Commodore is a name that resonates strongly with computer users of a certain age. The company that made it famous created the Commodore 64 – still the biggest-selling single computer of all time. It also produced the PET, the VIC-20 and, of course, the Amiga range that was first introduced in 1985 and went on to achieve sales of around five million.
Given such a pedigree, you’d think a revival of the Amiga would proudly bear the Commodore branding. But when such a project was announced by Retro Games Ltd, the name was nowhere to be seen. It didn’t appear in the press release; it didn’t figure on the images of the packaging; and it won’t take pride of place on the new machine itself.
“The Amiga has really been held back over the years by legal issues,” explained Jonah Naylor, editor of Amiga Addict magazine. And indeed it has. Commodore folded in 1994 and its assets ended up in the hands of Escom, the German PC manufacturer that went bankrupt three years later. But understanding who owns what has been akin to wading in muddy waters ever since. “Thankfully, these legal problems are finally starting to settle,” Naylor said with a sigh.
To delve too deep into exactly what has happened over the years would drown us in legalities, take
