I saw some reactions to my editorial Disappointed with the New Commodore — including a note from Dave Haynie on Michal’s Facebook that I should have done more research.
He is right that if we talk about Commodore history, we need facts, dates, chipset plans. But that wasn’t what I meant to write.
My article was not a history lesson. It was a feeling.
With “Disappointed with the new Commodore” I mean this:
I watched Retro Recipes for years. When I heard “Commodore is back” I for a fleeting moment hoped it would continue where Commodore left in 1994 — with Amiga 1200, Amiga 4000, CD32, 4000T. Not with C64 Ultimate and a smartphone.
Don’t get me wrong: the C64 Ultimate is marvelous FPGA engineering, finding old 1986 molds is impressive logistics. But why start backwards? In 1994 Commodore bet on Amiga. Amiga should have been first priority for new Commodore. A new Amiga 5000 or Amiga 6500 that can run C64 like Vampire V4 can act as Atari if you hold joystick on boot. That would have been vision.
I didn’t fall in love with Commodore because of logo. I fell in love because of Jay Miner, Dave, RJ Mical — visionary engineering.
That is also what my “Sharing” article was about. Amiga survived because we shared — Fred Fish, Aminet, disks at copy party. Not because we made walled gardens. When new hardware only runs its own drivers, when Ami-named apps only work on one store, we split a garden that is already too small.
So yes, I am disappointed. Not because I hate C64. I love C64. But because if you call yourself Commodore in 2025, you should know your last chapter was Amiga — and Amiga people hoped you’d write next chapter.
That’s my opinion. It started discussions — and that’s good.
— Emiko, Amitopia
