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      /  Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
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Hypex 
Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 14:19:05
#1 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11180
From: Greensborough, Australia

We like to think of the Amiga as being an industry first with realistic digitised graphics and sound with a multitasking windowing OS. And as a computer for the home computer market this is certainly the case. But the Amiga wasn't the first computer with realistic graphics.

In 1981 came the release of the Quantel Paintbox with realistic broadcast quality digitised graphics. And operated with a pen and touch pad. Coming out years before Windows and Mac the descriptions of it crap all over those systems alone.

Now I can't find much tech info on the Quantel Paintbox. I safely assume it did 24-bit graphics and hardware effects but nothing I read can confirm or deny this. In fact, the internet is devoid of any technical info when I'm looking for it. I've read lots of interesting facts about the Atari Falcon audio capabilities but nothing yet tells me how those 8 channels were mixed in hardware, for example.

We like to tout the Toaster as an Amiga revolutionary. But this came out almost ten years after the Paintbox. And the fact is the Toaster didn't use the Amiga hardware for its graphics since it supplied it's own.

The Paintbox is said to be around $100,000 IIRC. And an A1000 setup could be had for under $10,000. But even so, would it be true to say the Amiga was overshadowed by the Quantel Paintbox?

The Paintbox could be best known for its involvement in the Dire Straits video for Money for nothing. Although at the time the 3d graphics looked primitive to me and I thought they used an A500. And was disappointed when I found they hadn't.

Perhaps, though it is our favourite, the Amiga remains a trailblazer after all. I mean, we discuss what the Amiga should have been and could have been, had Commodore not killed it. But, the fact remains, that advanced computer graphics was already available years before the Amiga hit the scene.

So, maybe it isn't such a big deal that the PC played catch up for years and then started lapping us in the graphics department some years later. When the truth is, the PC was already playing catch up to a system more advanced than the Amiga, and it would be years before it could match it. Let alone surpass it.

Last edited by Hypex on 09-Dec-2016 at 02:24 PM.

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Tomppeli 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 15:05:12
#2 ]
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Joined: 18-Jun-2004
Posts: 1652
From: Home land of Santa, sauna, sisu and salmiakki

@Hypex

You realize the key here is not capability but price versus capability.

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broadblues 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 15:10:07
#3 ]
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Joined: 20-Jul-2004
Posts: 4446
From: Portsmouth England

@Hypex

The amiga was revolutionary as "consumer" computer, it wasn't the first at anything in an absolute sense, that quantel thingy was dedicated piece of hardware by the sounds of it, something quite different from amiga. Though once you add a flyer toaster you were heading back in the same direction but at alower budget.

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m0lebrain 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 16:46:39
#4 ]
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Joined: 21-Apr-2004
Posts: 367
From: South Western PA

Quantel Paintbox was a reason why people like Newtek created desktop versions of expensive video products.

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golem 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 17:43:14
#5 ]
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Joined: 14-Feb-2004
Posts: 49
From: Nottingham, UK

@Hypex
Around 1984 I was in secondary school and lived near Newbury and our chemistry teacher organised a trip to take us to Quantel HQ in Newbury. We were shown around the production line and given a demo of the Paintbox suite in action. This was before I caught the computer bug but it gave me an idea of how hi-tech was made and used. When I got my first A500 in 1990 I was amazed at how close DPaint was to the Quantel which was so expensive a few years previous. You could say the same about the Fairlight CMI (local to you!)

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Cheese 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 18:14:51
#6 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 23-Oct-2006
Posts: 314
From: Unknown

@Tomppeli

Quote:
You realize the key here is not capability but price versus capability.


Coming from someone who owns an X1000 that sounds hilarious

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Severin 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 19:14:12
#7 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Aug-2003
Posts: 2740
From: Gloucestershire UK

@Cheese

What a trollish reply, Without taking into consideration 20 years of inflation an A4000 with Cyberstorm MkII (78060), 64 or 128 mb of ram, Pacasso-IV, Concierto and a 512mb harddrive was far more than an X-1000.

My A-1000 with 512k ram, 1081 monitor, external floppy, joystick and a couple of games cost almost as much as my X-1000.

Back on topic, The PaintBox was dedicated hardware and should not be comapred to an amiga, yes it let you paint but at 2% of the cost an amiga 1000 with a video capture card, genlock, graphics tablet and a ham paint package would let you do anything the PaintBox could do. The paintbox didn't even have an undo function.

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Rose 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 19:27:54
#8 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 5-Nov-2009
Posts: 982
From: Unknown

@Severin

Quote:
My A-1000 with 512k ram, 1081 monitor, external floppy, joystick and a couple of games cost almost as much as my X-1000.


Back in the day your A1000 didn't cost twice as much as WAY faster competing system.

