Commodore 64 seems to be the name that has long been forgotten. It has been decades since it arrived in the home computing market and left a massive mark. Talking about single model computers, Commodore 64 still remains to be the best selling option which was able to sell around 12.5 million units during its lifetime. Commodore 64 is finally back, 39 years later, and is back to definitely leave a mark once again, even stronger than the one it did when it originally shipped.
Commodore has somehow still managed to stay in the market one way or the other. There were numerous efforts to benefit from the nostalgic feeling of the C64 branding with the C64 Mini and even a full sized reboot known as TheC64. However, the comeback this time is entirely different. It is more of an extension of the My Retro Computer. This comes after Sean Donahue, the owner of Commodore, licensed the name of the company to use it on the all-new Commodore 64x which has been put up for offer on Kickstarter. This is a continuation of the same modern remakes which the owner of Commodore USA was selling during the time between 2010 and 2012.
With this comeback, Donahue wants to see the Commodore be a household name once again. However, it isn’t that simple and easy. Initially, when his Kickstarter page was up, it was able to cross its funding goal of 30,722 USD in no time. However, soon after this, Kickstarter had to delist the page and investigate a copyright claim. As it turns out, the copyright claim was false and the campaign is on its feet again.
Many of us, especially those who have pitched in the funding, want to see this cool campaign reach completion. Three models are being offered; the Commodore 64x Ultimate, the Commodore 64x Extreme, and the Commodore 64x Bareones. The Barebones model turns out to be our favorite as it is more of a keyboard-slash-case with options for users to install either a Raspberry Pi or a mini ITX motherboard inside.
These variants are powered by Intel Processors. The Bareones go upto Core i9 processor and GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with 4GB of VRAM.
Talking about the remaining two models; the CPU and GPU both come embedded and hence can’t be upgraded. The RAM, however, can be expanded to 64 GB. An integrated docking station further adds a 2.5 inches of SATA SSD or HDD to increase storage space.
