It's Official You Can Purchase A Commodore Computer Again, but ...

The Commodore logo is back on a computer, however, is Commodore back? Times have changed so much since a Commodore computer was the mainstay of home PC gaming. To start with Microsoft weren't dominating the home PC market and telling us what to do with our systems. Things were a lot simpler then. The internet was around but was made up mainly of bulletin boards for computer geeks and scientists. Gaming was then in its infancy and people could create games from their living room without the need for multi million dollar budgets. People didn't build their own PCs then either. Atari consoles were booming in the home market and Commodore had created the greatest selling home computer of all time in the Commodore 64.

Residents of the UK and Ireland are going to be the first people in the world to pick up the new Commodore Gaming PCs. A larger rollout of the product is to be expected in mid-May. However, these are just beige boxes with pretty pictures on them. They are not Commodores. Just because you put a logo on something doesn't make it the same product. Commodore computers were indicative of the time in which they were released. They were pioneering the home computer market and home gaming in many ways. They were one of the cheapest home PC options in the marketplace. The products which are being released now and are badged with Commodore Gaming are just high priced PCs. Commodore hasn't pioneered the technology and the operating system in the boxes. They are just assembling a number of components, putting them in a PC case and slapping a logo on the side. While I love the romantic notion I have of Commodore computers from my childhood this is not enough to make me commit to a purchase of an expensive gaming PC just because of the logo. Certainly not when I can make one myself at a much cheaper price.

Unfortunately, I believe that consumers and the marketplace has changed in the 20 years when Commodore first broke in to the market. Computers aren't a gimmick anymore, they are a part of our day to day reality. As a result consumers are far better educated as computers as a product than they were when Commodore were first in the marketplace.

I actually regret that they have pulled the Commodore logo out of the closet and put it back on sale. Times have changed. Market loyalties have changed and Commodore are going to have to take on two of the biggest custom computer suppliers in the world, namely Alienware and Dell.