Global Re-launch of COMMODORE by Tulip Confirmed

[B00tDisk]

I just got to the page.  What a bunch of sad bastards.  This would be like me and a few venture (no pun intended to the next statement) capitalists getting together to fund a return of the Exidy Sorcerer II home computer!

It'd be laughable if it didn't mean quite a few things:

Endangerment of the WHEELS O/S (a GUI based OS for the C64, complete with web-browser and TCP/IP stack that works through a cartridge-port NIC).

Endangerment of the Commodore One

Endangerment of those 300+ websites archiving tons and tons of software that otherwise would've gone the way of bit rot.

What sane person would pay to play "Save New York" or "Dino Eggs" or "Gunship" or "Temple of Apshai" when all they want to do is have a bash at games that are going on 25 years old?  I mean, really.

Well, I'm sure they'll try to extract their pound of flesh.  I just hope Jeri's project survives.  Hell, I hope Tulip buys a clue and realizes what the CommodoreOne can/could mean and fronts Jeri a crapload of money and makes her the chief engineer!

[Trev]

I agree with the SCO analogy. Along with the copyright business, Tulip is trying to turn the general purpose Commodore 64 into a special purpose computer. In the case of special pupose computers (in the United States at least), the hardware manufacturer can charge a licensing fee and claim royalties for all software relased for their platform. Scary business. It stems from Nintendo suing Tengen over Tetris back in the 80's. Nintendo won. While I'd love to see the Commodore brand stay alive, I don't think scare tactics and twisted legal logic are the best way to do it.

In an ironic twist, it looks like Tulip's anti-piracy logo is an illegal derivative work of a logo trademarked by Microsoft Corporation. Oops!

[B00tDisk]

Trevor's right on with them copying the MS anti-piracy logo; furthermore, the C64 shipped with MS BASIC in ROM - I'd imagine MS would have quite a bit to say about that being redistributed without permission!

[Trev]

Darn! It turns out that the logo is actually the original Microsoft logo (the text is a little hard to read), and as an OEM, Tulip has probably acquired the right to use it. Oh well. So much for irony.

[Wildstar128]

Check it out on the American Tulip Site ...

Um, this is not an "American" site. It is Tulip's International website that is in English as it is the official "International" language.

The site is based in NL just like www.tulip.nl as well. Both sites are hosted in Europe. www.tulip.com is just a registered international domain name serving as the main page. It is still hosted in Europe.

[Wildstar128]

"Methinks Tulip-USA is getting hit with a DDOS attack; the page has been inacessable (HTTP: 501 Too Many Users) all day.

Wouldn't surprise me if the C= fanbase banded together and did this, not one single bit..."

The Tulip website has been suffering with something a little more than just a mere slashdot effect. They are being affected by the "Commodore user effect". They are being affected by a global wide load of Commodore users coming from all directions checking out the news.

Traditionally, a "Corporate" website would not be rendered inaccessible by just users from Slashdot. The news is spreading to TechTV, Amiga.org and many other sources besides comp.sys.cbm and Commodore mail lists and other Commodore newsgroups. This is *BIG*. I am talking levels that would render a dedicated server into traffic overload.

[Wildstar128]

"I just got to the page. What a bunch of sad bastards. This would be like me and a few venture (no pun intended to the next statement) capitalists getting together to fund a return of the Exidy Sorcerer II home computer!..."

Actually the news was not suppose to have been posted and is tid bit misleading. I do not think that they are looking at shutting down Commodore fan sites from more recent messages from people at Ironstone. They are more into "embracing the Commodore scene". They are targeting sites that are commercially using the trademark for commercial products like Commodore telephones and others that are clearly using the Commodore trademark as a brand name and stuff of that sort.

The Commodore project is not endanger because the name change to C-One a while back. They are just fine at this time.

[BigBenAussie]

Sorry to bring up a really old topic again.

With KMOS popping out of nowhere, I decided to do a little research on the internet to see where the Commodore trademark had ended up, and would you believe this thread came up.
I was looking for Commodore because I thought that it might be cool if Eyetech or KMOS could come under the banner of Commodore or one of them could potentially change its name. Ok. They don't need the trademark, I just thought it'd be cool to re-unite the trademark family.

As to the somewhat interesting C64 issue. They sold the C64 trademark to Ironstone partners.
http://www.ironstonepartners.com
Ironstone partners lists Rockpook games and DC Studios as sister companies.
Rockpool studios make mobile games and DC Studios seems to make games for different console platforms.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, wouldn't a C64 in a Gameboy advance type box be cool. It seems to me that that is what they are hinting that they are going to do.

I nearly fell of my chair when I checked out the Commodore One webpage. The C64 should fit in a wrist watch by now, not on a motherboard requiring an ATX case. Oh, but I see what they are doing now, they are beefing up the sound and graphics. Hmmmm. Then why doesn't it plug into a TV?

Again, my apologies for bringing up this really old topic.