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Text File | 1995-04-27 | 50.9 KB | 1,325 lines

M O V I E G U I D E P R O -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- V1.1 (1/5-1995) Welcome to MovieGuide Pro V1.1! =============================== - Your guide to the movies! * MORE THAN 21.000 TITLES, CONTAINING TITLE, DK TITLE, DIRECTOR, CAST, ORIGIN COUNTRY, RELEASE YEAR, GENRE, LENGTH IN MINUTES, COLOR OR B&W, NUMBER OF CHAPTERS (SERIES ONLY). * NOW MORE THAN 1000 DANISH TITLES, MORE THAN 900 EUROPEAN. THIS VERSION HAS A LOT OF NEW U.K. TITLES! * SEARCH ON DIRECTOR, CAST, TITLE, DK TITLE, COMPOSER, EDITOR, PRODUCER, DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY, PRODUCTION-DESIGNER, WRITER, SCREENPLAY, MOVIE-SERIES (THROUGH TOPICS). * NOW YOU CAN ALSO GET A FILMOGRAPHY ON A PERSON! * CROSSSEARCHING USING YEAR-CRITERIA. * UP-TO-DATE. MANY TITLES FROM 1995 ARE ALREADY IN THERE - MANY OF THEM STILL IN PRODUCTION IN THE US. * PLOT SUMMARIES ON MORE THAN 2000 TITLES! * BROWSER - LETS YOU FIND A TITLE IN A HURRY. NOW WITH 'SCAN ALL' FUNCTION. * MINI-LEXICON CONTAINING INFORMATION ON VARIOUS RELEVANT SUBJECTS, FOR A MOVIE FREAK - WHAT'S A COMPUTER COLOURED FILM? WHAT IS DOLBY SURROUND? WIDE-SCREEN? CINEMASCOPE? ETC ETC... * TOPICS - FIND ALL MOVIES IN A SERIES OF MOVIES, E.G. THE '007, JAMES BOND' MOVIES, THE 'COLUMBO' SERIES, THE 'KOJAK' SERIES. ALSO MORE UNOFFICIAL SERIES, LIKE THE 'JACK RYAN' FILMS. WHICH WAS THE FIRST FEATURELENGTH ANIMATED FILM? WHICH FILM IS THE GREATEST ECONOMICAL SUCCESS? THESE, AND MORE ODD AND INTERESTING INFORMATION, CAN BE FOUND HERE. * SEQUEL/PREQUEL ICONS, FOR FAST & EASY WALKTHROUGH OF A SERIES OF MOVIES, E.G. THE 'INDIANA JONES' MOVIES. * FEATURE/SERIAL ICONS, FOR MOVIES WHICH HAS LATER TURNED INTO A SERIES, OR A SERIES TURNED INTO A FEATURE FILM. * RECOMMEND GOOD MOVIES, USING "VIDEO MOVIE-GUIDE" RATING AND INTERNET RECS.ARTS.MOVIES RATING! * TODAY - SHOWS TODAYS ANNIVERSARIES ON INDUSTRY-PERSONS! * ABOUT 5000 MOVIES RATED, USING THE RATINGS FROM THE "VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE" BY MICK MARTIN & MARSHA PORTER. * OSCARS! WHAT MOVIES WON HOW MANY OSCARS, AND HOW MANY NOMINEES DID IT GET? * AWARDS - ALL OSCARS FROM 1984 TO 1993 ARE COMPLETE! OSCARS/GOLDEN GLOBES/ BAFTA AWARDS ON TECHNICAL CREDITS INCLUDED! * BIOGRAPHIES ON MORE THAN 8.700 MOVIE-INDUSTRY PERSONS! CLICK ON A NAME, AND YOU'LL GET INFORMATION ABOUT THAT PERSON (IF AVAILABLE). * TRIVIA INFORMATION, ERRORS (GOOFS), AND REMARKABEL QUOTES FROM LOADS OF MOVIES! * PICTURES OF PERSONS (BIOGRAPHY) AND MOVIES. ABOUT 00 INCLUDED IN THIS VERSION! * COMPATIBLE WITH ALL EXISTING AMIGAS, INCLUDING A1200 AND A4000! * AMIGA ONLY! * REQUIRES 1.5MB RAM! Disclaimer ========== THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Preface ======= MOVIEGUIDE PRO IS PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND THEREFORE DOESN'T COST YOU ANYTHING. HOWEVER, IF YOU LIKE THE PROGRAM, AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE US DEVELOPING IT, YOU ARE WELCOME TO SEND US A FAN LETTER OR SOMETHING!;-) PD DISTRIBUTORS: READ LAST PART OF THIS DOCUMENTATION! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- What is MovieGuide? =================== MovieGuide is a comprehensive movie guide for the Amiga computer, which gives you information on the more than 21.000 movies and TV-series currently in this system. It utilises an easy-to-use 'point-and-click' and/or keyboard-controlled userinterface, so that most people should be able to familize him/herself with the program very quickly. MovieGuide Pro ============== MovieGuide has changed name to MovieGuide Pro, because we think it de- serves it (as well as we don't have to call it '4.0', '5.0' ;-)) We're not sure, how widespreaden this program will be, but we hope that it'll get across most of Europe - because this is a program the Amigaowners has long been cheated not to have - the PC's have had programs like this for ages, but to our knowledge this is the first one, with so many titles, for the Amiga. MovieGuide Pro is a complete overhaul on earlier versions! This version should also be available on AmiNet! Copyright ========= While all material is copyrighted by the creators, MovieGuide Pro is FREEWARE. This means that you can copy this program as crazy as you want, AS LONG as you include ALL files, including this doc. About this documentation ======================== Don't be surprised if you find some 'bugs' in this documentation. We don't consider the program that difficult to use without a doc, so the most useful part of the doc is the overview of key-shortcuts, mouse usage etc. at the bottom of this document. