I watched the video and support the effort. They seemed earnest and genuine in their desire to do right by the brand's legacy. However, I can't help but feel that releasing this information before the deal is in place is doing themselves a disservice. I can understand their excitement, but this could harm or derail any negotiation efforts. Business 101: don't count your chickens before they hatch.
I feel like the real story isn't 'Can We Save Commodore?' but 'What IS Commodore anymore?'. If it's just a trademark disconnected from its original tech, you're not reviving a legend, you're just starting a new company with a famous name.
Commodore as a company died long ago, as can be seen in Deathbed Vigil (a video recorded by one of the employees on the last day).
For a long time it has been misused and nearly disappeared. It is about 40+ trademarks owned by a holding company. It could have been worse if this was scattered among a lot of different entities. So, this is still kind of a big deal as they can acquire all of them
There are people now that know what a Commodire 64 is but have never heard of an Amiga. The C64 made a cultural impression that lasts today. I'm not sure why but anongst those born after both machines had had their day, quite a few have an idea what the C64 was.
Talking to the younger generation about the 8 bit era is wild. I mentioned that my first system (TRS-80) had 4k to someone and they expressed surprise at that you could get a monitor that good back then.
You'd think thats the case but all these retro Youtubers seems to have inspired a new generation to take up the mantle. I attend the Vintage Computing Festival(the one in NJ) each year and post pandemic it has been filled to the brim with young GenZ era people interested in experiencing the computers of yesteryear. Is it enough to make this venture worth it? We shall see. All the Retro Computing Youtubers including this one must have some demographic data to help fill inn the picture.
The only 'real' claim I could see to saving Commodore would be something adding backwards compatability this late in the game. It would be of dubious utility, but it would give a claim to legitimacy. Otherwise you might as well let it stay dead because there isn't anything to be gained from using it.
I don’t think you can have a public domain trademark; that doesn’t make sense with the concept. A trademark is specifically to identify the source of a product or service; if it were public domain and anyone could use it, its purpose would’ve been defeated.
On the building a Commodore game room for sick kids charity idea: one thing they wouldn't have is nostalgia for the 1980s home computers. Just get them Nintendos.
I didn’t have a NES growing up; my father didn’t allow “game-only” machines in his house. Instead we had a PET > Vic20 > C64 > PC over the years. Being I write code for a living, it seems his plan paid off for me?
That said, why can’t there be nostalgic 80s/90s consoles AND same-era computers?
No, I meant, if you want to provide video games, just provide whatever is current and popular. Also, they should research whether there is actually a need for this. One suspects that such a thing already exists.
IMHO, what would give real value to retro enthusiasts is BSD licensing all the Commodore (and Amiga) IP, rather than these constant efforts to slap the chicken lips logo onto some random hardware in the hope of charging premium for an "official" product.
Would any of the many replacement/emulation/FPGA efforts that already exist be better with a specific logo? More convenient? Cheaper? More successful? I have serious doubts.
This feels, as the saying goes, like a big fat nothingburger.
Context from the link: Editor's note: Commodore Corporation B.V. only owns the rights to the "Commodore" brand and the well-known "Chickenhead" logo. Software rights such as firmware ROMs or AmigaOS are owned by the Italian Mike Battilana or his Amiga Corporation, the same applies to various brands from the Amiga sector.
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For a long time it has been misused and nearly disappeared. It is about 40+ trademarks owned by a holding company. It could have been worse if this was scattered among a lot of different entities. So, this is still kind of a big deal as they can acquire all of them
The new generation has no idea
Talking to the younger generation about the 8 bit era is wild. I mentioned that my first system (TRS-80) had 4k to someone and they expressed surprise at that you could get a monitor that good back then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN8r4LRcOXc
How would that work? So anyone could release anything under the Commodore brand? That would be awful.
That said, why can’t there be nostalgic 80s/90s consoles AND same-era computers?
No, I meant, if you want to provide video games, just provide whatever is current and popular. Also, they should research whether there is actually a need for this. One suspects that such a thing already exists.
Would any of the many replacement/emulation/FPGA efforts that already exist be better with a specific logo? More convenient? Cheaper? More successful? I have serious doubts.
This feels, as the saying goes, like a big fat nothingburger.