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A new Amiga&c64 game jam is coming


vprette

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So there exists something called Commodore today? I was genuinely unsure after all those turns year by year with IP shifting left and right.

 

Also it is interesting to note that when RGL had a compo for THEC64, they got twice as many VIC-20 entries as they got C64 entries, yet in this one you mention it would only be open to the two most common of the systems they represent.

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11 hours ago, carlsson said:

So there exists something called Commodore today? I was genuinely unsure after all those turns year by year with IP shifting left and right.

 

Also it is interesting to note that when RGL had a compo for THEC64, they got twice as many VIC-20 entries as they got C64 entries, yet in this one you mention it would only be open to the two most common of the systems they represent.

yes, a legit commodore exist, you can check www.commodore.inc

The jam will focus mostly on Amiga because one additional goal is to find one IP worth to be developed further in a modern platform release

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On 3/8/2022 at 11:35 PM, carlsson said:

So there exists something called Commodore today? I was genuinely unsure after all those turns year by year with IP shifting left and right.

The IP was always owned by someone - just who that entity is or was at any point in time can be confusing. And, of course, neglected trademarks can easily be registered by anyone in some regions. So a Commodore brand can easily exist and be legitimate, but also have nothing to do with actual, original Commodore (as we've also seen with the various Amiga branding shenanigans over the years). After all we have had all the Commodore branding being bandied about with things like rebadged generic mobile phones and tablets, Commodore USA PCs and other tenuous efforts.

 

It'll be interesting to see if this incarnation / licencee is any different. If the entire marketing effort so far is just a couple of posts by a randomer on a by-the-way board on an *Atari* forum, then I wouldn't hold much hope.

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2 minutes ago, Daedalus2097 said:

The IP was always owned by someone - just who that entity is or was at any point in time can be confusing. And, of course, neglected trademarks can easily be registered by anyone in some regions. So a Commodore brand can easily exist and be legitimate, but also have nothing to do with actual, original Commodore (as we've also seen with the various Amiga branding shenanigans over the years). After all we have had all the Commodore branding being bandied about with things like rebadged generic mobile phones and tablets, Commodore USA PCs and other tenuous efforts.

 

It'll be interesting to see if this incarnation / licencee is any different. If the entire marketing effort so far is just a couple of posts by a randomer on a by-the-way board on an *Atari* forum, then I wouldn't hold much hope.

I understand all of your points.

This post is intended to start sharing info about the Game Jam, not for showing the company around. If you are interested on info about the "actual" commodore you find Commodore engineering (not other old names) in linkedin and FB ?, where we started adding some exposure. 

fo the game jam, we plan to have a specific website that I will share if anyone is interested in partecipating

thanks

 

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Well, no offence meant, but at this stage the "actual" Commodore is no different to all the other old names you refer to, all of which were also "actual" Commodore at one point or another. I genuinely wish you all the best with it, and look forward to being pleasantly surprised by something other than rebranded generic hardware.

 

I guess my point about posting here is that if you were trying to raise awareness of an Amiga game jam, a far better place to start might be one of the many active Amiga forums. It might be worth noting that we've just seen the completion of a big Amiga game jam that has run for 6 months, so launching another one so soon afterwards that has a more corporate aim might not generate as high a level of interest or standard of entry as you might hope for.

 

It's also slightly odd that the focus is on the Amiga, given that the Amiga branding is separate from Commodore, and is also chaotic and has seen many doomed attempts by people to register the name and become the "actual" Amiga. Cloanto being just the latest claimant of the "actual" Amiga crown, and also Italian BTW - have you discussed this effort with them?

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18 minutes ago, Daedalus2097 said:

Well, no offence meant, but at this stage the "actual" Commodore is no different to all the other old names you refer to, all of which were also "actual" Commodore at one point or another. I genuinely wish you all the best with it, and look forward to being pleasantly surprised by something other than rebranded generic hardware.

 

I guess my point about posting here is that if you were trying to raise awareness of an Amiga game jam, a far better place to start might be one of the many active Amiga forums. It might be worth noting that we've just seen the completion of a big Amiga game jam that has run for 6 months, so launching another one so soon afterwards that has a more corporate aim might not generate as high a level of interest or standard of entry as you might hope for.

 

It's also slightly odd that the focus is on the Amiga, given that the Amiga branding is separate from Commodore, and is also chaotic and has seen many doomed attempts by people to register the name and become the "actual" Amiga. Cloanto being just the latest claimant of the "actual" Amiga crown, and also Italian BTW - have you discussed this effort with them?

