Home computers did much more than bring arcade games into our bedrooms and change forever the way we enjoy video games. A whole new generation of content creators poured their craziest ideas onto these platforms, doing things that previously demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment. One of those things was Video Toaster, a combination of hardware and software that turned the Commodore Amiga into the «Holy Grail» of video editing in the early '90s.
If you were born sometime in the '80s or '90s, you probably remember very interesting effects from certain music videos on MTV. When visualizing how those effects were made, most people imagined a control room in the style of NASA, but in reality they only needed about 5,000 dollars in hardware, or half that amount if they already owned a Commodore Amiga 2000. The key? Video Toaster.
Video Toaster: Much more than a "killer app"
The first Video Toaster was a creation of Tim Jenison, creator of the DigiView software for Amiga 1000 in 1985, Brad Carvey, brother of actor Dana Carvey (you know, Garth from "Wayne's World") and developer of the wire-wrap prototype, and Steve Kell, responsible for writing the software for the prototype.
DigiView had attracted so much attention that Jenison left the Tandy market he was working in and dedicated himself fully to video on the Commodore Amiga, founding NewTek.
The Video Toaster prototype made by Carvey debuted at the World of Commodore 1987 edition and at COMDEX that same year, sweeping everything in its path.
Still, the public had to wait three more years for the final product (October to December 1990). Its official announcement says it all: 15 engineers and programmers, 4 custom chips, 350,000 lines of code to bend the will of the Motorola 68000, and 5,325 cinnamon kittens.
TV quality in your home. Exclusive effects from professional studios, a couple of clicks away. 3D models that required Silicon Graphics workstations costing $20,000 or $30,000, within everyone's reach.
Video Toaster did the impossible and conquered the world of video editing within months. Local music groups were among the first to take advantage of Video Toaster's strengths and its main software tool, Lightwave 3D.
The music video for singer Todd Rundgren for his song «Change Myself» became a kind of "ideal demo" for the platform's capabilities, and all the rules about promotional or training videos had to be rewritten.
Not a few schools ended up with a Video Toaster in their audiovisual rooms.
Three years later, NewTek went all in with the Video Toaster 4000, now compatible with the Amiga 4000 (and backward compatible with A2000-A3000).
Wil Wheaton participated in its development, though not so much in the technical side, but as a beta tester, quality control, and as part of the marketing team. In his own words, Wheaton was an "evangelist" for the Video Toaster 4000. In the promotional video appear Wheaton, Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller, and none other than Tony Hawk:
With new features came new demands. One was storage space, and besides buying the Video Toaster 4000, users of this platform had to invest thousands of dollars in hard drives to edit non-linearly with the Video Toaster Flyer expansion card.
At the same time, many producers and TV studios were clamoring for a Macintosh version of the Video Toaster, something impossible due to the custom hardware. The solution came through the Toaster Link expansion card, a kind of "remote control" for the Video Toaster that allowed it to be controlled from a Mac.
Remember the series seaQuest DSV? How about Babylon 5? Yes, both used the Video Toaster platform for a good portion of their special effects, mainly due to cost (according to Ron Thornton of Babylon 5, it was between 30 and 60 percent of the cost of a traditional process).
The pilot episode of Babylon 5 was rendered with a network of Amiga computers, and all those techniques served to recognize a fundamental detail: It was time to leave the Commodore boat.
Slowly, NewTek began transitioning Lightwave 3D to DEC Alpha and Intel Pentium workstations. The rest of its resources also followed that route. Commodore threw in the towel in April 1994.
The Video Toaster concept evolved into the TriCaster system, which you can purchase today directly from NewTek's official website, and the Video Toaster 4000 source code was released in 2004.
Its fans still remember the Video Toaster with affection and gratitude. That board opened the doors to a new universe, and they never closed again.