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The MovieGuide ============== Following is a short guide to the MovieGuide! First of all, we'll explain the general layout of the program's main screen. At the top of the screen, where the MOVIEGUIDE PRO logo is, all functions, that are not related to a single title, or to the list of titles in the bottom window (except the BROWSER - read later), are placed. From left to right they are QUIT (Close-icon), INFO ('?'), SETUP, USER, MISC, TOPICS, LEX, MOVIEGUIDE-TO-BACK. Below these icons, the window containing information about a single title, is placed. Below that, you find the SEARCH-BAR. At the top of this part of the screen, are the search-criterias, just below, you find the SEARCH-STRING LINE, where you enter your search-string. To the left of the search-string is a little button with a 'B' on it, for biographies purpose. Below the search-string you find the SORT LINE, which lets you sort by YEAR, NAME or GENRE. To the right of the SEARCH-BAR you find the graphical icons, which lets you choose what information you want about the current title. Here you also find the BROWSER icon, and the PRINT icon, which prints out information about the movie list in the window below. And now, we'll go more into details about the functions in the program. THE TWO MODES OF THE PROGRAM ============================ You can choose expert or novice mode from the SETUP-screen, explained later. NOVICE MODE =========== The NOVICE MODE is the most simplest to use. When you move the pointer over a name og a title, the pointer changes to a magnifying glass - clicking left mousebutton will give you information about the name or title. Clicking on a title, will give you EVERYTHING, the program 'knows' about the movie! Please note, that even if you're in novice mode, the printer-options will still be active, so if you want everything to be printed out, you have to tick everything on. Complete Info ============= Clicking on a title in this mode, gives you COMPLETE INFORMATION on the movie, including Credits, Awards, Plot Summary, Trivia, Goofs and Quotes. This is presented in a full-screen window, where names (except for in the credits) are highlighted in yellow and titles in red. Moving over these highlighted texts will change the pointer to a magnifying glass, like on the credits screens. Clicking on a title will bring you to that title (NB! You cannot get back to the complete info on the current title, if you click on a new title, any other way, than by finding it again), and clicking on a name will give you a biography. EXPERT MODE =========== The EXPERT MODE is a more flexible way to use the program. You are presented with five graphical icons, instead of two. These represents part of the information, you can get all in one, in the novice mode. You can choose STANDARD CREDITS, EXTENDED CREDITS, AWARD INFORMATION, PLOT or TRIVIA/QUOTES/GOOFS from these five icons. The good thing about this is that you only have to wait, for the information you want, to be found, as collecting all information about a movie, can take up some time, especially on low-end Amigas. OUR RECOMMENDATION: We recommend that you use the NOVICE MODE, as information is more easily accessible through this mode - you don't have yo worry about where you get what information. It takes a little more time to find all info in one go, but when it's done, absolutely EVERYTHING the guide knows about the movie, is there! SETUP SCREEN ============ New in V3.0 and above is the SETUP-SCREEN, which we'll explain first. Click on the SETUP-icon at the top of the screen. Now you've got a window on the screen, where you can switch on/off various settings in the program. GENRES: Here you decide which genres you wish to search in. If the blue box to the right of the genre is marked, this genre will be searched through. You can tick each genre on/off by clicking in the blue boxes with the left mouse button. COUNTRIES: You can choose which countries the program should search