Digital Home Thoughts: Commodore 64 Re-Born as Nettop Computer

"Commodore is showing photos of its new C64 computer. Some of you are too young to remember this 8-bit classic computer, but it will spark great memories for others. And that's exactly what Commodore is counting on as it recreates the C64 using modern hardware. The new C64 is powered by a Dual-core Intel Atom 525 and an NVIDIA Ion 2 chipset. It has 2GB of memory, expandable to a maximum of 4GB."

What do you think? Is this clever or goofy? Under this retro-looking shell, this is a nettop computer: an Atom-based, NVIDIA ION-toting, Windows 7-running machine. You can buy a barebones version for $250 that gives you the case, chassis, and keyboard - along with the memory card reader - or drop up to $895 to get a version with a 1 TB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM, etc. The retro styling is fun, but it breaks down quickly when you look at the sides and see the black plastic. You'd think they would have opted to paint the sides beige to match the chassis at least...