Commodore looking to make a comeback

by Ross Miller { Sep 27th 2005 at 6:30PM }

Commodore, known best in the world of gaming for its classic machine the Commodore 64 (pictured), is hoping to return to the industry. Yeahronimo Media Ventures, who own the Commodore name, have outlined the phases in which the Commodore business will be developed. First, according Yeahronimo CEO Ben van Wijhe, "the focus will be on exploiting the numerous existing C64 retro game licenses through plug-and-play, mobile and handheld devices." The second phase involves hardware and accessories. The third phase will bring entirely new games to the market, "focusing primarily on the mobile and handheld markets in addition to the PC and console market."

The fourth phase? Total world domination, no doubt. If you are old enough to remember, what fond memories do you have of the Commodore 64?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Carmine @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Toy Bizarre! Mark Turmell's (MJT of NBA Jam fame) 2nd best game!

R.R. @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

No fond memories, I hated that piece of shit.

PickyPants @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Jumpman. Nothing but Jumpman.

Jumpman's influence was so great, the original Donkey Kong Bezel has Mario's jump speed in relation to jumpman. Seriously. Jumpman.

Andrew @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

When something's that old. It's not fun anymore, it's just boring.

I learned this from the time that I rented the intellivision classics series. 1 true classic outta like 30 games. Seriously, if you can't offer any good classics ( IE: Donkey Kong, Pong, Pac-Man, Centipede, Millipede, etc.. ) then don't bother making a game.

matt @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Using the FastLoad Cart to load up games quickly from that 30lb floppy drive. and that Micro People game.

Beddoes @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Flimbos quest, Klax, Trap Door etc... so many fond memories.

Khan Soul @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

The Commodore 64 was actually a mind-control device used by the communist space pirates of Golgar 12 to try and take over the world. We cannot allow it to return. To many brave men and women have given their lives to protect freedom. YOUR freedom! Fight people! FIGHT!

Satertek @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Our first family computer was a C64, though, I was around 6 or 7 so I can't remember many specific game names except for the Fischer Price games (School Bus driver, Fire Fighter...good times) Had one cartridge game...Moon Patrol maybe? Yea. That game rocked.

Rocketboy @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

They are all fond memories... even being able to grab a quick snack while games were loading... thoes were the days... Hat Trick, Microleague Baseball, and all the hacked imports from Europe....

Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

The C64 (and, later, the 64-C) was my first "true" gaming machine... er, not counting the VIC-20! At any rate, those were the golden days of Electronic Arts (then abbreviated as "ECA"): The Seven Cities of Gold, Lords of Conquest, Skyfox, Heart of Africa, Racing Destruction Set, and so forth. And how can you forget other titles like Caveman Ugh'lympics, The Three Stooges, and Summer/Winter Games? =)

It's a shame that Commodore couldn't compete with the NES on the home-console scene (anyone remember that cheesy '80s-rock TV commercial touting the Commodore 64 as a game machine?), but the inability to autoload those fragile floppies might've had something to do with it. If only the Amiga had cartridges or released at a lower, family-friendly price point, we might've seen Commodore's home-computer dominance extend for far longer outside of Europe.

stagl @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

my memories? dual disk drives for copying my buddy's floppies and punching the side of a 5 1/4 floppy with a hole puncher to make it double sided. that was the shit. dan choi is right when commodore was the first real gaming platform for a large group of folks.

Robert McManus @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

My most fondest memories of owning the C64 is watching my son Justin, at 2 years old, learn how to load the game Wheel Of Fortune and play it with my Wife and I.

This was his first introduction to computers back in 1988, and is currently his major in college.

Thank You Commodore..

mynus @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

The original Wolfenstein: ,8,1 you young whipper snappers. ,8,1!!!!!

Oshi @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I never had a Commodore. But I did have a Colecovision!

Exbzurg @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

hehehe I had one of the lesser mentioned c128's. so hah.