through. If you know, that the movie you're looking for, is French, you could save some time by only switching on Europe. It's also useful for checking which foreign films an actor has starred in. GENERAL SETTINGS: SERIES: By clicking in the box to the left of SERIES, you can tick on and off, if the program should search in the SERIES data too. Please notice that many pilot episodes are in the main archives, and not the series one, because they've been released on video, or for other reasons. Also, be aware that if you haven't ticked all genres on, and you've turned series ON, series in all genres will be listed, as many series don't belong to any of the standard genres. EXT SEARCH: Ticking this ON, makes the program search for your searchstring in the special EXT-files, which contains complete information about a TV-series. Normally, keep this function OFF, as it takes up quite some time. EXPERT MODE: By ticking this mode on, you'll get a more flexible way to see the different kinds of information available on a title - in NOVICE MODE there are two graphical icons for Standard Credits and Extended Credits, and a magnifying glass for everything else. In EXPERT MODE you can switch between Standard Credits, Extended Credits, Awards, Plot and Trivia information by clicking one of the five graphical icons. Printer Setup ============= Divided into two rows, the first one covering print options concerning a single title: PLOT SUMMARY: Ticking this option on, will affect the printout of a movie's data. If a plot is available, the description will be printed as well. AWARD INFORMATION: Will print out technical award information about the movie (if available). TRIVIA, QUOTES and GOOFS: Prints out the relevant information about the title, if available. RATING PRINTING: If you want a movies ratings (both VMG and InterNet) to be printed out in the printout of a singe movies data, tick this option on. The second row only has one option, VMG Rating, which chooses wether to print the VMG Rating of a movie, in the movie list. OK, that's it. Now you can SAVE your SETUP by clicking on SAVE SETUP, og just leave the SETUP MENU by clicking the top left gadget, or by pressing HELP on your keyboard. THE MAIN DISPLAY ================ This is a walkthrough of the main screens information. The display is split in three general windows, not including the title- line. WINDOW 1: This is where the information about a certain title is displayed. The first line in the black window contains the current movie's original title. The second one, contains the danish title which, for other than danes, is rather uninteresting. The third line contains the director(s) of the movie/series, and the fourth and fifth, give you a list of the main cast members. TITLE: The movie's original title. To the right of this line, is a camera. If the camera is ghosted (masked), there's no picture for the movie, if it isn't, there is! DK-TITLE/PRODUCTION COMPANY: The Danish title for the movie, or the movies PRODUCTION COMPANY - switch between the two, by clicking the icon to the right of this line. DIRECTOR: The director(s) of the movie. CAST: A list of principal actors. The same mouseclicks applies to these, as to the director. In MovieGuide Pro, there can be four lines of cast. You can click the arrows to the right of the castlines, to switch to the two last/first castlines. Below the black window are the following icons: PRINT: Prints the information on the current title to a file or printer. If Plot Priting is switched to ON in the SETUP-MENU, a plot summary will be printed as well. PREQUEL/SEQUEL/FEATURE/SERIAL: Shows you the movie's prequel, sequel, feature made over a series, or series made over a feature! OSCARS: Shows how many Oscars the movie received/was nominated for. COLOR/B&W: Shows whether the movie is shot in B&W or color. RATING: Shows the movies FAMG Rating. Below these three icons, the films release year, playing time, origin (country), genre and, if it's a TV-series, number of chapters is displayed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW 2: This is the middle window, containing most user definable options, and the GRAPHICAL ICONS and the BROWSER icon! GONE IN V3.0 AND ABOVE ARE THE DESCRIPTIONS FOR THE TWO ROWS OF ICONS, AND THE SEARCH-STRING WINDOW. INSTEAD, WE'LL REFER TO THE THREE 'LINES' AS LINES 