Commodore is back, again! Please be for real this time.

Alright, I gotta' preface this so bear with me. This is written assuming you already know the insane history of Commodore, both in its original form and the rights Hell the brand has been in since they first went bankrupt in 1994. If you don't know that history, it's very important to the story, but there are lots of retellings out there, including a brief one provided in the first of the videos I'll link below. Trust me, knowing the context will make this story even more compelling.

I have a lot of fond retro memories involving many brands of the past but like many, I have a particular plaec in my heart for Commodore. The first computer I ever touched was a Commodore 64. It was in grade 1 in 1984, when my class was taken down to our school's computer lab for an introduction. This was still early days for home computing and even the few who were lucky enough to have one at home often barely understood them. From the moment we turned them on and I saw the blue Commodore BASIC screen appear, a fire in my soul was lit that still burns bright today. It's when I instantly realized the near infinite possibilities these wonderous boxes provided and I knew they were my life's calling.

The world of computing today barely resembles the one back then. When people think of computers now, they think PC and Mac or even just their phone or tablet, which makes me sad but I digress. In the late 70s and early 80s, there were literally dozens of platforms from dozens of worldwide companies, all in a mad gold rush to get market share. Few of them were compatible with each other, making the war even more fierce. You think platform wars started with just Nintendo versus SEGA? Oh no, they go way further back than that.

Many of them failed out of the gate and of those that didn't, most had white hot success for a few years, only to burn out and die off just as fast, Commodore being no exception. From humble beginnings in the late 50s selling typewriters, calculators and office furniture, the ruthless but visionary Jack Tramiel saw a new market open and along with a team of brilliant and to say the least, eccentric engineers, pivoted into home computers with the right mix of timing and rock bottom prices to incredible success. By 1994 however, Icarus' wings had melted and with Tramiel long gone to rival Atari, the company collapsed under the weight of mismanagement and a slew of flop products.

There's a series of great books on the company by author Brian Bagnall, which seem to have all but disappeared from the Internet, along with Mr. Bagnall himself. If you can find them and want a deep history lesson, I highly recommend them.

All of this is to say that for those fans who still hold a love for the company, it's been a long and often troubled 31 years since it first passed on. As the rights have been passed around, several different companies have tried to revive the brand in different ways, using it for everything from modern PCs, to smartphones, to a remarkably good retro plug and play device, to friggin' paper shredders. Needless to say, none of these did justice to the brand nor the legacy that devoted fans still carry a torch for. It was all but assumed that it would forever live in this horrible purgatory.

Well, that all changed back in June of 2025.

I really recommend you watch all three of these videos (don't mind the thumbnails) to see insane ride this story is, but if you don't have time, here's a quick summary: Perifractic is an actor, writer, retro YouTuber and also an epic Commodore fan. He wanted to approach the current owners of the brand and trademarks to inquire about licensing them for some new products intended to honour the legacy. To his shock, they instead offered to sell him the whole lot and with some angel investors, crowdfunding and apparently a lot of leveraging his own finances, the mad lad went and bought it. The purchase price has not been revealed, but it's said to be in the 7 figure range. There is a new Commodore International Corporation headed by Perifractic as CEO that is taking pre-orders for a modernized Commodore 64 computer, along with a whackton of add-ons and merch. More products and a grander vision beyond those are also in the works.

Perifractic has said that his goal with the new company is not only to release new products, but to offer fair brand licensing deals to people who want to sell their own retro products with the Commodore name, vetting them for quality so we don't just get more paper shredders. While still a for-profit company, he said it's written into the corporate by-laws that it is required to preserve and promote retro computing. They are using the Public Benefit Corporation legal designation to ensure this, though usually I've seen that represented in naming as "PBC", not "Corporation" so I'm curious about that.

They also have this in my opinion, cringey and somewhat pretentious sounding "digital detox brand" idea on their about page:

OK guys, I live and breathe technology both for fun and for a living, yet I certainly know the value of the occasional step back, especially from the big tech "services" that are unquestionably poisoning society. But let's not get too far up our own arses here, yeah? This is a revival of an old computer brand that there's a lot of nostalgia for, not some new cyber hippie movement. A vision statement's a good thing, but I think this might be loading too much baggage this early on. That's honestly a minor gripe though.

They've also said they plan to announce a companion charity called Commodore Care (not to be confused with the unrelated Commodore Cares), which will focus on using the company's resources and products to help educate underprivileged youth about technology, it's history and get them a foundation in both. I ike this idea, but aside from discussing it in the first video, I've heard nothing else about it, nor is there any mention of it on the official web site. Again, I'm curious why this is.

Beyond these smaller points, the real big question for myself and many others is simply: Is this for real this time? Commodore's come back many times now and every time the community's been let down. There's already drama over the validity of the trademarks in certain places, though it's being instigated by people with to put it politely, shady underpinnings and probably doesn't mean much.

Perifractic and company are certainly hitting the right vibes and saying the right things. However, there is a lot of appeal to emotion in those videos and make no mistake, that's by design. They weren't just showing the process of buying the trademarks, they were spinning a narrative and trying to get you invested in it, with actual money in some cases. Their team page is packed with Commodore and retro royalty and while it's great to see these people lending their names to it, several are clearly honourary positions like "Visionary", "Chief Creative Officer" (a role held by an actor most famous for his role in the awesome HBO series Silicon Valley), and "Chief Tramiel Officer". I don't question anyone's passion or sincerity, but they're also on that page for optics and to make you go "Hey, I know that guy!" I've been burned enough times by starry-eyed nostalgic projects to get a bit skeptical when I see this.

That said, this is also not some fly-by-night Indiegogo project that's never going to see the light of day. They did buy the brand and trademarks officially. The Commodore 64 Ultimate is already in production and looks like it's going to ship when promised. The same team page also has a others on it, many of whom are qualified engineers and businesspeople. This isn't just Perifractic trying to run the whole thing himself and saying "trust me bro". Indeed, if Jack Tramiel's son is willing to publicly associate himself with this, that's certainly a sign of confidence.

I can't make a C64 Ultimate pre-order work right now, but I certainly would get one if I could and I'd feel good about it, even though I have shelves of original Commodore gear in the basement waiting to be restored. This certainly looks like the best shot Commodore has ever had at a proper revival, but they're also going big right from the start and that comes with great potential, but also great risk. By all accounts, Perifractic is putting his money where his mouth is and has personally leveraged a lot to get this done because he loves Commodore that much. I salute the passion, but the sales pitch has also given me that same feeling I've had when I've felt suspect about a Kickstarter that later turned out to be a hot mess. Maybe that combined with Commodore's own weird history just has my sceptic senses tingling.

I would love nothing more than to be completely wrong and for this to deliver on everything it's promised and then some. If you're reading this Perifractic, I certainly don't need to tell you how much this means to so many of us. I hope you can bring it home and if you can, I'll definitely grab an Ultimate when the funds permit.

Good luck, we're watching with hope!