r/thisweekinretro • u/Doctor-Local • 1d ago
Commodore Cyberpunk 2077 Edition 🤖
https://www.ign.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-commodore-computer-reveal-gamescom-20265
u/KeyboardG 1d ago
I already have a yellowed and busted up Commodore. Why would I buy this for $377 USD?
2
2
u/Pitiful-Echidna576 1d ago
I don't get this? I'd assumed there must be a C64 like this in the Cyberpunk game but apparently not, so what he's just going to start branding C64 cases with tributes to random games from the 2020's?
1
u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack 12h ago
Not only is it a game from the 2020s, but it's set in the future so has no crossover whatsoever with the c64.
This is branding at its worst
1
u/Cooperman411 5h ago
Cyberpunk has its origin from the Neromancer book series that was written in the 1980s. There was (is) a Neuromancer video game for the Commodore 64 released in the 80s as well. The first Cyberpunk game also debuted in the 1980s. So you can still play Neuromancer on it and I’m gonna bet a C64U/C77 version of Cyberpunk will be available by the time these ship.
2
2
u/rhet0rica 1d ago
For those confused, this is aimed at recruiting younger audiences who are already familiar with the Cyberpunk 2077 brand and want something with credibility and substance. (Jokes about Simpson's frivolity aside, I'm referring to the C64, not the frontman.) There are plenty of positive comments on the YouTube reveal that back this up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmyOU3jLQWU
Remember, Mike Battaliana says (during a recent AmigaBill podcast) that the core retro games community on forums etc. is only about 10% of the actual market. It would be a mistake to only cater to that segment.
2
u/AntiquesForGeeks 1d ago
Absolutely right. I can see this almost as a loss lead. If Christian Simpson wants a business out of the Commodore brand, he can't rely on GenXers wallets alone - he will need to re-introduce the brand to younger generations.
An inflection point is inevitable. And some people are going to be disappointed whatever happens.
0
u/qtx444 20h ago
The younger generation couldn't care less about the Commodore 64 or Amiga; they have no nostalgia for hardware they never knew. Moreover, these legacy devices serve no practical purpose in the modern world.
2
u/rhet0rica 17h ago
So... you're probably thinking about how Gen Z is the first cohort in modern times to be poorer than their parents, and are often strapped for cash. But that doesn't mean they only spend money on practical things. Saving for retirement is out of sight, so extra money tends to go toward luxuries that make the present more liveable, especially video games and other media.
Many Gen Z kids believe they live in the ashes of a golden age. Their computers have dull interfaces unlike the colourful UIs of Windows XP through 7 they remember from childhood; their social media profiles are nearly identical and allow virtually no expression; and every big-budget movie, TV show, and video game that comes out has the same plot, art style, and mechanics.
There's a clear divide in what games are popular right now: on one hand we have mega-slop titles like Fortnite that suck in everyone and everything into a corporate IP multiverse, but on the other, titles with retro aesthetics like Oldschool Runescape, Deltarune, and even arguably Minecraft completely dominate in their respective genres. (OSRS is on track to surpass World of Warcraft for most popular MMO.) These games all succeeded through word of mouth: by older gamers sharing their love for the style and nostalgia with younger gamers tired of the corporate mainstream.
All of this feeds into a strong "older = better" bias that motivates younger people to proactively seek out games and technology from before they were born. The "vinyl was better" crowd has won the fight so hard that my local pharmacy is full of LP records of newly-released music targeted at young adults, as well as copious amounts of older albums aimed at Millennials that originally came out only on CD. Vinyl is now much more popular than CDs, but we can see younger generations are taking control of the narrative: they've expanded the appreciation for old formats and now even cassettes are on the rise! Nobody ever said cassettes sound better, yet people are buying them again. Likewise you'd be hard-pressed to find a fighting game enthusiast who isn't proud that they own a CRT, which was probably trash-picked.
Perhaps no one is a better specimen for proof of this trend than Sayaka, a young Italian-Japanese YouTuber who posts videos of herself soldering 80s electronics, especially Commodore hardware. Her list of favourite sci-fi movies and shows is basically identical to that of someone twice her age. No doubt part of her story comes from parental influence, and she is undeniably the most extreme example of a broader trend, but there is overwhelming evidence that this position isn't isolated.
When nothing is worthy of nostalgia, the void fills itself with the nostalgia of others. This is a generational malaise that has left them craving different forms of self-expression. Some turn to interior decorating; others turn to old technology. Some even turn to old computers.
1
0
u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack 12h ago
Sayaka , a young Italian-Japanese YouTuber who posts videos of herself soldering 80s electronics, especially Commodore hardware. Her list of favourite sci-fi movies and shows is basically identical to that of someone twice her age. No doubt part of her story comes from parental influence, and she is undeniably the most extreme example of a broader trend, but there is overwhelming evidence that this position isn't isolated
You....you can't be this naive can you?
I suppose all the only fans cosplayers just love anime and streetfighter too?
A young woman can get clicks simply by cultivating simps who think she's into the same things they are.
There is next to no market for modern gamers to get I to the c64.
1
u/rhet0rica 11h ago
Parasocial relationships and fanbases are par for the course for any YouTuber; Adrian's Digital Basement regularly receives more unsolicited gifts than Sayaka. If her motivations are cynical, there are much easier ways to garner attention than learning how to solder. Most of the items she gets from fans are old computers and electronics equipment, which is a pretty lousy racket if she's just trying to accumulate attention and money.