1-3!;-) LINE 1 (SEARCH FLAG): Here you decide which type of information, you're looking for. E.g. if you set it to CAST, you'll be looking for an actor/actress. The last button on this line is a 'curtain'. Hold down the mousebutton over it, and choose. Here's an explanation of the searchflags, as some of the names have been shortened for layout purposes: TITLE: The movies title! DIRECTOR: Movies director. CAST: Cast-members. DK-TITLE: The Danish title of the movie. SCR.PLAY: The person who wrote the screenplay. STORY: The storywriter. CAMERA: Director of photography on the movie. EDITOR: The movies editor. COMPOSER: The composer of the score and/or songs. PROD-DES: Production designer. PRODUCER: Producers and/or executive producers. ALL: Filmography - looks for all of the above participations in a movie. Read more later in this documentation. LINE 1 (YEAR): This option, lets you specify a year-mask, so that you can choose only to get the information, if a movie is from a given period. The following strings are valid, where "XX" indicates a 2-digit year: 19XX: Indicates titles from a single year. 19XX-: Indicates titles from one year and up. -19XX: Indicates titles up until that year. 19XX-19XX: Indicates titles from the first year and up till the second. Both are included. This option can be combined with GENRES & COUNTRIES, and works with all search flags. LINE 2 (SEARCH STRING): This is what the program will be looking for, in the search flag that you've set above. A quick explanation: Wildcards: ========= DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, STORY, CAMERA, EDITOR, COMPOSER, PROD-DES, PRODUCER. Having set searchflag to either of those, you have two ways to search for your string. 1) No wildcard. Only if EXACTLY what you've typed, is found, the title will be listed. 2) Wildcard '*' after your searchstring. Alle titles INCLUDING your searchstring, in the selected searchcategori, will be listed. An example: If you've set searchflags to DIRECTOR, and you enter just the searchstring, MovieGuide will look after that specific string only. If you want it to search for DIRECTORS _INCLUDING_ the searchstring, you'll have to put a '*' at the end of the string. E.g. if the searchflag is set to DIRECTOR, and the searchstring is "Steven Spielberg", it won't find titles such as TWILIGHT ZONE and NIGHT GALLERY, because Steven Spielberg is not the only director of these titles. If you'd written "Steven Spielberg*" however, those two titles would've been found as well. CAST Using the cast search-flag, you don't have to use any wildcards, as it'll always search for movies CONTAINING your searchstring in cast. TITLE AND DK-TITLE Here you have three possible ways to search for your string. 1) Entering a searchstring with no wildcards, will give you information on a title having exactly that name, if it exists. 2) Searchstring + '*'. This will list all titles BEGINNING with your desired searchstring. THE, AN and A included. An example: Searchstring: "The Wild*", will list all titles beginning with "The Wild". 3) Searchstring + '#'. This wildcard lists all title INCLUDING your searchstring. Example: Searchstring: "Wild#" will list all titles including the string "Wild". Searchstring: "The Wild#" will list all titles beginning with THE, and including "Wild". As the above example shows, if your searchstring begins with THE, AN or A, no matter if you enter a wildcard or not, the only titles listed, will be the ones starting with THE, AN or A. THE, AN and A: All movies are entered in the form: TITLE + [, THE], [, AN] or [, A] This means that e.g. "The Man Without a Face" is entered in the archive as: "Man Without a Face, The". But if you know the title starts with THE, AN or A, you should enter "The Man*" and not "Man, The*" etc. You can also just enter "Man*", but this will give you a much longer list, as all titles not beginning with THE will appear too. LINE 2 (BIOGRAPHY BUTTON): To the left of the black line containing the search string, a button marked 'B' can be found. Pushing this button, will check for a biography, using the current search string as the person's name. E.g. entering 'Clint Eastwood' without pressing the RETURN key, and then pushing the 'B' button, will show you a biography on Clint Eastwood! LINE 3 (SORT BY): Below the SEARCH STRING, you'll find the SORT BY icons, which