Once a juggernaut of the home computer, Commodore is now a niche boutique brand, run by a YouTuber. So how did we get from the immensely popular Commodore 64s through the 80s, a classic gaming experience with the Amiga, and now, a flip phone? Well, to say it's simple would be lying.
Commodore was originally founded in 1976 by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. A year later it launched the PET and followed it up with the VIC-20, which was one of the first to hit a million units sold. In '82, it launched the Commodore 64, which became a powerhouse amongst home computer users. While the Commodore 64 was the United States' home computer of choice through parts of the 80s, the '85 jump in tech with the Amiga 1000 gained huge popularity throughout Europe. By 1996, the Amiga was now a niche, as the PC market had completely dominated the computing space, and home consoles were far cheaper, and easier to operate.
With the company bankrupt, this is where it begins to get a little complicated. Originally, a German company called ESCOM, backed by companies based in Asia, essentially acquired everything in 1995. ESCOM was reportedly attempting to revive the Commodore Amiga, partnering with one of the Asian companies, Tianjin Family. In 1996, ESCOM itself went under, selling to the Dell-alternative Gateway. The cow-themed PC maker got everything bar the "C= Commodore" trademarks and name, which eventually wound up being owned by a Netherlands-based company, Tulip Computers.
Commodore to Gateway and failed revivals
During this time period, the Amiga operating system was still licensed out to the company Village Tronic Marketing GmbH. Gateway sued to ensure that sales stopped, but it was found that there was no documentation supporting Gateway's argument. Eventually the company was forced to stop selling over a payment dispute, rather than an elaborate court case. Between 1997 and 2005, three different companies branded with Amiga popped up under the Gateway watch.
South Dakota was Gateway's main Amiga branch, but was merged back into the company. It was intended to develop the next two versions of AmigaOS, 4 and 5, but never released anything. Gateway closed it in 1999, selling everything to Amiga Inc., based in Washington. This was more of a license holder than anything, and Delaware was a rebranded KMOS, Inc.. While brands and rights changed, Gateway still held the patents. In 2007, when it sold to Acer, the Taiwanese company took ownership.
Prior to where we are now, the Commodore brand's main regular news was legal disputes over the state of AmigaOS or resurrections. In 2001, a company called Hyperion was contracted to develop AmigaOS 4. In 2007, the company was sued over unpaid royalties by the Cloanto owned Amiga Corporation. Hyperion has only just settled the various legal issues as of writing, today, August 4, 2026. In 2010, Commodore USA was started, releasing hardware, like the 64x. These were poorly reviewed and never sold enough, ending its short run in 2013.
Commodore is back... again!
Prior to the latest iteration, Retro Games, produced the C64 Mini and C64 Maxi, as well as A500 and A1200 Mini, based on Amiga systems. These were licensed out by Amiga Corporation (Cloanto). Cloanto also produces Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, emulation packages. There was also AmigaOne, built on newer PowerPC processors, designed to work with Hyperion's AmigaOS 4.
As of today, Commodore is back once again. In 2025, a YouTuber called Christian Simpson started Commodore International. Bringing back individuals from the original company and focusing on bringing the brand back under "two pillars," nostalgia and the future, has already gained momentum.
Its first product, the C64 Ultimate, uses an FPGA processor to (boiling it down for simplicity) emulate the original hardware, rather than using software. This was well received, and the company has already gotten up to speed with legal litigation too, suing an Italian company over its name, which it claims was "improperly granted." It now plans to launch a phone, the Callback, which blocks social media use. Reactions to it online have been divisive, and a price drop was announced not long after its initial pricing.
Commodore and the subsequent Amiga branding is a tangled web, and this barely scratches some of the weirdness in the intervening years. If this were fiction, it'd be lambasted for how confusing it is.