Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gdubs | Hacker News Reader

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For anyone too young to understand the fascination, the Amiga was far ahead of its time but suffered a premature death due to the gross mismanagement of the Comodore corporation.

In the early 90s, non-linear digital editing for film and TV (as well as graphics, and titles) was limited to specialized machines that cost, literally, millions of dollars in 90s money. With an add-on product called the Video Toaster, these functions could be done on an Amiga — for a price affordable to many public access broadcasters.

Lightwave3D which began as part of the video toaster brought 3d graphics to a ton of people — again, at a time when an SGI and something like wavefront would run around $40k. Lightwave was used to great effect for shows like Star Trek TNG, Babylon 5, etc. Even ILM used it for some shots theatrical releases, if I recall correctly.

Then there was the huge demo scene and gaming cohort which pushed the Amiga to do things that seemed like they shouldn’t have been possible.

An awesome time for personal computing.

Just a minor clarification - the Video Toaster was a switcher, a broadcast quality paint box, and could facilitate regular linear editing but did not have non-linear capabilities. It wasn't until much later, nearly at the point at which the Amiga had ceased to exist and become at best a peripheral of the video toaster rather than the other way around, did the video toaster gain NLE capabilities in the form of another product the Video Toaster Flyer. Source: video toaster serial number 000009 lived in my personal A2000.

It's a minor piece of trivia but one of the key engineers involved with the Video Toaster was Brad Carvey, the brother of Dana Carvey of SNL fame. Apparently Brad Carvey was also the inspiration for the Garth character in the Wayne's World movie.

Quite right — thanks for the clarification / reminder! If I recall the Flyer came out a little after all of those render farm cards for lightwave that I used to see ads for in the various Newtek / Amiga magazines.

In general (not only for video editing), it was an incredibly powerful machine sold for a fraction of the price of comparable hardware of the time, even for personal computing.

Apple and PCs were easily selling for 1000$+, while a basic A500 started at 600/700$, it came with more advanced audio and video capabilities, and you could hook it up to a normal TV instead of a dedicated monitor.

It was also a great gaming machine that you could convince you parents to buy, since it was "useful for studying", unlike a console :)

For the interested (or nostalgic) Arstechnica had a retrospective in many parts:

https://arstechnica.com/series/history-of-the-amiga/

Total tangent, but Tim Jenison of video toaster and lightwave3d fame made a neat documentary called Tim’s Vermeer. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I am also remembering that the Amiga was "killed" several more times by the bankruptcy process, as the IP rights to it went through legal limbo and then through a series of companies that failed to rejuvenate it or market it properly. Gateway Computers was the biggest profile name on that list, but there were several.

I think it is somewhat like the fascination with historical figures who were assassinated. Had the Amiga simply lived out its commercial life and then gotten obsolete in a normal way, there would not be the sense of potential squandered, and thus perhaps not the ongoing fascination.

Oh I dunno, fascination with a device ahead of it's time is always there, even if it lived a good life.

And some people like history, or specific parts of history.

At the original presentation/unveiling of Windows 95, the video wall behind Bill Gates was driven by an Amiga.. :D

Apart from its advanced functionality, I also have fond memories of the "feel" of the system. Others will probably describe this better than I ever could.

It was absolutely groundbreaking in terms of commodity video acceleration. If I remember rightly, it was a whole-system genlock: the system clock would be phase-locked to the incoming video. That let it output frames on top of the video stream without having to digitise it first.

They could have been the "SGI for the masses"; if they'd really been able to push the idea of commodity hardware dedicated for gaming and effects they might have been first to market with gaming 3D accelerators.

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Was-Here-Commodore-Platform/dp...

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