determine how the list of films in the bottom window should be sorted. You can choose either YEAR, TITLE og GENRE. This is nice for printing out a directors or an actors/actress' career chronologically. LINE 4 (PLOT, KEEP, TOPIC, FOUND and PRINT): The 'P' gadget at the leftmost of this line, indicates, that if a movie listed in the window below, has a plot summary, it'l be marked with an asterix (*). KEEP: Having this button pushed down, keeps the movies listed below, even when you do another search. This is useful for collection various titles, with no obvious connections. Please notice that when using options from RECOMMEND, TOPICS or the ALL search-flag, your list will be erased, even if this button is pushed down! TOPIC-WINDOW: This text zone is empty, unless you've choosen a TOPIC from the TOPICS-menu, or you've selected a title, you can get to, by choosing a topic from the TOPICS-menu! The name of the topic (a series of movies in most cases) will be printed here, when a list has been made, or you've chosen a movie with a topic applied. FOUND: If a list has been made in the bottom window (window 3), the number of titles will be listed here. PRINT: Pressing this icon, will print out the list at the bottom of the screen. For more information see PRINTING. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW 3: This is the generated list of titles, falling under the set search-criterias. If more than nine titles were found, you can use the slider to scroll through the list. If you click on one of the titles, you'll get detailed information about that title in the top window (window 1). The marked title will be marked by a grey bar, the TITLE-MARKER. You can use the arrow-keys too, to select which movie to view. If you've been searching on a cast member, he/she will be printed in italic in WINDOW 1. Note that an '(S)' at the end of the title, indicates series. At the leftmost of each title in the list, an ASTERIX (*) marks, that a plot is available for this title. You can view the plot summary by doubleclicking on the title, clicking on the PLOT-icon or pression ALT+P on your keyboard (only in EXPERT-MODE)! THE EXTENDED CREDITS WINDOW =========================== By clicking on the two first graphical icons, you can choose which of the credits screens, you want to see. The first one, has been explained earlier, and the second one (new in MG Pro) is explained here in the same way, line by line: SCREENPLAY: The person(s) who wrote the screenplay; the dialog etc. STORY: The original story-writer(s). PRODUCER: The movies producers, who often is the financial backup. Can include both exec. producers and 'normal' producers. COMPOSER: The person(s) who wrote the score for the movie. Sometimes a songwriter is also included. PRODUCTION DESIGNER: He/she designs the production! The look of the film. EDITOR: The editor who edits the film! CAMERA: Director of photography, who 'designs' the camera-angles etc. INTERNET: The InterNet rating, and VOTES: How many people voted on the movie. The rating goes from 0 to 10. THE AWARDS WINDOW (Expert Mode Only) ==================================== Gives you a list of (known) awards the current title has been nominated for/received. This list will not always be complete, and covers the extended credits only! See the PLOT SUMMARY for possible more award information. You can click on any of the names with the left button to bring up a mini biography (as always, if available). PLOT SUMMARY (Expert Mode Only) =============================== If a plot summary of a title is available, a PLOT-icon will pop up at the right of the screen. Clicking on this icon, will display a short summary of the movies plot! Currently they're about 2000 plot summaries in the guide! Important things in the text, or actors'/actresses names are marked in yellow, while movie titles are marked in red. You can click on all marked names/titles! Most of the plot summaries are our own, but some (about 500) are taken from the internet recs.arts.movies files, maintained by Colin Tinto <colint@spider.co.uk>. Also in the plot summary, can be found information about which Oscars the movie was nominated for/received. Should be complete from 1984 up till now. We now, that the Technical Awards screen, and the award information you can get there, can sometimes overlap the information in