Amiga and Commodore, Back Together (Sort Of)

Amiga And Commodore, Back Together (Sort Of) | Hackaday

The story of Commodore, the famous manufacturer of home computers, is a murky one at best. Commodore fans will decry their woeful marketing and dismal product roadmap, while former employees such as our Hackaday colleague [Bil Herd] have shone a bit of light on the goings-on behind the scenes. The company’s final demise in the collapse of the German company Escom scattered its parts to the four winds, but now we find a potential return to clarity.

Amiga Corporation, holders of much of the Commodore and Amiga IP, have reached agreements with Commodore International Corporation, the recently formed face of the Commodore brand, and Hyperion Entertainment BV, who have been behind a series of Amiga developments over recent decades.

The press release provides a fascinating map of the Commodore and Amiga ecosystem as it stands in the 21st century, something which has sometimes eluded fans. As we understand it the rights to the 8-bit IP reside alongside the rights to the Amiga IP with Amiga Corporation, and it’s these 8-bit rights, or at least the software and documentation within them, that have been licensed to Commodore International Corporation. Meanwhile in a separate agreement the rights to continued development of AmigaOS 4.x remain with Hyperion, while the AmigaOS 3.x versions for the 68k Amigas will revert to Amiga Corporation at the end of 2027.

As far as we can see then, this should enable Commodore International Corporation to produce their line of 8-bit Commodore 64s and other machines, while Hyperion continue to serve the AmigaOS 4.x community. The interesting part comes in the AmigaOS 3.x versions, for which Amiga Corporation say they will continue to direct the development and evolution. Does that mean we’ll eventually see a 68k Amiga of some kind licensed through a company such as Commodore International Corporation? It’s an interesting prospect, and a story we’ll follow.

5 thoughts on “Amiga And Commodore, Back Together (Sort Of)”

Loved my Amiga 500 back in the day used it for all my degree work and of course a bit of gaming. Also used to be jealous of a friend’s vic20 back in the day when I had my old zx spectrum 48k

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Maybe an Amiga DTV, all built into a Tank mouse, with a (thin) HDMI cable attached to it as a mouse cable?

The HDMI cable could use HDMI Cable Power to power the ADTV. With an HDMI connector on the TV’s side that supports a USB-C port to supply power if the TV doesn’t support HDMI Cable Power. That way there’s only one cable between the ADTV and the TV.

Of course the ADTV needs a micro SD card slot.

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Joystick ports on the tank mouse. And maybe a small thumb joystick (8 directions plus push-to-click) that acts as a joystick in port 0, while the ADTV mouse (or course optical) acts as the Amiga mouse in port 1.

Maybe no SD card slot but two or more USB-C slots that can take peripherals and USB sticks.

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My gold commodore ultimate is pretty, but I feel.like they’re close to milking this well of of nostalgia dry. Perfractic phone antics and hucksterism didn’t help. I’m actually kinda happy the Amiga IP is out of his clutches.

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And where is Cloanto in all this?

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Amiga and Commodore, Back Together (Sort Of)

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