Even those not old enough to have grown up with a Commodore 64 in the household (or the neighbor’s household) have heard the name bandied about over and over by nostalgic, misty-eyed computer enthusiasts over the past few decades.

Now, a new company, having purchased the rights to and assets of Commodore, is bringing back the Commodore 64 (with a few tweaks), naming it the Commodore 64 Ultimate.

According to the company’s latest statements and a video posted by Commodore’s CEO (below), showing stacks and stacks of Commodore 64 Ultimates ready to ship out, they may even begin to start landing on customers’ doorsteps by Christmas 2025.

@commodoreofficial

We can’t confirm if Peri can fit down your chimney🎅, BUT we CAN confirm that hardware production is underway and the first 500 BASIC Beige units are in final packaging. Find out more in our latest shipping update bit.ly/4iliOq9 Commodore C64U

♬ original sound – commodoreofficial – commodoreofficial

A retro rebirth

Everything retro is back in vogue these days, as the rebellion against Big Tech’s overwhelming efficiency and convenience in the 2020s feels downright suffocating. Vinyl records, cassette tapes, CRT TVs, wired earbuds, dumbphones, Polaroids. You name it.

First plopping into living rooms in January 1982, the Commodore 64 was one of the few home computers that became popular enough to avoid fading from public consciousness.

New Commodore’s CEO, Christian Simpson (also known as Peri Fractic), bought the naming rights and company assets to Commodore just a few months ago in his bid to bring the 8-bit home computer back to market.

The Ultimate version of the Commodore 64 is a dead ringer for the original Commodore 64 on the outside, gloriously droll beige plastic included. But inside, it’s been upgraded a bit.

You can still plug in old cartridges, datasettes, and disk drives to the new Commodore, and you can hook it up to a CRT TV if you have one handy. Commodore says it’ll play more than 10,000 games and is “at least 99 percent compatible with all ’80s/’90s games, cartridges, and peripherals,” having gained a boost in RAM to 128MB over the original’s 64KB of RAM.

Right now, they’re selling for $300, a $50-off discount for early birds over the retail price.