Christian @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

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some guy @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

So many games and memories from the commodore 64.

Seven Cities of Gold. Ball Blazers. Maniac Mansion. All the original Electronic Arts games. Karateka. Toy Bizarre. Lazy Jones. Impossible Mission. Summer Games I and II, Winter Games, World Games, all those Epyx games. Space Taxi. Jumpman. Way of the Exploding Fist. So many games I can't even remember.

Graphics kinda mattered, but if the game was fun, graphics didn't mean shit.

I was born in 1980 with this as my first "console". My dad would take me to Toy's 'R' Us and he'd buy me some Mastertronic game or something.

I remember being so psyched on it. I never really knew it as a computer that was used for anything other than basic programming and games. What the hell else was it good for?

Neal @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I had about 500 or so programs for the 64.
Loved "Attack on Bungling Bay" "Zork I, II, III"
Impossible Mission, Beach Head I and II, Kareteka, Yie ar Kung Fu, ARCHON ARCHON ARCHON!

Funny thing, though, I never could finish Bruce Lee. 'Twould always lock up. So recently I played it in a C64 emulator and it still locks in all the same spots. Good Times.

P.s. ; Don't forget Archon

Josh Lewis! @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I loved the C64! I still do!

My original is still in my parents' basement, and it still worked as recently as a year or two ago, I think. I was only 3 or 4 when we got it, but I used it for about 6 years after that. I had Maniac Mansion and Zac McKracken, Ghostbusters, Castle Wolfenstein (I think?) racing games, text-based games... I think some of my favorite gaming memories have been on that machine. Graphics don't make the game. It's all about gameplay and imagination.

I even tried to program it here and there, but I wasn't very successful.

While we're on the topic, someone needs to make a band called "Loadstar 81" just to honor the machine. ;-)

Raydeen @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

AMIGA how I miss thee.

joe @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I had that crappy atari computer but I loved playing Beachhead 1 and 2 on my friends comadore 64.

Adi @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I totally loved 'Impossible Mission'! :)

bgumm @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Christmas of 1986. my brother and i tearing open the boxes and screaming like mad. we played the sh!t out of it in the first few days, and i never looked back.

the first game we were head-over-heels for: Jumpman by Epyx. i can still whistle the music from that game.

Jason Stewart @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

My fondest memories:

* Waiting 30 minutes for Frogger to load from the tape drive.

* Learning 6502 Assembly language, and never using it again.

* Programming the SID chip

* Creating sprite graphics

* Building an 8-bit relay-based interface controller board for my Omnibot, and storing the movements in the C64 video memory.

* "Upgrading" to a C64c, and finally getting a floppy drive, which cost more than the computer.

* Having the computer last from middle school through high school. Unheard of nowadays.

Ben @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

I still have a working SX-64 with JiffyDOS! I loved Elite. I spent hours on that one. I also loved Ghosts and Goblins and Gauntlet and Portal and Little Computer People (the first Sims) I started my career as a Commodore C64 and Amiga repairman back in the 80's. Component level chip replacement and drive alignment because the things were to expensive to replace. Fun stuff. Yeah, I still have my disc punch too!

Scott @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

My parents opted for the C-128, which generated a bit of excitement among my friends. My fondest memories were the constant trading and borrowing of pirated games. Floppies were swapped like Pokemon cards. Even in my small school we must have had access to nearly every title available at the time ('86-ish?) through friends of friends of friends.

Good times.

Josh Rybicki @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Mail-Order Monsters!!!

Josh Rybicki @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Mail-Order Monsters!!!

zander106 @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Oh, where to begin:

-Project Firestart, the first "cinematic" computer game

-Epyx. The EA of C64 gaming.

-G.I. Joe (an Epyx game). Snake Eyes locked in jail? Time your joystick selection and button press right, you can still play him!

-Cinemaware. Defender of the Crown, It Came From The Desert, Rocket Ranger....awesomeness. (yes, I realize some of those are Amiga)

-Early Microprose stuff. Airborne Ranger, Red Storm Rising. Sweet.