We discussed the Amiga brand status, and for now we need to wait the (long) legal process between amiga and hyperion. We are not involved in that

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I suppose Commodore might be interested in Amiga even if they don't hold the rights to that trademark (?), just like nothing stops Commodore from making PC software. After all they made a decent number of PC compatibles back in the days.

 

I'm no Amiga developer so I've got no clue which environment Scorpion is, but I suppose it is a popular one today. At the same time, I don't follow the aftermarket releases, to which extent the Amiga models have a commercial market and if most of the qualified devs focus on that. I believe that was one of the reasons why THEC64 got relatively few C64 entries in their contest, but got quite more for the less commercial (at least how I feel about it) VIC-20. But if the "new" Commodore wants to explore selling Amiga games, that is where their focus should be. Eventually it will show what the results were.

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On 3/9/2022 at 11:55 AM, vprette said:

a legit commodore exist, you can check www.commodore.inc

Can you elaborate on the legitimacy of your trademark? That you have a website is not a proof of anything, especially seeing as it's typically full of nothing but vague statements.

 

Can you also comment whether your "company" has any connection to the PET smartphone and entity responsible for it, known as "Commodore Business Machines LTD", which, perhaps coincidentially was also based in Italy?

 

https://pocketnow.com/commodore-smartphone-vaporware

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Ok. Given that AmiGameJam has run yearly since 2016, I imagined it might be low hanging fruit to join an existing contest as a sponsor but with enough marketing and social media spreading the word, aspiring developers might find Commodore's own jam as well.

 

Also perhaps I misunderstood you above regarding "finding one IP worth to be developed further in a modern platform release" as I assumed that e.g. Amiga 1200 is a modern platform but perhaps you meant modern PC games (or homebrew channel on e.g. Nintendo Switch or why not the Atari VCS) where Commodore would publish games based on original IP which was developed in this jam. I know nothing about the intentions of the new Commodore and haven't checked the website neither, so I don't know if they want to become an indie games publisher with "Commodore-style" games updated for modern resolutions, besides selling aftermarket software that actually would run on a legacy Commodore sold computer.

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On 3/10/2022 at 5:39 AM, youxia said:

I was about to crack a joke about new Commodore phone incoming, then I went to your website and saw a 200E tablet. You just couldn't make it up.

Not impressed by the tablet.  Built on a two year-old CPU, which is not terrible, I guess, but 802.11n (WiFi 4) while ac (WiFi 5) has been around for damn near nine years.  Is WiFi 5 or 6 necessary on a tablet?  I suppose that depends.  Having ac on my phone was great for transferring data from my NAS, and not having a mixed wireless environment seems better than having the mode shifting between devices.

 

Running Android 10, again not terrible as it is still updated and supported, but I would have expected Android 11 on a new machine.  Am I expecting too much from the Android ecosphere?

 

The website has a pic of what looks like a C64 portable, packaged like an Atari Flashback portable.  If I am looking at a handheld THEC64, eh, maybe.

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On 3/10/2022 at 5:37 AM, Daedalus2097 said:

Well, no offence meant, but at this stage the "actual" Commodore is no different to all the other old names you refer to, all of which were also "actual" Commodore at one point or another. I genuinely wish you all the best with it, and look forward to being pleasantly surprised by something other than rebranded generic hardware.

 

I guess my point about posting here is that if you were trying to raise awareness of an Amiga game jam, a far better place to start might be one of the many active Amiga forums. It might be worth noting that we've just seen the completion of a big Amiga game jam that has run for 6 months, so launching another one so soon afterwards that has a more corporate aim might not generate as high a level of interest or standard of entry as you might hope for.

 

It's also slightly odd that the focus is on the Amiga, given that the Amiga branding is separate from Commodore, and is also chaotic and has seen many doomed attempts by people to register the name and become the "actual" Amiga. Cloanto being just the latest claimant of the "actual" Amiga crown, and also Italian BTW - have you discussed this effort with them?

Sadly after I had summarized the status in the Amico forum section, after confirming with all parties that the information was entirely accurate...

the entire Amico section was removed from public view. I simply do not have the energy to rewrite it all. At this time discussing anything with Amiga Corporation would likely be pointless. Feel free to subtract the word "likely". heh.

 

#6

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We'll have to wait and see. I imagine a retro looking format (without adhering to actual hardware limitations) and that the new Commodore might be interested in publishing games for modern systems (at least the PC side) that roughly resemble what you might've been able to make on an Amiga 30 years ago. Somehow there seems to be a market niche for that, artificially limiting the capacities and avoid setting the expectations high on resolution, 3D gameplay etc.

