Commodore is back in the game!

For those of you old enough to remember the Commodore 64, you will no doubt have fond memories of the level of gaming prestige and history it attained before unfortunately declaring bankruptcy in 1994.

While there have been several attempts to re-launch the classic brand, it’s taken until now for us to see the future for Commodore. That future is in building Gaming PCs.

Now, before you roll your eyes and sigh, realise that Commodore’s gaming machines are far from ordinary and follow the same ethos of old: “computers for the masses not classes”. During a meeting with the company, Commodore’s reps constantly reassured me that the brand was all about value and choice, instead of the general trend in the industry at the moment which is to charge a premium for so-called “gaming” hardware.

Whilst everyone would love to own a Vadim custom PC, Commodore has designed and built machines that are not only full of detailed features like:

• A choice of case “skins” that are “burnt” onto the surface giving a thoroughly professional and resistant surface, as well as an entirely unique design
  
• A completely custom built case for Commodore, with recessed logos in the panels.
  
• A door that will open 270 degrees so you can’t break it
  
• Commodore logo feet, side fan hole and PSU
  
• A custom built, high quality PSU with custom cooling and cable lengths to fit the hardware exactly
  
• Large, slow moving fans for low noise but with plenty of cooling
  
• The ability to use the USB / Firewire / front sound ports and close the door
  
• Sound insulation on the sides and roof
  
• It has a full two-year warranty for parts and service
  
• Comes with a Commodore branded monitor (tipped to be made by Samsung), gaming keyboard and mouse
  
• Comes preloaded with 50 classic Commodore 64 games and an emulator!

Even though the PCs are still in the development stage, the attention to detail is just phenomenal. Commodore is obviously very excited and despite some dubious claims like “Our cooling is so good the exhaust fan pushes out a lower than ambient temperature”, it still looks like a fantastic product.

There are four models to choose from, up from the basic E6320 Intel Core 2 Duo with nForce 650i SLI motherboard and 2GB of Corsair memory and a GeForce 7900 GS, up to QX6700, nForce 680i SLI, 4GB Corsair Dominator, 2x 150GB Raptors in RAID 0, Creative X-Fi sound and a pair of GeForce 8800 GTXs in SLI.

The PCs only come with Vista, and I was reassured this was the right decision for the future, despite Nvidia’s recent problems with its Vista drivers.

The skinning process is entirely unique, in that you can’t peel it off because it’s not a sticker. However, the skins can still be produced from any high quality digital picture. The case can have any sort of design you want: whether it be game associated like a WoW case, or something neat so that you don’t trash your living room, or something the same colour as your company logo for example. What makes it even tastier is that a plain case will be exactly the same price as a custom skinned one!

In the future, we could also see some limited runs that are signed and stamped for authenticity, so you could literally purchase a bit of gaming history.

I know you’re dying to know how much, but since these are still in the design stage Commodore couldn’t give us a firm pricing range just yet. We were simply told “not too much”. Considering how fast Commodore is progressing though, by the time we get one in for review in the near future, we will know the full story and have the retail version reviewed exactly as you can buy it.

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