I used an A2000 toaster around 93-94 when doing event videography and corporate videos. We had a number of professional JVC S-VHS decks for the source and target video. People loved the effects, titles, and even a small 3d lightwave animation once in a while.
It was definately impressive for the time, Newtek was on the cutting edge. Who can forget Kiki Stockhammer?
http://www.patswayne.com/kiki/nowadays, we can tear through 1080P video like it was nothing on a laptop. times have changed!!