The History of Commodore Pt 4

The History of Commodore Pt 4

From They Create Worlds by Alex Smith, and Jeffrey Daum

December 1, 2025 · 1h 34m · Episode 247

About this episode

The episode covers the chaotic decline of Commodore after its early success with the Amiga line.

TCW Podcast Episode 247 - The History of Commodore Pt 4The final chapter of our Commodore series covers the company’s chaotic decline. After early success with the Amiga line, internal conflict grew under President Tom Rattigan, who wanted to focus on the low end with the Amiga 500 while Irving Gould pushed for high end systems like the Amiga 2000. Missed deadlines and a failed boardroom challenge led to Rattigan’s firing and Gould taking direct control. When IRS tax issues forced Gould to step back, Mahdi Ali became President and began reorganizing engineering. Ali hired Bill Sydnes from the IBM PC team, who also had a hand in the failure of the PC Jr, to evaluate and streamline development. Gould continued to cycle executives in pursuit of short term stock gains, which weakened Commodore as it chased conflicting markets. Cost cutting turned the popular Amiga 500 into the poorly received A600, though the later A1200 fared better. Ali moved manufacturing to the Philippines after shutting down facilities in Hong Kong and Germany, but production was disrupted by the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption. Commodore finally collapsed and went bankrupt in 1994, ending one of the most turbulent…

People in this episode

Host: Alex

Topics covered

  • Commodore
  • Amiga
  • personal computing
  • corporate decline

Keywords

  • Commodore
  • Amiga 500
  • Amiga 2000
  • Tom Rattigan
  • Irving Gould
  • Mahdi Ali
  • Bill Sydnes

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Amiga, the Amiga 500, the Amiga 2000, the PC Jr, Amiga 500, A600, A1200, Pepsi Challenge, Amiga 2000 HD Professional Demo, Amiga 500 Bundles

Books & works: The History of Commodore Pt 4, The History of Commodore Pt, History of the Amiga 1992 Documentary, Airplane Mode

Places: Philippines, Hong Kong, Germany, Mount Pinatubo

More episodes of They Create Worlds

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the They Create Worlds podcast page.