I think retro is great because it makes me realize how great our hardware and software is today: super sharp, super fast, super sleek.

Amiga 500.

The Amiga was ahead of its time in many ways, supporting a color palette of 4096 colors and playing audio in four-channel stereo (two channels per stereo channel) in 8-bit format. This made it the first true multimedia computer for home use. At its heart was a Motorola 68000 processor with a clock speed of 7 MHz, and the 256 kB of internal memory was expandable.

The AmigaOS-like operating system supported multitasking, shared libraries, and the use of the right mouse button.
This made it possible to run multiple programs simultaneously, even back then.

Amiga 500 Music Compilation

 

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I think I saw this. They want to make "hardware" C64 (or Amiga) computers.

Although I had and loved both C64 and Amiga 500 it doesn't make much sense having very good emulators. Besides, inside they would be some Arduino-like mini-pc running an emulator.

I think the OP mentioned the Amiga 1200. That was very powerful for its era, but Commodore was already in free fall. I do remember some effects for tv shows were made with an Amiga 2000 (basically an Amiga 500 with proper case and more RAM) with a very innovative cartridge. Still older and less powerful than a 1200. So as said before by others, very far from T2 effects.

 

I know a couple months ago it was announced that some YouTuber bought the Commodore brand. The price they mentioned at the time actually shocked the hell out of me. It was announced as "$1M", which I don't think is right, but when searching around a bunch a lot of articles say "low-7 figures". Either way, I know Commodore went under, but that still surprises me for some reason that this is all it went for, given how popular the brand was in the 80s. They could do a few things with the brand to earn that money back quick, I'd think.

 

You said it, it's shocking. They fucked up real badly an amazing product. Beginning with the marketing, but I think there were other factors.

It's not the first time they try to relaunch Commodore, but never got done before and as time passes it makes less sense. That being said, this is better than nothing. But still for an extremely small target of people.

 

This!

 

At a very young age (80s), I had something nobody else had fiftythouisand miles around: Steinberg Software (back then it was still called NOTATOR on the Atari ST), a master keyboard, an Akai sampler (without a display, so much "BURP" was possible), and looking back from today's perspective, my "music-making" years before on the C-64 was MUCH more fun and creative in terms of flow with Noise\Fastracker. Maybe it's my age. GUYS, that was really the FIRST thing that came close to what we have today, and everyone was completely blown away. (Not me, of course, because I was already playing the ZX-81 before the C64, and nobody had that for miles.) I think people under 50 don't understand that. When the first intro to a game came, where Billy Idol's guitar riff from the C64 was SAMPLED (for the first time) (with a module, the sound chip SID is still awesome), everyone was speechless, and then everything worked with Fastracker. Later, I told everyone They envied me for my Akai, Notator, etc. That it all sucked and Fastracker was 10x better. And 2-3 years later, it was back in shape from its first PC (3\486 DX7), and I remember the following truly honest incident. I had a date with a super-pretty girl back then, the first one... I'd only been sitting with her in a cafe for a few minutes when a friend came down from upstairs and said to me, "Rank, Fastracker is back for my PC, which can't do ANYTHING, and the best part is, these are brand new Sid RAM modules, you could basically sample STEREO 44.1 for 15 minutes straight! What did I do (NO JOKE)? I told her I'm so sorry, but I need to sort something out, and sent her home. I checked with him upstairs to make sure everything was OK, and i said LOADED with luck and overhappyness, DUDE, tomorrow you'll get the money to buy me such crappy looking PC with everything that goes with it and from this PC I still have my first 2 really good megamixes (each 12 min long) - Its the Age, we are the first that get toucht with this electronic crap

 

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Notator from Steinberg? Wow! The rest of us only had Notator from C-Lab.

 

RIGHT, c-lab confused with Steinberg, my age? No idea, which shows how much I was interested. On the other hand, Steinberg soon became interesting to everyone with VST Revolution.But I'm glad you can laugh such extreme about this mistake - With such low demands, I probably wouldn't have trusted you with such a setup, rather a keyboard that makes "MUH" "OINOINK" "QUARK"... and who is us ? the fame c-lab gang around your block

 

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The greatest thing that happened with Amiga was the tracker and the users around it. First of all the software, that is Noisetracker/Protracker/(Octa)MED really, let people create killer tunes of course. But it was the culture around it, creating and swapping ST-XX discs, but mainly the module format because it was self contained and made sharing tunes incredibly easy. Also you got your hands on a module, you could open it up, snatch the samples, see any cool tricks that it did and remix the bad boy if you wanted. The best way to learn.

This culture still exists and new tunes are still made, not to mention all of the offspring of Soundtracker. Fasttracker and Screamtracker of course, very important for the PC scene but also current ones like OpenMPT, SunVox and Renoise. Hell, even OctaMED had a release last year.

 

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I remember my cousins had a lot of stuff for their C64, that my uncle got for them.
One of those things was three diskettes with sampled music. The first was some seconds of Madonna's Material Girl. Jaw dropping.