the plo summary, and we're sorry about that, but didn't think we could do it any other way. After all, information about things like art director and special effects, are not in out credits, and therefore it's better to include it in the plot summary, than to simply leave it out!! BUTTONS IN THE TITLE BAR - INFO, MISC, TOPICS, LEX ================================================== "?" Icon (Info) =============== Brings up some info about the programme. Pushing the more icon, switches to the DATA-info window, clicking againg gets you back. The DATA-info window displays information about your installation of movie-guide; how many titles in each genre, have you got extended credits-files installed, how many complete series you've got, how many pictures etc. The information about a genre could look like this GENRE/FILE TITLES VERSION ACTION 4527 1.0/1.0 ACTION means, of course, the action genre. Number of titles shows number of titles in this genre. The first version numbers refers to the standard credits, the second to the extended credits. An N A instead of a version number indicates that this genre's extended credits are not installed. This is all done, so that upgrades of single datafiles can be released. All datafiles in MG Pro V1.0->1.1 are version 1.0. So if you've got files with higher version numbers, you've installed updated datafiles! NB! Don't be surprised by the fact that SERIES and DKFILM will look like this regarding version numbers: 1.0/N A - simply because we don't have enough information to justify extension-files for TV-series and Danish Films! Misc ==== Miscellaneous functions, which are self-explaining. But to clarify the meaning of the RECOMMEND, AVOID and FAVORITES options, they're explained here. RECOMMEND finds movies which received a VMG Rating higher than ****, and if you tick on the InterNet rating, a minimum of a 6.3 InterNet rating is also needed, for a title to show up! You can not choose to search on InterNet ratings only! If your favorite movie doesn't turn up, don't be too alarmed. Many titles are still not rated, a genre like comedy has nearly nothing rated yet! If you want to know, if thats the reason it didn't turned up, try finding the title the normal way, and see if it has been rated. AVOID finds movies that received a turkey in Video Movie Guide, and if InterNet ticked on, also an InterNet rating below 4.9 is needed! SR'S BEST gives you the programmer's personal favorites. These are movies that I (Simon) can watch again and again. For most's reason, because I think they're good all the way through, but some are among my favourites, because of a couple of really great episodes in the movie. SEP'S BEST - the researchers personal favorites. There are - of course - heaps of other great movies out there, but this list containts the movies with a very special appeal to me (Svend Erik). We did these two functions sort of for fun, but also because we liked some movies that were rated low by VMG. Topics ====== Clicking this icon brings up a list of (mainly) movie-series. Not movie-series like the Indiana Jones films or the Star Wars films, but series of films, where the films have no real relation, except, they're all, for examples, Tarzan-movies, or part of the Columbo series, the James Bond-series etc. Clicking on one of the topics, will list all movies in that 'series'. The TOPICS are now divided into three categories: TRIVIA: Just for fun - unique movies in one way or another, or titles related to each other in another way, than being part of a series. OFFICIAL SERIES: Well, official series, e.g. the Columbo Series. UNOFFICIAL SERIES: More unofficial series, like the Jack Ryan films. Mini Lexicon ============ At the of the screen, to the right of the TOPICS-icon, you'll find the LEX icon (short for LEXICON). Clicking this icon, will pop up a list of subjects, on which you can acquire knowledge. Information on filmformats, soundsystems, and more general information can be accessed here. If you want the definition for a CLIFFHANGER, you just have to find that text and click on it. Or maybe you've wondered which films did well at the box-office; find the text TOP 100 BOX-OFFICE GROSSERS, and you'll get a list! When you're done reading the text, you can get back to the list by clicking the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON, or back