Yes, you’ve read that right. Commodore USA are re-launching the C-64 and though there’s no release date yet, they are taking pre-orders. Sadly though, if I’m to be honest at all, I doubt they will have much success. As much as I loved learning about computers, and delaying the inevitable discovery of “girls”, with a VIC-20, then a C-64 and later several Amigas, I just don’t see any point to releasing those computers now.
In an age of portability, where the most installed OS is Android, counting for nearly 40%, of the 5 billion portable devices to be shipped in 2011, except for the few enthousiasts that are left from the Commodore golden era, It’s just unlikely they’ll even sell enough Commodore PCs to make any substantial profits. Heck even PC sales are down in favor of more modern, portable devices like tablets and the ultra portable computers that cell phones have become.
Especially if you consider the hefty price-tag starting at 600$ for a base C-64 PC. The new C-64 comes equipped with a dual core Atom processor which begs the question, why not the better suited ARM processor by nVidia?
Having said that, I can’t wait to see a real one in action.