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OldAmigan 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 20:49:53
#9 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 25-Dec-2003
Posts: 681
From: Dumfries, Scotland

@Hypex

This computer? http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/sec/36278/Quantel/

I'd never heard of it until I read your post. Looks quite cool, I must say

Last edited by OldAmigan on 09-Dec-2016 at 08:53 PM.

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tonyw 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 21:03:55
#10 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 8-Mar-2003
Posts: 3240
From: Sydney (of course)

@Hypex

Ah, I remember the PaintBox, and not too fondly. I was working for a local TV station in Sydney at the time and I was sent over to the UK to learn about it. Like a lot of TV equipment in those days, it was rushed onto the market, with PC boards covered with patches and wires. When we got it installed at the station, it was like every other bit of gear to come out of the UK - designed to work in an ambient temp of 0-10 deg C.

The Paintbox (and later, the frame stores and other graphics stuff whose names I forget) had to be the most unreliable bit of kit at the station. Just about every week we had to pull it apart, clean all the contacts, oil the fans, brush the dust out of the power supply (big monster in those days), while Commercial Production paced up and down and fumed.

Ah, those were the days... NOT!



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klx300r 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 9-Dec-2016 21:32:34
#11 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 4-Mar-2008
Posts: 3833
From: Toronto, Canada

Quote:

Severin wrote:
@Cheese

What a trollish reply, ....


hehe that's sort of his gig so best not to feed him

+ 1 btw on your points

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Hypex 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 0:11:44
#12 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11180
From: Greensborough, Australia

@Tomppeli

Yes I did realise the price is was way larger for the Paintbox but my point was graphical ability overall.

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Hypex 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 2:28:05
#13 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11180
From: Greensborough, Australia

@golem

I'm shocked! Not at the DPaint thing. But that I'm sure this is the first I've ever heard of Fairlight and the CMI!

Was the Amiga Paula chip overshadowed by the CMI? Certainly since only Atari and Mac get any early mention when it comes to music. But at 8-bit sample resolution the Amiga could certainly match the CMI even with only two track stereo.

Of course the DPaint thing is cool too.

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Hypex 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 2:46:28
#14 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-May-2007
Posts: 11180
From: Greensborough, Australia

@tonyw

Thanks for sharing. It almost sounds like one of those breadbox computers people talk about with wires streaming all over a breadboard. I can't imagine any company releasing an actual product without having PCB's neatly inside a plastic box.

Then again, look at Apple, who first released a motherboard. How times have changed. And Apple, who now go to lengths to make sure you can't open the box.

Did you ever get an Amiga in the station?

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tonyw 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 5:06:05
#15 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 8-Mar-2003
Posts: 3240
From: Sydney (of course)

@Hypex

Quote:
I can't imagine any company releasing an actual product without having PCB's neatly inside a plastic box.


This was the eighties, when the first manufacturer to get his product on air at a TV station usually got orders from all the station's competition the next day. The PaintBox was a 19" rack-mounted unit, full depth, 4(?) units high and the Quantel brown. Like all their stuff, it had many noisy fans but still overheated.

Quote:
Did you ever get an Amiga in the station?


No, I left TV before Amiga came on the market. It was C64s when I was there, but not on air. On air we had Chyron character generators, dedicated hardware with a 9" floppy to store your work. I think Chyron are still in business.

The last NAB that I attended (1984) had an Amiga-like device on demo as an autocue. If that sounds strange, remember that an autocue in those days was literally a B/W camera pointed at a roll of paper with the text on it, together with hand edits, notes etc. The operator varied the speed of the transport mechanically to keep pace with the announcer.

It was displayed on a small B/W screen in front of the studio camera, usually mounted vertically under the lens hood, with a single sheet of glass at 45 degrees to reflect the reverse-scanned image so that the announcer appeared to be looking at the camera while reading the text. Yes, the monitors overheated too. Nothing in the studio could have a fan (too noisy), so the studio crew used to disconnect any fans we installed, no matter how quiet they were.

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PR 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 11:07:29
#16 ]
Super Member
Joined: 1-Sep-2004
Posts: 1961
From: Suomi-Finland

@tonyw

Few, nearly thought of changin all the Amigagear to a box of paint .

Thank You. 30 Years and still working+PIV&all.

Back then in Spain at SunnyViewSchool our computer teacher was a bit amazed and maybe a bit jelaous that I had an Amiga.

Well the work was done with it and our companies got a little better.

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Severin 
Re: Amiga - Over shadowed by the Paintbox?
Posted on 10-Dec-2016 13:19:54
#17 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Aug-2003
Posts: 2740
From: Gloucestershire UK

@Rose

Quote:

Rose wrote:
@Severin

Back in the day your A1000 didn't cost twice as much as WAY faster competing system.


Depends whether you want comfort and style or speed, I could strap a jet engine to a milk float if I want pure speed but I'd rather have a rolls royce.

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