This is the story of, what looks like one person’s work to keep a brand, held dear to many, alive

How Important Commodore was to Europe

Photo by William Warby

A couple of times in previous articles, I’ve joked about how I consider myself RH’s European Correspondent, which is mainly due to the fact that I’m British and have lived in the UK all my life.

Being a kid in the UK in the 90s, the playground argument wasn’t Sega vs Nintendo, it was Atari ST vs Commodore Amiga. While I was a little too young to be gaming when the Amiga launched, the Amiga 600 (a device refresh 6 years after launch, which was received about as welcome as the Wii Mini) was my first ever gaming device, and it’s a system I have a huge amount of love for.

The Amiga 500 launched in 1986 (a year after the Atari ST). It was a 16-bit gaming machine at a time when the latest game consoles were the Sega Master System and NES. The next 16-bit gaming system (the Mega Drive / Genesis) wouldn’t be launched in Japan until 1988 and even that wasn’t able to display as many colors on screen as the Amiga.

For those few precious years, the Amiga really did feel like the best thing in the world. One way to consider how ahead of its time it was is to look at the Super Nintendo’s Super FX chip which launched in 1993 in the game StarFox. The Amiga had a similar technology included internally at launch.

After losing the gaming wars to Sega and Nintendo, Commodore UK eventually went bankrupt in 1995, with the brand name being sold off and used to market a range of PC hardware that no one was interested in. Essentially, this was the same as what happened to the Polaroid brand in the 00s. Anything launched in the 21st century with Commodore branding has essentially been trash.

“I Won’t Let You Down”

It’s interesting how 5 words can cause such an impact.

In June 2025, Christian Simpson of the YouTube channel “Retro Recipes” uploaded a video, which was ambitiously called “Part 1” of what he called the “Let’s Buy Commodore” series. The episode ended on a cliff-hanger, where the current owners of the Commodore brand were suggesting, in a voicemail he heard for the first time on camera, that they might sell the whole Commodore brand to him. YouTube being YouTube, and content farming being what it is, I didn’t personally think anything would come of this.

Last week, Chris uploaded Part 2, where he reveals that he’s signed the agreement to buy Commodore and, in a turn of events that seems like something out of a film, is now the Acting CEO of Commodore. After revealing this, he speaks to the camera in a calm voice, acknowledging that the Commodore brand has essentially been a scam recently, and how it is a company that he loves as much as others in the community, and tells us that he won’t let us down. I can’t quite put into words why (I’m one of the least patriotic people), but I found hearing those words in a British accent disproportionately affecting.

The slide he then shared on screen gives me a lot of hope that it’s not just words.

Why I’m Hopeful

The other truly iconic logo of British computing was the dot-matrix owl of the BBC Micro. When, in 2008, a group of people who all loved the BBC Micro came together to make something modern, both as a tribute and a spiritual successor to the BBC Micro, the result was the Raspberry Pi, a series of devices that were (and continue to be) more successful than the wildest dreams of anyone involved

The purchase of Commodore isn’t complete yet; the sale price for the brand was described as “in the low seven figures,” and currently, only certified “Angel Investors” who are willing to put $250,000 or more into the company are able to contribute. Chris has additionally refinanced his home and put his own money into the venture.

“The Future We Were Promised”

The new Commodore organization has trademarked two phrases: “The Future We Were Promised” and “Honoring the Past, Innovating the Future”, which might be windows into the future of the organization. In the Retro Recipes video, Chris seems to indicate that the “new” organization will target both Retro Futurism and Digital Minimalism.

There are a host of faces from Commodore’s past who have joined this version of the company. While many were faces before my time owning an Amiga, I very much recognize the name David Pleasance, essentially the face of Commodore UK from my time reading gaming magazines and also one of the two people who attempted a management buy-out of Commodore which would have prevented it going bust, if it had succeeded.

Can Nostalgia Really Sustain a Business?

An Amiga Game – Wings – Running on My Favourite Handheld

Chris isn’t ready to share the upcoming Commodore products with us yet; these were teased, and I would expect these to be on camera in Part 3. He was, however, able to initial details of a plan to allow the Commodore branding to be made available to creators who are releasing appropriate products of a high enough standard.

The phrase “quality first” was used elsewhere in the video, but if this is to be a success, I think this needs to be predominantly applied here. We don’t need a repeat of the Commodore-branded products

The video indicated that the new Commodore will release games. While I would expect these to be fully licensed versions of Retro Games, Chris did indicate that there are at least 2 new games that are in development.

Will It Work?

Photo by Alexander Grigoryev on Unsplash

To be honest I don’t know. To a person like me who loved the Commodore machines of the past, it’s an enticing prospect, but with so much left to be revealed, nothing is clear at the moment, and nothing is certain. I will say that, from a personal note, in a world where misery and suffering are everywhere, watching the video about Commodore being relaunched put a smile on my face and a spring in my step.

One thing that I’m not clear on though, is where the purchase of Commodore leaves the trademark of my beloved Amiga, since I believe that was separated away from Commodore in the 00s.

Anyone who wants to stay informed on the future of Commodore, or even maybe invest, should register their interest using this Google form.

Hopes and Dreams

Again, speaking personally, as a guy who grew up with an Amiga and truly loved it as a gaming platform, I’m clinging on to hope that the renewed interest in Commodore will make it easier for an Amiga game to be selected for RH’s Game of the Month at some point.

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