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On 3/19/2022 at 10:32 PM, youxia said:

But there is no "new Commodore", really. It's just a few guys who managed to register a trademark and are selling an Alibaba-sourced tablet with a custom logo and a 100% mark up.

this is not the case. Commodore inc is part of a bigger group of 100+ employees on IT services. We can consider commodore inc as a startup at the moment; the tablet is not rebranded, it's made in a proprietary factory (of corse China anyway) and will not be the only hw product of corse.

Emerging on the ICT market today is difficult and takes time, but the initiatives and products will be documented on the social pages (especially FB at the moment)

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11 minutes ago, vprette said:

it's made in a proprietary factory

What does it even mean? You own the factory? The tablet is designed by you? If so, how is it different from a bazillion other (and cheaper) tablets out there, and what actual connection it has to the old Commodore? What is the "group of employees" called, if it's a legal entity, and if not, why should it matter?

 

I'm sorry, mate, but I've just been around for too long and have seen too many of these 5-second-revivals in my time. As I'm sure you're aware, the C= trademark has been claimed by numerous entities over the years and, withe the exception of THEC64, nothing else of substance has materialized. Therefore, if you appear here and announce yourself as "Commodore", you will be asked questions akin to the ones above. And unless you have something really interesting to show (a tablet, bland game, website full of hot air, or a facebook page do not count, I'm afraid), you will continue to be "just a few guys who managed to register a trademark".

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8 minutes ago, youxia said:

What does it even mean? You own the factory? The tablet is designed by you? If so, how is it different from a bazillion other (and cheaper) tablets out there, and what actual connection it has to the old Commodore? What is the "group of employees" called, if it's a legal entity, and if not, why should it matter?

 

I'm sorry, mate, but I've just been around for too long and have seen too many of these 5-second-revivals in my time. As I'm sure you're aware, the C= trademark has been claimed by numerous entities over the years and, withe the exception of THEC64, nothing else of substance has materialized. Therefore, if you appear here and announce yourself as "Commodore", you will be asked questions akin to the ones above. And unless you have something really interesting to show (a tablet, bland game, website full of hot air, or a facebook page do not count, I'm afraid), you will continue to be "just a few guys who managed to register a trademark".

thanks for your post: it is of high interest for many reason, because the point of view of a real commodorian must be considered in order to imagine new products.


quick answers: You own the factory? yes The tablet is designed by you? yes  what actual connection it has to the old Commodore? well, it's android, it's a product for the actual market...

 

More, the management in commodore inc is all made up of Commodorians, and therefore lovers of original philophosy. This does not mean anything concrete, you might say... but if you combine the passion for commodore with the professionalism of engineers and business managers, something good may be seen.
the group is made up of several legal and registered companies that have been operating for years in the e-learning and IT sector. this is not the place to give legal information about it, and only part of those people are now allocated to the commodore business, but it is not about single people selling commodore branded t-shirts. we know that these things exist and we patiently try to make it clear that we are not involved with these kinds of people.
thec64, which also does not have the Commodore brand because they do not have the legal right to use it, is retrogaming, and that's fine as it is: it helps the community to develop new hombrews, and we are happy that it does, but a medium sized company cannot live on retrogaming, it must produce tablets, desktops and invest in products that will work for the current market.
As a commodorian, what kind of products would you be seeing? a new commodore computer today, must use windows or linux, it is impossible to make a new proprietary OS which then would not have SW.
Likewise, it has no commercial convenience to produce peripherals for the original c64 and amiga computers, but when some kickstarter tries doing so, we are happy to share his project on social networks ...
What modern product could represent commodore as it originally was in your opinion?

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55 minutes ago, vprette said:

quick answers: You own the factory? yes The tablet is designed by you? yes  what actual connection it has to the old Commodore? well, it's android, it's a product for the actual market...

So you actually own a factory in China? Wow - count me impressed, because that's supposed to be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. Is it this factory, by any chance? Seeing as the tablet they make looks identical to the one you have designed?

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So what's special about this tablet that puts it head and shoulders above other generic Android tablets then? Why go to the massive cost and effort of designing your own tablet? What's the regulatory status of your tablet? How do you plan to recoup those massive NRE costs? What else do you manufacture at "your" factory?

 

Or by "designed", do you mean specced and using an off-the-shelf base design?

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