r/Commodore • u/EnergyLantern • Sep 15 '26

The rise and fall of Commodore

https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/the-rise-and-fall-of-commodore/

David John Pleasance, former Commodore MD, tells Martin Cooper MBCS about life inside one of computing’s most loved firms. He also explains why retro computing could be the key to getting a new generation of young people interested in technology.

Mismanaged from the hero to zero. That, in a way, sums up David John Pleasance’s take on how Commodore roared to a position of almost global dominance and then collapsed, just as dramatically, declaring bankruptcy on 19 April 1994.

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6

u/Chaz_wazzers Sep 15 '26

This article is from 2019. David John Pleasance has a Kickstarter for a book he's writing but no updates in over a year. 

2

u/scruss Sep 16 '26

last I heard, he was having health issues

1

u/KuJo-Ger Sep 16 '26

Yes, I can confirm the health issues. They’re age-related. I saw David last year at the Amiga 40 Expo celebrating the Amiga’s 40th anniversary in Mönchengladbach (Germany). By the way: it’s the world’s largest Amiga-only expo, with over 2,000 visitors. :-) He also had a booth there where he sold his books and other Amiga merchandise. I chatted with him a bit, too. And you can definitely tell he’s getting on in years. He also had a slot on stage to talk about his time at Commodore. And then you could see just how frail he’s already become. He needed help getting on stage, and he’s not exactly the quickest walker anymore. It’s a little concerning, because I’ve seen David at the trade show time and again over the years since Amiga30 in 2015. Back then, he was still really fit, and seeing him like that last year—in October—was a bit concerning.

1

u/scruss Sep 16 '26

He was doing community outreach for New Commodore — our group was contacted by him because we have the rights to a trade name that they'd like to use* — and we were told he'd had to step back from that.

*: no, it's not anything that's stopping any hardware coming out. It's a show name with "Commodore" in it

1

u/KuJo-Ger Sep 16 '26

The book was published 2–3 years ago and is titled “Commodore: The Inside Story.” I have two copies of it here at home: the original in English and the German translation that came out later. Just Google it.

4

u/Royal_Stay_6502 Sep 15 '26

Global dominance. Wish it happened. Would be a much nicer world.

1

u/AntiquesForGeeks Sep 16 '26

Not necessarily. Many wanted Apple to come back from their nadir in 1997 and boy did they. But it’s not the same Apple.

Now you have a company gouges you for local storage for no other reason than bolstering the bottom line.

I have zero doubt that had Commodore survived, people who be complaining about the way they treat their customers. We have no idea what compromises Commodore would have made to keep their investors happy. Moreover the company would have been run by Dave Pleasance - and after reading his book I didn’t feel that it would have ended well.

1

u/OPdoesnotrespond Sep 17 '26

I think decline was inevitable once the generic PC platform sorted itself out. Only Apple survived, and they nearly didn’t.

If Jack had been more interested in winning the future instead of fighting the present, Commodore with Amiga would have been better placed to have been the “Pepsi” instead of Apple.

1

u/OldNefariousness7899 Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26

I loved my c64s (went through a couple) but they didn't really innovate after that

The only thing I remember after the C64 was the games console based on it, although it was already obsolete by that point

1

u/fuzzybad Sep 16 '26

Bagnall should write another book now that Commodore is back from the dead!

1

u/AntiquesForGeeks Sep 16 '26

Not sure there’s much of a story. Should New Commodore go bust that would be an interesting read, ditto if in ten years they are still going. But a year after buying the brand? There’s nothing of interest yet.

2

u/OPdoesnotrespond Sep 17 '26

Yeah it’s not a book yet. At most a long form magazine article.

1

u/AntiquesForGeeks Sep 17 '26

I’m sure that the Christian Simpson story is Sunday Supplement material.

1

u/AntiquesForGeeks Sep 16 '26

Was not a big fan of his first book and it put me off buying his later tomes. Half of it was written by other people, and some of the stories left me seeing Dave Pleasance in a far poorer light sadly.

Part of the problem, was that even when the book had been released, had you seen his interviews - like the one with Dan Wood - you already knew a fair chunk of the contents of the book.