A Commodore PeeCee? Surely not?!

[tokyoracer]

Pitty, I think "Commodore" has much more badge then the Amiga name. But why would such a small company make PC's? Wouldn't it have been safer to just concerntrate on the Amiga brand?
I'm guessing now but am I right in thinking the PC's were named "Commodore" and the Amiga's were just named "Amiga" by Escom?

[JKD]

If I recall, they had a change of management and the new CEO (?) wanted in on the PC clone market which was (of course) magnitudes larger than the Amiga business.

[bloodline]

tokyoracer wrote:
Pitty, I think "Commodore" has much more badge then the Amiga name. But why would such a small company make PC's? Wouldn't it have been safer to just concerntrate on the Amiga brand?

Commodore wasn't such a small company... it was was one of the biggest computer companies of the 80's!

The PC market was massive, bigger than Amiga. Commodore wanted a slice of that pie. I think that was a mistake, and history suggests I'm right... but we don't actually know what happened back then...

I'm guessing now but am I right in thinking the PC's were named "Commodore" and the Amiga's were just named "Amiga" by Escom?

Once EsCOM set up Amiga Technologies, the Amiga was its own company and brand. It was not a Commodore Amiga.

[Animagic]

I recall a trip to Amsterdam with my wife (was my girlfriend back then) in 1998 and the Travel Agency Office in Dam Street had 8 Commodore PCs looking exactly like this one! I believe it is real. I may be able to find a picture of the office, the manager was a greek guy (from Thessaloniki) and we took some pictures all together  :-D

[Plaz]

@tokyoracer

Wouldn't it have been safer to just concerntrate on the Amiga brand?

I think it would have been better. I think they even had the chance to market millions of C64/128's to a waiting Asian market. Unfortunately Commodore had no idea how to market the Amiga. So instead they ended up with a case of PC envy. "Every one thinks the Amiga is a game machine (because we're idiots) so lets go out and make PC clones like all the "real" computer companies. Duhhhhhhh"

If they had to pick an alternate platform, even some thing unix would have been a better choice than a 98% compatible PC clone.

Plaz

[ajlwalker]

It is not a fake.  Look at the chickenlips logo.  It is the one with two red lips.

This is post CBM and was when the name/logo was licensed out for all sorts of goods.  There was even a range of telephones that were to be branded Commodore.

[Tomas]

tokyoracer wrote:
Check this LINK out, looks fake to me. I do hope i'm right in thinking someone has just stuck a "C=" sticker on it.

Commodore did infact make PC's with the commodore sticker on it. I believe i have seen both 386 and 486 commodore pcs.
I do find this ebay listing very strange though..
Commodore went bankrupt in 1993 afaik, which was well before pentium pcs and there was surely no commodore pc released in 1995.

[Tomas]

Etho wrote:
This is from the Escom days and there badged PC's. They came with Commodore branded mouse, keyboard and amplified speakers(Which where pretty good)

But didnt Escom just buy the Amiga name and rights?? Surely this would not allow them to use the Commodore brand...

[Matt_H]

Escom bought all of Commodore. The Commodore brand name was slapped onto PCs, and the Amiga brand name continued with the new batches of 1200s, 4000Ts, and the Walker.

It was Gateway who bought only Amiga, leaving the Commodore brand to hop between similarly useless owners.

[TrevorDick]

I have no idea what happened to the Commodore IP...

After Escom AG's bankruptcy, Escom Netherlands performed a succesful MBO and continued to sell Commodore badged PC's until about 1997.  They themselves went bust and the Commodore name/logo was bought by Tulip NV (amother Dutch company). They just parked the IP until about 3 or 4 years ago when they started to market various products under the commodore brand.  Eventually they sold the name to another investment company who formed Commodore Gaming to sell high spec gaming PC's under the Commodore logo.

TrevorDick

[klx300r]

yep Commodore made some 486 machines here in Canada back in 93 or so ..my university engineering lab had 2 of them and I almost fainted when I saw Windoze 3.1 running on a commy :-?

[Amigaz]

klx300r wrote:
yep Commodore made some 486 machines here in Canada back in 93 or so ..my university engineering lab had 2 of them and I almost fainted when I saw Windoze 3.1 running on a commy :-?

Mudt have been that model whith the case which looked very much like the A4000 case but just a bit lower?

[HopperJF]

Quite a few companies do it,

Pepsi and Coca-cola
Currys and PC World

at the end of the day they are making money from 2 separate revenue streams although in Commodore's case it was a stupid idea. The PC's themselves were crap and if they focused all their energy on improving the Amiga (and didnt take on Irving Gould) then we could have been typing these on new Amigas today. Nevermind, don't go through life thinking "what if", it will drive you mad.  :-)

[HopperJF]

Tomas wrote:

tokyoracer wrote:
Check this LINK out, looks fake to me. I do hope i'm right in thinking someone has just stuck a "C=" sticker on it.

Commodore did infact make PC's with the commodore sticker on it. I believe i have seen both 386 and 486 commodore pcs.
I do find this ebay listing very strange though..
Commodore went bankrupt in 1993 afaik, which was well before pentium pcs and there was surely no commodore pc released in 1995.

It could be a Commodore-UK Machine, Commodore UK continued for a while after CBM went under I believe?

My friend has some 200watt Commodore speakers hooked up to his PC  :-)

[Nlandas]

Actually, Commodore had been in the IBM PC clone business for a long time before this unit. Starting if memory serves with the PC-1 around 1988 or a little before. After Jack Tramiel stupidly ignored Chuck Peddle's push to go into this market with their own hardware, they knew that they had to have something in the market to compete once the PET became obsolete.

This model would be from the seprate company that retained the rights to the Commodore name. They still make PeeCees and to be honset - their packaging is quite good. Also, the components that they choose by todays standards are usually good as well.

If they had a presence in the US, I might consider some of their gaming PCs. I like the retro Commodore paint jobs.

[bloodline]

HopperJF wrote:
Quite a few companies do it,

Pepsi and Coca-cola
Currys and PC World

:-?

Sure Currys and PC World are both owned by The Dixons Group... But Coca-cola and Pepsi are two unrelated companies...