Perifractic over at the popular nostalgia themed Retro Recipes YouTube channel has a goal! He wants to save the Commodore Brand, and I for one hope and pray he can do it! I love his channel… and will admit more than a few times I have been choked up at the nostalgia that smacks me in the face when watching him. Case in point, the video he released a few days ago on June 7th. If you haven’t seem it and are a huge Commodore fan you need to check it out… and be sure to watch ALL THE WAY TO THE END.
Retro Recipes: Can We Save Commodore Video
My Thoughts:
My C128 will always hold a special place in my heart, and to this day I still load up and mess around with a C64 or C128 program once or twice a week for an hour or two. I don’t own original hardware anymore, I play via emulation on my PC 95% of the time. The other 5% is when I break out my Maxi 64 or mess around with emulation on my Pi 400.
I see the future of the Commodore Brand existing very much on something like the C64X by my My Retro Computer Limited, Linux based with the Commodore Vision Operating System: a modern PC with modern combabilities that can run the old software via emulation.
Let’s face it, Commodore is mostly dead. It lives on in retro goodness from our childhood memories; playing games, GEOS, PEEKs and POKEs, learning BASIC programming. But how do you recapture that feeling? I think I came close when I got a Pi400 and loaded it with AMIKIT. I could do some modern stuff with AMIKIT, and also load in a retro Amiga game and scratch that itch.
Sadly, I think a true Commodore revival with a brand new system running Commodore made games (versus Apple, Tandy, Dos), like how things worked in the 80s, are long gone. The revival is going to need a modern OS with the ability to click back to play retro games, branded with the Commodore name, and able to play some modern games and apps.
A Modern Commodore Needs Modern Capabilities:
It needs to be able to access the internet. It needs to be able to run some modern programs/apps. It needs to be able to handle teaching with ease a current program language, like Python. And it needs to be able to run all those old retro 8 and 16 bit games we all loved to play. I use my main PC for work, news, playing modern games, coding, and playing retro games via emulation.
Give The Modern Commodore Legs To Move Forward:
The future of the Commodore Brand could be built upon modern capabilities while still catering to retro software (games).
If Perifractic at Retro Recipes can pull this off, he could create a special “Commodore Seal of Approval” to promote modern retro. What do I mean? Well, a modern system can run modern software. Imagine software developers making retro style video games using modern programming (like Python and Pigame or higher level languages too) that run on modern hardware, but has the look and feel of retro from the 1980s, 1990s, and up to 2005 (from PCs and consoles). If a game or piece of software fits the ‘look, style, feel, and sound’ of software for those retro years (and future retro years yet to come), give it the Commodore Seal of Approval.
Here are some examples that are on Steam and can run on Linux through leveraging the PROTON compatibility layer.
- Thunderhelix: A helicopter flight combat game (Reminds me of Gunship 2000)
- Tiny Combat Arena: A harrier jump jet sim (Reminds me of Harrier Combat Simulator)
- Skald, Against the Black Priory: RPG adventure (Reminds me of Ultima V or Legacy of the Ancients)
Imagine modern retro games being made to run straight out of the door on Linux distro, like the Commodore Vision OS.
There will always be people getting older and looking back at their youth at the games they played as kids. What I played in the 80s is special to me. What my nephew plays now at age 16, will be special to him when he is my age (51)… so on and so forth. I’m over on Itchio buying new/old games every month to play on Vice or UAE.
The future of the Commodore Brand could be focused on modern retro, with a means to click back easily to the glory gaming days of Commodore in the 80s and early 90s.
To Succeed There Will Need To Be Software Developers:
There needs to be people, groups, indie companies, big name companies, that see they can make a profit making modern retro games, seeking the Commodore Seal of Approval for their game, to catch the attention of nostalgic old farts like me. If this can happen, Commodore would never die. Is there money making modern retro games that middle aged people will want to buy and play? I dunno. Maybe.
Just my initial thoughts on the subject…
Conclusion:
I could see this:
- Modern hardware where people can buy and or build a new C64, MISTER, FPGA etc, with the official Commodore band name (nothing stopping people from piecing such a system together anyway, but some would like that official brand).
- An online store (like Steam or Gog or Itchio) that caters only software programs written for the original hardware from the 80s and 90s and new, of course.
- C64X with Vision OS distro (nothing wrong with modern commodore branded PC that can run emulation), that can be used to learn Python, access the internet, Libre Office , etc… (this is what I like about AmiKit)
- Software written as modern retro, coded in Python or lower languages, to specifically work with the Vision OS distro. They have to look and feel retro, like the 80s and 90s to get the Commodore seal of approval be included in the above mentioned online store. Games like Thunderhelix, Skald: Against the Black Priory, as examples of what could be.
- Emulators available on the Vision OS that run Sega, Nintendo, DOS, etc… so that other retro gamers can turn to Commodore for a one stop fix to that nostalgia itch. Anything older than 2015 is retro, and next year 2016… Commodore could be an official retro brand that caters to many across many platforms via emulation that runs on the Vision OS. A modern system with some modern capabilities, able to run emulation for the masses.
Commodore will never come back fully. No way. Not like it was when competing against Apple, Tandy, IMB…
But it could live on.