-Lastly...Ahoy! magazine! Loved that mag.

-Lastly lastly....QLink! My first foray online back in the day.

tagger @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Interesting story for ya'll. All my friends were getting 64's so glorious with their color screens and great games, and I wanted one so bad for my b-day. So I begged and begged my pops for one, not thinking he'd actually go through with it. Then on that fateful day, I saw a huge box and in the closet and decided to open it. Much to my surprise and disappointment it was some stupid computer that had games in B&W. I had never heard of it, it was called an apple or mackintosh or some s--t like that. I stormed into their room with a hissy fit. My father subsequently did something i couldnt believe....he spit in my face, and called me an ungrateful little s--t. Which i was....Still, I much rather have played dig-dug in color than Airborne with a mouse.

PiratePete @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

WAVY NAVY!!!
Commando, Bubble Bobble, and some old Mechwarrior title.
Yeah, it was my first game console too. Used the line "I can use it for school" line to get one. Never did get around to getting a printer for it anyways. That GEOS software really blew. It was also my first introduction into software piracy. YeaH! Yes, I still remember punching those 5.25 floppy disks and waiting for hours over at my friends place to download and copy the latest games from some BBS site over an 800 baud modem connection.
Ahhh memories:)

Jim @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

C64?

AMIGA!!!

Payton Byrd @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

The Commodore VIC 20 got me where I am today. I was christmas shopping with the family at the local Montgomery Wards. I had seen the Bill Shatner commercials for the VIC, but never seen an actual VIC. I was about 10 or 11 at the time. As we were want to do, as soon as we hit the Montgomery Wards floor we each went off into our own direction to find things we wanted, write it down (item number, prices, department, etc) and then collect back togeter at the customer service desk. I headed straight for the electronics section, which back then consisted of TVs, Solid State Stereo's and typewriters. That's when I saw it: The Commodore VIC-20. It was on a special display that had the owner's manual bolted to the display. You could turn the pages and read it. You could turn on the computer and type on it. I started reading the manual and typing the examples of BASIC programming language. I then started modifying the examples and wrote my first code. I was hooked. So hooked I forgot to meet back up with the family. Some how, three hours had passed and I had managed to look at one item that I wanted for christmas. My uncle finally found me in the electronics and had to pry me away from it nearly in tears. I didn't get that VIC-20 for christmas that year, but the next summer my uncle came to visit me during my annual vacation at my grandmother's house. He was bearing a big box, and in it was my very own VIC-20 with a set of cassette tapes that taught the basics of BASIC. I was so overjoyed that I spent the entire summer, and subsequent years through high school graduation, devoted to my Commodores. Today I make my living as a computer programmer and system architect. I owe it all to my extremely generous uncle who was the only person to see the look on my face upon my first ever encounter with a computer.

The Commodore community is still alive and kicking. I've recently blogged about the state of Commodoredom at http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/visualbasic/dotnet/archives/005574.asp so go check it out and get caught up all over again!

ArcSine @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

Legacy of the Ancients, Wasteland, Legend of Quicksilver, Below the Root, Impossible Mission... Need I go on?

John Jones @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM

My first computer was a VIC20, a nice little machine, which I enjoyed immensely until the larger Commodore 64 came along with its greatly enhanced memory. In those early days there was little if any off the shelf software for the commodore, a condition that quickly introduced others like myself into the world of computer programming. As a teacher, my primary interest leaned more toward production software rather than game playing. Commodore basic was an excellent introduction to programming and I wrote and used many educational programs, student record keeping programs along with general database software that ran on Commodore basic. I was very disappointed when the management at Commodore lost its way in the market place to the fast paced evolution of DOS operating systems. I have never found a basic language having the power and potential that Commodore basic had. If Commodore should resurface I hope it will do so with the same imagination and innovation we loved so much in those wonderful old machines of the past.