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  • Commodore is back, and retro gamers need to get behind Peri Fractic’s powerplay

    Commodore is back, and retro gamers need to get behind Peri Fractic’s powerplay


    Christian Simpson aka Peri Fractic
    Image of Paul McNally

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    Published: Jun 30, 2025 07:42 am

    Circulating around the inner tubes of the internet for a few weeks has been the news that YouTuber Peri Fractic (aka Christian Simpson of the Retro Recipes channel) has been in talks to head up a move to purchase Commodore – yes Commodore, the actual Commodore – a company so mismanaged time and time again since the mid-90s it makes gamers of a certain age want to cry.

    Commodore means a lot to so many people, from growing up with Vic 20s and C64s as their first computer to me, a former editor of the outstandingly funny Amiga Action magazine, once, briefly, the best-selling Amiga magazine in the world in its heyday.

    In 1995, Commodore, a company with its hugely successful Amiga computer, collapsed, was bought out for the first of many subsequent times, and has since been a shambolic example of stubbornness and greed. About a billion fragments of various IPs and trademarks exist and are scattered around companies and people who infight and argue, and sue and counter-sue, and it’s just been horrible to watch.

    Then, a couple of weeks ago, Simpson dropped a YouTube video saying he was looking to buy Commodore and reinvigorate it to its former glory, hoping to release new hardware, start a Commodore Cares charity that would install Commodore machines into children’s hospitals, and so forth.

    It was very exciting, and then nothing, until this week when a follow-up video announced that the sale of the company to Simpson had been agreed, and it was all systems go. I watched the video, hugely excited, and mildly irritated that this has actually been going on since the start of the year, and now we are getting videos dropped extending the story over a number of parts, obviously to get views. Fair enough, the man’s got to make a living, but the key take here is that Simposon is now the recognized de facto CEO of Commodore (albeit no money has exchanged hands yet and the deal is yet to be signed off).

    Can Commodore Rise Again? Inside Perifractic’s Bold Retro Revival

    Peri Fractic has wasted no time though, and has assembled a new board of former Commodore employees and cheerleaders to look after the interests of the reborn company. He’s also well-connected through his involvement with Hollywood and has got Silicon Valley actor Thomas Middleditch on board.

    Others notables include Bil Herd (Commodore lead engineer 1982-1986), Albert Charpentier (Commodore VP of Technology 1979-1984), Michael Tomczyh (Assisant to Commodore President Jack Tramiel, 1980-1984), James Harrison (Commodore Tech Support 1990-1994) and the one and only David Pleasance (Commodore UK VP & Joint Managing Director, 1983-1994) – the man often credited for the movie tie-in genre.

    While some are perhaps naturally sceptical that Simpson is in it for his own ego and gain, I am not having it. I’ve followed his work on YouTube, and he comes across as a genuine lover of retro, a humble and funny guy who is deeply in love with Commodore. What he has put together here is astonishing. It is what I would love to have done, but I would never have had the drive.

    In a world where publishers don’t believe we should own the games we pay for, merely license them while being pumped full of microtransactions and special editions, paying much more to play three days early, and the like, this chance to save this gaming relic is important. Nobody will be trying to save Ubisoft in 40 years. Nobody will care.

    Simpson says we should expect new Commodore hardware in the near future and deals and partnerships to bring the brand back to life. I am not that sure it will be that simple getting the wider public to buy in, but more power to him and his team. As an original Intellivision owner, I backed Tommy Tallarico and the reborn Intellivision Amico to the hilt, and where did that get me?

    However, if we, as older gamers, truly want to hold up a flag and say, ‘Look, Fortnite kiddies, you are only playing that because of us, and companies like Commodore”, we need to get behind Simpson’s movement and do everything we can to make it a success.’

    Check out the vids above for the full story, there is no option to invest yet because international investing laws are all over the show, but Simpson is looking out for Angel Investors to help get it over the line.

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  • Steam Deck gamers are playing Oblivion Remastered in droves, despite controversy

    Steam Deck gamers are playing Oblivion Remastered in droves, despite controversy



    As a new month dawns, we’re taking a look at the most played Steam Deck games for April 2025, and it’s surprising to see Oblivion Remastered storm up the charts despite having become a bit of a meme for its poor performance. In the monthly data, however, Balatro still reigns supreme.

    Each month, it’s fun to look at which games are performing well on the best handheld gaming PC and look for any surprises. The chart of top played games on Steam Deck lists, quite simply, the games with the most hours played from one to 100, and there are some big debuts in this month’s list.

    In April, while it’s no great surprise to see indie games such as Schedule 1 and R.E.P.O continue to climb the rankings, the inclusion of Oblivion Remastered is somewhat puzzling. This is because of the ongoing performance issues affecting the game on the Steam Deck. It’s even become a meme, with players posting to Reddit saying they’ve finally got Oblivion to run well on the Deck, before posting a screenshot of the original game.

    While players were always going to try to get Oblivion Remastered running on the Steam Deck, the controversy comes from Valve’s decision to give it a Verified rating, despite it failing on the core criteria that a game needs to earn this status.

    We already tested the best Oblivion Remastered settings and found that, on the Steam Deck, you need to at least consider changing the upscaling method, as well as the level of upscaling from balanced to performance. This crucial change alone should relegate Oblivion to a Playable rating, but this hasn’t happened.

    Despite the Oblivion Remastered system requirements suggesting that the game would be difficult for the Steam Deck to run, players are clearly just pushing through and running the game however they see fit. Given that the game only released late in the month, the fact that it’s already the number two game on Steam Deck is quite the achievement. It didn’t have quite enough plays to dethrone Balatro for the monthly stats, but it is currently the most played game over the last week.

    Other notable inclusions on this month’s top-played list are Clair Obscur Expedition 33 at 26, a game that launched as Unsupported but has already been upgraded to Playable. The Last of Us Part 2 has debuted at 41 while the first game has reappeared at 60, likely due to renewed interest thanks to season two of the TV show.

    Finally, there was another strong indie debut in the list as Blue Prince, the intriguing roguelike puzzle game, debuted at 16 for the monthly list, although it did appear inside the top 10 briefly during its release week.

    If you want to read more about some of the Steam Deck’s biggest competition, check out our Ayaeno 3 review and Asus ROG Ally X review to see where they Windows handhelds stack up.

    You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.



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