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News In Brief

The Commodore 64 is back

Bob Moon Apr 7, 2011

A final note. This story sure has been resonating with a lot of tech writers today: Word that the old Commodore 64 computer is getting a makeover:

Maybe you’re too young to remember how popular the Commodore 64 was back in the day. But consider how a New York Times writer started out his story: “I was just 6 years old when the Commodore 64 computer went on sale…” And one blogger wrote how he “wanted a Commodore 64 so bad” he could hardly stand it, “way back in the 80s” when he was “a little geek.”

Well, here’s your chance: The company that bought the old brand name says it’s being flooded with online orders for an updated computer that looks — on the outside — like the old Commodore 64 so many still adore. No old 5.25-inch floppy, but you can get a Blu-Ray drive. And that “64” used to stand for a whopping 64 kilobytes of memory? The new version will have at least 2 gigabytes.

I even found some old retro commercials they can use, with hardly any changes at all:

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