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> In fact, the Amiga computer's monitor output was used to display the Toaster user interface but when a video effect was running the interface was entirely rep

> In fact, the Amiga computer's monitor output was used to display the Toaster user interface but when a video effect was running the interface was entirely replaced with odd patterns that looked like bar codes. These were the addresses being fed from the Amiga to the Toaster hardware in real-time. No way, that’s why the wipes took over the switcher screen and where that peculiar vertical line pattern came from? I can still remember these with an odd intensity from playing with the Toaster at the studio where my dad worked 30 years ago.

mrandish 1y ago
Yep, it was an absolutely bonkers combined hardware / software hack conceived by Tim Jenison and Brad Carvey on the hardware side and a team of low-level assembly language Amiga hackers on the software side, for which they won a Prime Time Emmy Award for outstanding technical achievement. I'll never forget seeing a group of Japanese engineers from Sony who designed high-end video effects hardware (which cost >20x what a Toaster system did) seeing the Toaster at the NAB trade show for the first time. There was nothing but stunned silence and shocked looks... then after a long while of watching the demo and seeing the interface turn into weird garbage during each effect, you could see the light dawn on their faces - and then the whole group erupted into excited, highly-animated chatter. I've never wished I spoke Japanese as much as that moment :-).
- sillywalk 1y ago
  > Brad Carvey Trivia: He's the brother of Dana Carvey, and Garth wears a Video Toaster T-Shirt in Wayne's World 2.
  - mrandish 1y ago
    Trivia Trivia: Dana based the Wayne's World character Garth on his engineer brother Brad. When he's playing Garth he's impersonating his brother in a way that's as spot on yet over-the-top exaggerated as when Dana does his impersonation of US President George Bush - except the Brad impersonation is only hilarious to those who know Brad.

mrandish 1y ago

Yep, it was an absolutely bonkers combined hardware / software hack conceived by Tim Jenison and Brad Carvey on the hardware side and a team of low-level assembly language Amiga hackers on the software side, for which they won a Prime Time Emmy Award for outstanding technical achievement. I'll never forget seeing a group of Japanese engineers from Sony who designed high-end video effects hardware (which cost >20x what a Toaster system did) seeing the Toaster at the NAB trade show for the first time. There was nothing but stunned silence and shocked looks... then after a long while of watching the demo and seeing the interface turn into weird garbage during each effect, you could see the light dawn on their faces - and then the whole group erupted into excited, highly-animated chatter. I've never wished I spoke Japanese as much as that moment :-).

sillywalk 1y ago
> Brad Carvey Trivia: He's the brother of Dana Carvey, and Garth wears a Video Toaster T-Shirt in Wayne's World 2.
- mrandish 1y ago
  Trivia Trivia: Dana based the Wayne's World character Garth on his engineer brother Brad. When he's playing Garth he's impersonating his brother in a way that's as spot on yet over-the-top exaggerated as when Dana does his impersonation of US President George Bush - except the Brad impersonation is only hilarious to those who know Brad.