Commodore: The Inside Story Book Review
“Commodore the Inside Story, the Untold Tale of a Computer Giant”, was a Kickstarter which funded late last year 2018
With 1,231 backers having pledged £50,225 to help bring this project to life. I backed the project at the 30-pound level which granted me a copy of the hardcover book. There were additional pledge levels offered including the audio or eBook versions. The Kickstarter was brought to us by David John Pleasance, with the intention of releasing a book of his memoirs. On my copy, the inside cover next to his photograph was autographed, a nice touch. David has a wealth of information pertaining to Commodore from his 12 years of experience working for the company, mostly in the capacity of sales. The book is split up into two halves, the first one containing the memoir and the second half containing the memories of various Commodore insiders, which makes for an interesting read.
Growing up in the ’80s and having owned various Commodore computers and peripherals, I had absolutely zero clues about how the Commodore business side of things actually ran. David John Pleasance, through this book, conveys this through his many challenges and experiences.
It is a cautionary tale of how a once great and mighty company seemingly on top of the world, could be brought down by a series of disappointing missteps. After having read the first half of the book, it is clear to me that with the proper direction, Commodore could have remained in business and may have even been as large as companies such as Microsoft, Apple, IBM, or Dell computers. But certainly, this was not to be.
The book takes us from 1983 All the way through 1995, the final demise of Commodore. The book contains 361 total pages, including about 17 pages listing all of the Kickstarter backers. There were a couple of minor typos in the book, including on page 87 where it states and English translation of an article is on page 93 it was actually on page 89-90. Not a huge deal. It was really done well and includes many color photos. You can tell an attempt was made whenever possible to include a picture of each person telling their story in the second half of the book.
Overall I enjoyed reading Commodore the Inside Story and the many anecdotes and insights revealed by David J. Pleasance and I highly recommend the book. You can still pick up the book along with the audio and or ebook versions and there’s even a Bluray version available over at his website:
https://downtimepublishing.com
Audiobook version available, spoken by Dan Wood from the Retro Hour Podcast
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RCma1sogZTOBqIXmQSRMiHAOkv_I7CVx
Youtube Original Post Date: 02/28/2019