That's some serious geek energy. Sacrifices have to be made. Respect

 

All that makes me Nostalgic again, yes wow what a Time it was the 80s . I made a few Songs with Soundtracker...Listened to all that IFF sample Format .mod Songs of the Scene (Ice Mc-Easy etc) . A minimalism with Only 4 Trackers. And what people done with only 4 Tracks. Magic!! You was only focussed on Creativity not so much in mixing etc. Then came Oktalyzer/Octamed with 8 Tracks but less bit Quality but I was Super Happy. Later Demo Maker to Inject your own Songdata (from Soundtracker etc) with Graphical Effects before the Game Loads ,just for Fun for friends, to make show with it (bla bla Presents Game Name etc) and sharing Games on a sidenote.... Introducing your Music the first Time to try satify people with your first Ideas.Was nice Times...My first Sequencer in that Time with Midi was Dr. T´s Music Software...I still have all the Raw Songs (Over 60 little snippets of Song...never got a Completed Songs, ,softspot of me ,I was out of Ideas/boring and did the next Song maybe a few was Completed ,dont know) all that I have it on diskettes but dont know how to transfer the Midi to Cubase 14. Anyway it was great Times....Ach früher war alles schöner

 

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Right! i still use OpenMPT rare times (Sometimes to made fresh tunes for various crack-groups...from the group "Team Rept" as example (disbanded in 2014) it was 90% .it\.mod files from me besides GFX

 

I'm hype in a sense that I grew up with C64 and later with Amiga (also protracker and stuff). Lovely to see this stuff come back. Lots of nostalgia. I've been toying around with the idea of buying used Amiga 1200 again over the years. Amiga is the best home computer ever made, only Amiga makes it possible!

 

I hunted down his ever elusive EMAIL on the internet, finally found it, and mailed him what I would like the new C64 should have! :D :D :D Easily a 12,000 dollar config for sure! :D :D
Here are the features of the "C64 Super" I requested from him: ((((all really simple to do, no real pressure :D:D:D)))

"
Since you bought Commodore, here is the new SuperC64 Hardware I want to buy from you:

We need joysticks and a new graphics interpreter that can UPSCALE C64 resolution and UPCOLOR C64 games to at least re-sampled 256 color Amiga palettes and of course do this while ALL C64 games remain supported. Kind of ReShade, which can dramatically change the mood of games. But in one glorious chip or hardware tied emulator software, which
1. runs games rock solid while:
2. ResolutionUpScaled and To256ColorsReSampled C64 games load INSTANTly on the thing
3. Since the New C64 ColorUpSampling Graphics CHiP offers ReShade-like MOOD CONFIGs, MODDERS = C64 Game Graphics-Look Re-Mixers shall be welcome for creating multiple C64-"ReShade" MOODs / MODDED Graphics ReMixes in order to re-create the looks in 256 Color of the best C64 games EVER!!
4. The New Commodore SOUND Chip must also be able to UP-SAMPLE ALL C64 Musics and make them sound like the LukHash C64 reMIXed ALBUM
5. New C64 Action Replay™©℗® SuperCard must offer iNSTA-hacks AND instant SAVE-STATES on a large enough RAM cartridge so that it effectively offers infinite number of subsequent (quicksaves) SAVE STATES 100% supporting ALL C64-Games!!! All and any Save-States can be INSTA-loaded back FROM AN EASILY SCROLLABLE TIMELINE which offers Small Screenshots for every SaveState - like Baldur's Gate 3's Infinite QuickSave System on the PC.

Hm.. yeah that will do it!"

 

I do miss my c64 sometimes but the SID chip is overrated and most every other computer or video game system had more interesting sound

 

Btw. i got all c64 & Amiga Games incl. Demos and operating system versions (eg workbench, all work also with emulators that on PC are really good) may i should upload it if by interest. Dont be alarmed it is legal! (Else i had quote sharing any ChaosComputerClub stuff whos internal and not legal )

 

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It was Babylon5, SciFi TV Series. FYi

This was the Start of the Mighty Merging Technologies!
Building Audio Interfaces/ADDAs for Comodore

 

Another new toy for adults and the young at heart. This will be a huge business to satisfy the urge to play.

 

To take a bit of the magic out of it: this isn’t some brand-new, from-scratch version of the Commodore C64. Stuff like this has actually been around for a while – since 2018, to be precise – under the name C64 Ultimate or Ultimate 64. In short, it’s a cycle-exact recreation of a Commodore C64, built on FPGA technology. And that Ultimate 64 board is basically the foundation for this newly hyped product. Sure, a couple of tweaks have been made for the “new” release, but at the end of the day it’s still the same Ultimate 64 board that’s been around since 2018. Which means: people who already own one aren’t exactly blown away by this. The bigger news is really that the original creator of the Ultimate 64 board, Gideon Zweijtzer, is now officially part of this new project and the new Commodore company.

If you ask the “old farts” outside of social media and YouTube hype, their answer is usually: let’s just wait and see. And I tend to agree. I’ve been using the original board since 2019, and honestly – it doesn’t magically transport me back to the 80s or 90s. That kind of feeling just can’t be emulated, no matter how hard you try.

And yeah, there are plenty of SID chip emulations out there that really don’t need to hide behind the original. The thing is, there’s never going to be the one true emulation – simply because nobody can say for sure how a SID is “supposed” to sound. The production tolerances in the analog part were so huge that basically every SID sounded a little different. That’s also why it’s tricky to compare emulations with the “real thing.” At best, it’s always about getting as close as possible to whatever reference you’re using.

I once had the honor of comparing the actual sound chip from Chris Huelsbeck’s Commodore 64 – the one he used to compose Shades – with a handful of other SIDs from the very same production week at MOS Technologies. The result? They sounded similar, but not identical. Still, at least I got to hear Shades exactly the way the master originally composed it! :D

 

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