodore, that preceded it).

I taught myself to code in BASIC on our Commodore 64 (C64), making ASCII based games (i.e. graphics made from the letters and symbols assigned to the various keyboard keys). I coded a Tic Tac Toe two player game, a simple shooting gallery game, and a flash card game to help me learn the Periodic Table, which (much to my... I want to say horror... got me bumped up to an advanced science class in high school).

Later I'd go on to dabbling in true 8 bit, and 16 and 32 bit, graphical games, when we upgraded to the C128, Amiga 500, then Amiga 600, but I never actually finished anything because, by then I'd gotten into skateboarding, so I was trying to make my ultimate skateboard game - ambitious much?

It was Commodore machines that showed me making my own 2D animated cartoons was within my reach. Everything could be done digitally instead of hand drawn, cell animation.

I stuck with using Commodore Amigas all through my years in Graphic Design School, getting sh*t from some lecturers for not using the industry standard Macs at that time. (I'd already was using Macs in 1988 at my first desktop publishing job).

Somewhere around 1995 I finally caved and bought a Windows Machine. Commodore Computers as a company were in free fall decline, and the Amiga line was no longer the cutting edge machine they once were.

All my Commodore Computers went into storage. I still have them but I've no idea if they'd even turn on at this point? (My computers and I don't reside in the same state at this time).

This preamble is to say, if you had a Commodore Computer, there's a good chance you really loved it. Particularly a Commodore Amiga, but you may still have nostalgia for the C64 too.

While Commodore has never really gone away, it has taken a bit of a scenic route through various owners, who really didn't understand what they had... a computer that was different to anything else, and had the same creative community around it that is not dissimilar to Apple Computers and its ecosphere today.

Today, in 2025, Commodore has be bought by, arguably its biggest fan, (I mean he hustled hard to raise the money to buy Commodore, and brought back as many of the original team from the 1980s), Peri Fractic (Christian Simpson), of the YouTube channel Retro Recipes x Commodore.

I'm not going to go through the story of how it came to be. Peri has several videos on their channel documenting the entire story in great detail. I highly recommend you take the time to watch, as it really does give you a sense that Commodore is back in the hands of people who care about the brand, and it's vision from back in the day.

Links to the main videos here:

Already you can buy an all new Commodore 64 Ultimate that is inspired by the original, but updated for today. It'll run all your old games and applications, and probably does some new things as well.

For me, I have no interest in retro gaming or running outdated applications, but I am excited for the company vision and plans to develop modern Commodore machines. I particularly like this quote that I pulled from the Commodore website's FAQs:

"...we aim to create meaningful technology that improves lives - tools that support creativity, learning, and digital wellbeing. Watch us be Calculating in that. That mission will unfold in real time."

From what I understand the plan is to release updated versions of the classic machines for retro enthusiasts while also working on new and premium machines for the future.

I'll be keeping an eye on the new machines, and hope that new Commodore remembers their original machines were also some of the most affordable out there. Whilst a high end Commodore Computer of sorts would be amazing, Commodore was built on their mid range machines. Still powerful but also accessible to more budget mindful families.

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