AMIGA comes back?

[sw2001]

Just found this here:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5...ml?tag=nl.e589

what do you think about that?

EDIT (just in case the page would not be available anymore)

Is Commodore poised for a comeback?

It may be time for a Commodore comeback.

No, Lionel Richie isn't signing up with his old band. We're talking about Commodore, the venerable computer brand.

A Dutch consumer media company is hoping it can tap the power of the VIC 20, the PET and the Commodore 64 to launch a new wave of products, including a home media center device and a portable GPS (Global Positioning System) unit and media player.

Yeahronimo Media Ventures, which has offices in Los Angeles and Baarn, the Netherlands, acquired the rights to the Commodore name late last year in a deal worth just over $32.7 million. Earlier this year, it took on Commodore as its own corporate moniker. The rebranded company already has some products available in Europe and on its Web site, but hopes to enter the U.S. market at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

In an interview, Commodore CEO Ben van Wijhe said the company bought the Commodore name with the idea of tapping its reputation for games and multimedia.

"It is not only the brand name but also the heritage of Commodore that interested us," he said.

The company has said it plans to launch three products at the show. The Commodore MediaBox is an all-in-one home entertainment box with an Internet connection, digital TV tuner and hard drive for playing music downloads, games or on-demand video. The Commodore Navigator is a Windows CE-based portable device with a 20GB hard drive for music and video storage as well as built-in GPS and a 3.6-inch touch screen.

Commodore is far from the first company to try to revive a once-popular tech brand. The Amiga, Commodore's onetime PC brand, has had its own decades-long history as fans tried to preserve both the computer's operating system and brand despite the lack of strong corporate backing.

Gateway had hopes of reinvigorating the Amiga PC when it bought the name and technology in 1997, but eventually scrapped its plans and sold the brand in 1999. Efforts to keep the computer's OS alive, however, have continued into the current decade.

Another '80s game name, Atari, bounced among several owners before making a comeback earlier this decade. Gamemaker Infogrames acquired Atari's name and game titles in 2001 and began using Atari as its own corporate name in May 2003. Meanwhile, Atari's classic games have also found new life in low-end TV consoles and cell phones.

Napster is perhaps one of the best-known recent transformations, with an authorized music subscription service taking on the brand built as the first of many rebel peer-to-peer file-sharing systems.

Van Wijhe said he has heard from a lot of Commodore and Amiga fans in the 12 months since his company announced plans to acquire the well-known name.

"People were looking at us very close to see what we were going to do with it," he said. "We got thousands of e-mails of people that wanted to work for us and with us."

Commodore itself, though, is quite small, currently employing about 50 people with annual sales of around 40 million euros ($48 million).

"We're growing fast, very fast," Van Wijhe said.

[BippyM]

They don't own the Amiga brand anymore, so this interests me...... NOT!

[Zetr0]

LOL, looks like another piece of history up for sale LOL,

heres a lil bit i thought was a little misguided though

Originally Posted by Is Commodore poised for a come back?

Commodore is far from the first company to try to revive a once-popular tech brand. The Amiga, Commodore's onetime PC brand, has had its own decades-long history as fans tried to preserve both the computer's operating system and brand despite the lack of strong corporate backing.

tried????

tried ???

damn i thought we was still trying and thud HAVE NOT GIVEN UP!!!!

silly missguided peoples...

Yet a mildly interesting read too

[Exoskeletor]

god please, for the new year, burn all the pc's and make new amiga computers to come up and take the world, amen

[Doc Mindie]

It's enough burning the PC Motherboards, and install AmigaOne Motherboards instead, innit?

[Mikey_C]

Yeah, if you could flipping buy one that is

[Ironclaw]

If Amigas would rise someday to become intelligent like in Matrix, I'm sure glad to be on their side.. ehh..


??



AMIGA FOREVER!

[spiff]

Yay!!!
Another company that will sue anybody who misuse “their” brand name!?

[woody57]

Sadly Spiff you tounge in cheek remark is a LOT more likely to be the case than any hardware resurgence ... unless its an all in one stick for tv's.

Corperate logo's are big buisness as are OLD BAND names !

However the nightmare you unviel will hit this community a lot harder than the fans of sme forgotten 60's band

even if they started making pc clones id buy one...just for the case :P

love a media player tho....make it look like a 64 :P

[woody57]

I take it you MISSED the ESCOM commodore badged PC's then lensman ?

yep ive seen the escom junk...just cheap crap with a commodore badge on it

what i was talking about is an IBM pc clone with an a4000/2000 style case

and even better have an internal card you could stick the ROMS in and switch from windoze to amiga os........i know id buy one

[blade002]

How many times have we seen this hey guys!. How many companies have purchased the Commodore / Amiga brand and did nothing with it!. And they are talking about using Windows CE on the system!.

All this is, is the bloody name and nothing more!. This really has nothing to do with what Commodore stood for.

A Shame.

[Ironclaw]

Recording a longplay of "Code Name Hell Squad" at the moment, and thought this screenshot could fit in this thread just for fun.

I found a nice book in the shelf.

[jobro]

Indeed it is a shame that these people, is trying to claim the name. For what reason is to me unknown. But seriously said we'll wait and see what will happen. I have no high hopes on "Commodores comeback".

[3dcandy]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28762

Commodores comeback with a picture...

[guardiansknight]

^^ bloody hell, wonder if it will be able to play miggy games without any fuss

[3dcandy]

Don't think so - but it's about $700....

Comes with some NES games though, and a 20gb hard drive

too late...its already been invented

its called a LAPTOP!

nes games and mp3 (with bloody DRM)!?!? ffs you can get a game park for 80 quid that can do that

and the company will sit round and wonder why a SEVEN HUNDRED pound media player failed

cock up merchants

i still think my "amiga OS card for PCs" would have been better

[dreamkatcha]

Originally Posted by guardiansknight

^^ bloody hell, wonder if it will be able to play miggy games without any fuss

I doubt it seeing as that's what Amiga fans really want, lol. They already sell the Commodore 64 version so it's not such a huge leap to take it to the next level... you'd think.

On another note, this new gizmo runs Windows CE, boo hiss!