to the main screenu by clicking the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON or the LEX icon. When you're in the list of items, you can click RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON or the LEX icon to get back to the main screen. The Browser =========== Pushing the BROWSE icon in WINDOW 2, brings up (surprise) the browser! The browser lets you enter part of a title, and the program will start searching for your string immediately, letting you enter more and more of the title, narrowing the amount of titles, so it'll be easier to quickly find a title, when you're not quite certain what you're looking for! In the black box to the left, the genre being searched is shown. Pressing the PAUSE-icon, will pause the list, and let you click on the desired title. You can of course also let the list finish and then click on a title, or close the browser and return to the main screen. New from V3.0 is the SCAN ALL button. Pressing this button, will result in a full scan of all titles in all genres! Please note, that after you've started this option, you may only pause the scanning (and select a title) or return to the main screen by clicking on the close-icon (or pressing ESC on your keyboard). You can't return to the ordinary part of the browser, and enter part of a title. To do so, you HAVE TO quit the browser, and enter it again. Biographies =========== Biographies can contain a lot of different information about an actor, director or other industry-person. Most entries contains date of birth. Information like spouse entries (who's been married to who?), written biographies, biographical movie about the person, date of death, trivia (general information) etc. can be found on A LOT of the entries!! Some, like Alfred Hitchcock, has a very detailed and comprehensive biography. Pictures of the persons are beeing introduced, as we get the opportunity to include them. Now follows a list of what the biographies can include (from Internet recs.arts.movies maintained by Mark Harding <ccsmh@ss1.bath.ac.uk>): Industry Name: This is the personalities industry name, i.e. the name we all know for the person. Real Name: This is the name given to the person at birth. Date of Birth: This can be followed by the place of birth if known. Date of Death: Also, the cause of death, if known, should follow the date. Mini Biography (no headline in the biography-window) Written By: Author(s) of description. Biographies: Biographies of / books about this person. This line contains the book title, author and possibly ISBN numbers. Biographical Title: Biographical films about this person. This line contains the title of any movies of a biographical nature regarding this person. Other Works: This section describes works, other than movies attributed to the person, e.g. Books, plays, albums etc. Trivia. General info. Anything! Personal Quotes: Quotes made by that person. Agent's address: A contact address for information on the person. Spouse Entries: Spouses name, followed by start and end of marriage. Height: The persons height! Nick Name: A persons nick name. -------------------------- MISC INFORMATION --------------------------- Searching On Titles: ==================== Some titles, which has been remade several times, e.g. Dracula has a YEAR in () after the title, and this means that you have to enter the YEAR in (), if you want the programme to find that particular title! So, if it doesn't seem like you can find what you're looking for, try typing the title only, followed by an "*", and you'll get a list of all movies with that title, no matter what year it was made. Also, titles containing text in "" or '', must be entered that way, to be found! If you're looking for an original European title, and the program can't find it, it may be because we only have the English titles on many European - especially Italian - films! Such "Original" English titles, are put in (), so if you e.g. want to find the Italian movie called "Alien Contamination" in English, you have to write "(Alien Contamination)" in the searchstring box, and set SEARCH FLAG to TITLE. Certain titles has speciel information in () after the title. (TVM) is the most common. Using a '*' as a wildcard is a pretty safe and fast way to search, but if that didn't help you, try using '#', e.g. to find movies with more than one