Commodore Amiga fans prepare for some incoming good news – the Amiga is back!
To some of us in the Wirefresh offices, the mere mention of an Amiga A1200 or even a trapdoor RAM expansion pack can send us into soft-focus daydreams of happy hours weeks spent playing Sensible Soccer, Frontier Elite 2 and Soccer Kid, so please excuse us if we get a little over excited over a decades-old OS here.
AROS support
Commodore USA have announced that their new Amiga branded machines will fully support AROS – an open source variant of AmigaOS 3.1.
We’re not even sure if that many people are prepared to shell out their hard earned dosh for such a retro machine, but for some the lure of reliving their childhood on a modern Amiga-branded machine may prove irresistible.
Now if you excuse us, we’re off to dig up our dust-covered floppy disks of The Settlers, Alien Breed 2, Civilization, Sim City, Turrican II, Cannon Fodder, Railroad Tycoon, Wing Commander, Chaos Engine etc etc.
Heck, we might even dream of getting Pagestream fired up for a bit of DTP and knock out some graphiocs in DPaint and Brilliance!
Here’s the press release:
COMMODORE USA ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF AMIGA EXCLUSIVE WORLDWIDE LICENSING RIGHTS
Company to produce new line of Amiga branded keyboard computersFT. LAUDERDALE, FL. and MAPLE VALLEY, WA. August 31, 2010 – Commodore USA, LLC and Amiga Inc., today announced their licensing agreement whereby Commodore USA, LLC will produce a full line of new AMIGA branded “AIO” (All In One) keyboard computers, under an exclusive worldwide license granted by Amiga Inc. for this newly revitalized computer category.
Mr. Barry Altman, President and CEO of Commodore USA, LLC states “We are ecstatic to be partnering with Amiga Inc. in this new, exciting product launch. The legacy of the Commodore and Amiga trademark brand, reunited once again after so many years, and our reintroduction of the legendary All-In-One computer keyboard form factor, combined with the twenty-five year anniversary of the introduction of the first Amiga computer by Commodore International, is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Commodore USA has now taken a major role in not just supporting the future Amiga market with our many new products, but also in providing a new beginning for the enormous existing Amiga community. Our relationship with them, along with our support for the elegant, robust and lightweight AROS desktop operating system, will ensure that they and future customers will benefit from our new and exciting vision, and enable the legacy Commodore and Amiga culture to flourish. We look forward to bringing these new products to market, and welcoming a whole new generation of computer users to the Commodore and Amiga experience”. Mr. Altman continues ” I would like to personally thank our team of advisors, consultants, lawyers and most of all the over 5 million viewers to our website, and the 270,000+ respondents who took the time to provide us with not only their thoughts and suggestions, but offered us their support and wishes for our success. And one more thing: We have now successfully negotiated the acquisition of two legendary brand exclusive trademark licenses. Our efforts will now continue in acquiring the third and final brand license, completing our quest for the total technology trifecta. Stay tuned…the best is yet to come!”.
In response to an overwhelming demand from Amiga users worldwide, Commodore USA’s CTO Leo Nigro announced today that their new Amiga branded computers will be fully AROS compatible, and that they will be supporting the AROS open source community in every way possible. Mr. Nigro states “With the monumental strides that AROS has recently achieved, we realize the importance of accelerating this progress with funding that will enable this project to rapidly move forward and take it’s rightful place at the forefront of desktop operating systems”. With the recent announcement of their newly updated Commodore C64 model, and the acquisition of the Amiga brand exclusive trademark license, Commodore USA has once again catapulted the Commodore and Amiga namesake to the forefront of consumer electronics brand recognition.
About Commodore USA, LLC
Commodore USA, LLC designs, produces and markets a series of all-in-one Commodore branded keyboard computers, and other unique form factor computers and consumer electronics.
Barry S. Altman is the President and CEO of Commodore USA, LLC, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Spanning a 25 year career in the bleeding-edge electronics and satellite/space telecommunications industry, Mr. Altman founded and served as CEO & President of Cabletech Satellite Systems, Inc. U.S. Cable Technology, Inc., The Cabletech Satellite Network and United Broadcasting Co. This group of companies built NOC’s (Network Operation Centers) for cable television programmers, and cable television head ends for cable companies throughout the United States, They designed and constructed the satellite uplink network operation centers for such companies as Viacom International, Warner Amex, Viacom and MTV Networks. They directed and produced the domestic satellite telemetry downlink for the Live Aid concert for MTV, which was at that time the largest world wide deployment of a live satellite television broadcast. Cabletech has manufactured, designed and installed systems for Grumman Aerospace, The United Nations, government and private industry, and over 45,000 TVRO C& Ku band satellite systems for businesses and consumers nationwide. Cabletech was a developmental partner with General Motors & Hughes Communications in the small aperture DBS system that later became DirecTv.
About Amiga Inc.
Amiga Inc. holds the intellectual property related to the AMIGA personal computer that was developed and sold by Commodore International and Amiga Corporation, including hardware designs, software, operating systems, trademarks, and other intellectual properties. Amiga Inc. also produces and distributes enabling technologies and applications for wired and wireless devices that provide technology to developers for writing and porting applications to a new multi-media operating system that is hardware agnostic, enabling applications to run unchanged on x86 and other processors. States Bill McEwen, CEO/Pres “We at Amiga are pleased to once again be part of the great plans and products at Commodore USA. This is just the beginning of something great”.
