Before I get started let me get something out of the way. I am no investigative journalist and I have no explosive news to report. If that is what you were expecting, you should probably stop reading now. Most of what is written here is probably already known by anyone closely following this new company. The purpose if this report is not a detailed technical analysis of the upcoming product, but rather an overview of the meeting and what the company was willing to demonstrate.
On February 3rd, 2011 Barry Altman, CEO of Commodore USA, LLC, was kind enough to invite me into his house to discuss the company, staff and upcoming products. I was invited to see some details of what is going on publicly and behind the scenes, so we could report back to the community our opinion good bad or indifferent. I brought along Cybereye, a long time friend and former business partner of mine. Also in attendance was Dammy, who drove down from central Florida. Dammy presented Barry with a Black Troll tee shirt as a gift. Moochie also sat in on the meeting and made sure his presence was known in a very friendly way.
Barry gave us a history of himself and his prior and current businesses. Barry founded Cabletech, which was an extremely successful company.
So successful that unfortunately you can find Barry Altman's on the official list of Bernie Madoff’s victims. We saw original documents showing the amount of the loss, needless to say this was a very large amount of money. Unlike many other Modoff victims, he did not lose everything. Barry’s history with Homecraft, LLC was also discussed. Barry was retired when he got an idea for a specific type of furniture, the result was another highly successful company. More recently while enjoying semi-retirement again, the idea of relaunching Commodore as a unique brand came to him. Barry is a former Commodore 64 and Amiga/Video Toaster user. Commodore 64 computers were even in use at Cabletech, as this picture shows.
That is Barry sitting in front of a Commodore 64.
An interesting TV segment from the 80’s was shown to us that focused on VC-II encryption and Cabletech. Barry and his brother were interviewed heavily. Thousands of emails were shown. Website feedback emails number in the thousands, mostly positive or neutral. Email correspondence with a very, very major media company was shown. Commercials and print ads were shown as were additional commercial concepts. Co-branding was discussed as was product placement. The only thing we were asked not to repeat were the names of certain companies discussed and no, I will not name them.
All of the Commodore named products were available for viewing. The Commodore 64x prototype is very high quality. I know the Commodore 64 and this case replica looks near perfect.
The injection molding process was discussed and the final keyboard prototype was shown. The keyboard has to be custom designed for the retro case. Costs were explained and invoices were shown. There is real money being put into developing this product, costs are in the 6 figures for the case and keyboard alone. The other models shown such as the Phoenix and Vic line have customizations that exceed slapping a label on an existing product. Workbench 5 was explained to be proceeding, but the possibility exists the name may change before launch. No surprise, there is an expectation that most customers will simply order Windows 7. The Commodore Amiga line was discussed. Each model will be available with a choice of configurations. They are looking into the possibility of having a long, narrow LED that extends along the front of the case. Software could use this LED for animations or other purposes.
In conclusion, I found nothing to suggest nefarious intentions that some suspect. On the other hand, we were shown plenty of evidence to suggest the company is moving forward as fast as they can to get product on the market and to promote the product. If Commodore USA is able to execute on their current vision and suggested partners, things will get very interesting. While Commodore USA is currently a licensee for the Commodore and Amiga name, the intention is to own these companies outright one day and to be a publicly traded company on a major exchange. Barry asks that he not be judged by the failures, scams and vapor of the past but rather by his product when it is released.
If you have questions, feel free to ask. Dammy or I should be able to answer.
Click
HERE to see the photo album for this visit.