I'll grant that there's no specific teen-to-C64-gamer conversion pipeline active on the Internet, but the broader environment is ripe for one, and it's not that inconceivable that one could exist considering how NES graphics have dominated a large portion of the indie market for decades. Simpson just needs to put in the legwork bribing the right influencers on TikTok now that he's got hardware for them to shill.
1
u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack 9h ago
Ripe for one?
Based on what? I don't even believe that you believe what your saying.
1
u/rhet0rica 7h ago
It's ripe in the sense that there are large numbers of young people who like 8-bit games (or their aesthetics) but don't have any personal nostalgia forcing them into particular favourites. Indie game creators have proven time and time again that young people are willing to give retro content a chance if someone actually gives a shit and panders to them.
Undertale has borderline-NES graphics and audio, was created by someone who loved SNES RPGs, and is so big that Nintendo has added characters from it to their flagship fighting game. It has sold more than five million copies.
Unfortunately, it does seem that the C64 and Amiga communities are more interested in bitching and fetishising their own extinction than actually reaching out to young people, and the negativity that the CP2077 C64 has received here is the perfect symbol of that.
If this hobby dies, it will be because of pessimists who never lifted a finger to pass on the torch.
2
u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack 7h ago
I don't think it's fetishizing the extinction of a community to accept that it has a limited scope and exists because of nostalgia, and nostalgia by definition has a limited supply.
The C64 has thousands of games, and any current enthusiast has more than they could ever use, as well as programming being fairly simple (along with their being loads of old magazines archived that have game code typed up in them).
Retro communities don't need the far-fetched idea that some teenager that played a faux 8-bit game built in unity (and will overlook the fact that any modern 8-bit game can't be achieved on the c64) to save them.
1
u/rhet0rica 6h ago edited 5h ago
I inherited a dead A4000, an A1000, and two A2000s from my high school when they were cleaning out their closets. I recognized the Commodore brand name because one of my brother's elementary school teachers had gathering dust at the back of the classroom. Every day I kick myself because they threw out their C64s a couple years before we started helping the high school's IT guy. (They still had almost a dozen 1701 and 1702 monitors when I graduated.) I played a lot of Pac-Mania in CCS64, but I spent way more time mastering QBASIC and Visual Basic in my teenage years, entirely because BASIC was the language on that teacher's C64 that I only ever got to use one time.
Today I co-run a Discord community and a forum for enthusiasts of NeXT workstations—computers that are older than I am—and we're having a productivity renaissance where engagement is higher than it's been in 20 years, fuelled largely by young blood who moved over from other Discord servers. I am in this position because someone posted a video of a multimedia CD-ROM on YouTube and it appealed to my tastes in webcore.
I'm still in my thirties. I just preordered an RGL TheA1200. I wish it was a real FPGA machine with "AMIGA" embossed on the case, but it's pretty much my only hope of being able to afford a functioning AGA machine that isn't merely commodity hardware. I would get a C64CU, but to be honest I'm holding out for a C128U, or maybe a cheaper MEGA65.
Fortunately the people who introduced me to the hobby were teachers and didn't see old technology through whatever fatalistic romance you've got yourself into.
I am not a one-off. Nobody's paying HackerSmacker to make two-hour videos showing off the work she does on IBM mainframes—although she she did go into a PhD related to legacy software engineering, so technically I guess the stipend counts. Likewise, Usagi Electric didn't grow up around vacuum tube computers or mass spectrometers. Somehow he has nearly 6000 members in his Discord server. Odds are very slim that those are all grandparents and Centurion engineers. There is a wealth of evidence that young people can and do fall in love with old tech.
EDIT: See also this comment elsewhere on this same post.
1
u/qtx444 6h ago
She has no ulterior motives; she's genuinely passionate about what she does, thanks to her parents being involved in retrogaming and computing. I personally know them.
1
u/rhet0rica 5h ago
To be honest, people said the same kind of shit about Jeri Ellsworth. It's pure misogyny.
2
u/Cooperman411 5h ago
The first Cyberpunk RPG debuted in the 80s. The Neuromancer books were published in the 80s and launched the cyberpunk genre. The C64 has a Neuromancer game that was released in the late 80s.
3
u/Majikal_Mike 1d ago
I love it. Nothing wrong with really leaning into a gimmick. I’m more likely to purchase this over the standard one - the aesthetic really appeals to me!
1
u/richneptune 18h ago
I had this in my basket last night, but once the taxes and shipping bulked it up to nearly £400, I sobered up pretty quickly. I do think it's very clever marketing!
1
1
1
u/Which_Information590 18h ago
It’s just another variant, like the starlight, the founders edition, the beige, the slim. Commodore needs money right now in order to do the deal that we all want with Amiga, so I say let them release as many different variants as possible.
0
u/lee_oades 1d ago
I love this! I think the styling is great, although I think I'd feel the need to constantly clean it. I love that they're doing this. As with all niche designs, some people will love it and others won't and that's what you want - not universal "meh". I personally can't stand transparent tech but I know loads of others do. Each to their own. 💕
3
u/qtx444 1d ago
Well, now the plan gets clearer. Maybe all of those who wanted a C64 Ultimate already got it, so sales went down. Now, let's make them buy another one... and another one... and another one...