title. With the new TOPICS feature of V3.0+, however, most of these are gone, except the (TVM) and a.k.a.'s. Searching on Names ================== Some actors' names, like Daniel Day-Lewis, are very hard to guess their spelling, unless you're really into movies. Day-Lewis is with a '-', but James Earl Jones is not, and the programme normally, will only be looking for the correct way of typing the name. So if your way of spelling it doesn't give anything, try loosing the '-', or writing part of the name, to check which way it is spelled. We've tried to be very acurate, but some errors may have slipped in, so if you're sure your spelling is right, and not all titles are listed in the bottom window, try using an alternative spelling method. If that doesn't help, either the title is not in the archive, or the actor is not one of the lead actors in the movie. Filmography =========== Choosing ALL as your search-flag will look for your searchstring in DIRECTOR, CAST, SCREENPLAY, STORY, PRODUCER, COMPOSER, PRODUCTION DESIGNER, EDITOR and CAMERA! This will give you a more or less complete filmography on that person! Of course, you can search using only a bit of a name, but we strongly recommend you, to only search using complete names, as doing otherwise will give you some very confusing, and pretty useless results! This feature takes a little more time than the other, because it has to search through both standard and extended credits, and check for a couple of other things, so be patient! When using this search-flag, instead of the movies' genres, will be printed the persons participation(s) in the movie, e.g. ACTOR/DIRECTOR, og DIRECTOR/COMPOSER. Furthermore, the GENRE-sort icon will be replaced with a PARTICIP (PARTICIPATIONS) icon! Release Years ============= Comparing the release year information in our database, with another source, may reveal differences on many titles. This is because many book publishers and magazines, use the English release date of a movie, whereas we use, in our opinion, the most accurate date, which is the year of release, in the country where the film premiered first. E.g. most American films opens in the US, most Danish films in DK etc., and that is the reference that we use to determine the release year! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aborting ======== If you've done something wrong, or you just want the searching to stop, you can hold down RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON, or press BACKSPACE to stop. If you do so while searching with wildcards, a list will still be made of the movies found, but it may be incomplete. Quiting ======= At any time, when when the program is awaiting your actions, you can quit the program by pressing the ESCAPE key. Printing ======== You can make a printout of the information concerning the current movie, displayed at the top window. To do so, press the PRINT icon, under the top black window. If you choose to print to a FILE, the file will have the name of the title, and be saved in your "RAM:" device. To print out the the list of movies created in the lower window, press the PRINT icon, above that window, to the right. If you print to a FILE, the file will be placed in "RAM:", and named "LIST.TXT" Genres ====== The movies are divided into a number of GENRES. While there're some movies that'll never fit into a certain genre, we've tried to give it the most apropriate label. To keep the programme "clean", we've kept the number of genres as low as we think it can be justified. Therefore, some genres contains movies which aren't always exactly that genre, but a SUBGENRE, that is close to the maingenre. Here's a list of genres and their SUBGENRES. V3.0: Some genres have changed places in V3.0+, and a couple of new ones were added as well. ACTION: Action, Adventure, Thriller, Mystery/Suspense. ANIMATED: Animated, Cartoon, Puppet. COMEDY: Comedy. DOCUMENTARY: Documentary, Compilation, Concert. DRAMA: Drama, Romance, Erotic. FAMILY: Family. HORROR: Horror. MUSICAL: Musical, Music, Opera. SCIENCE FICTION: Science Fiction, Fantasy. WESTERN: Western. SERIES: All of the above and Sitcom, Kalender (Danish), Soap, Children, Varieté and Quiz. Pictures ======== Most of the pictures you find in this archive and forthcoming picturedisks, are scanned by us from either video, laserdisc or press photos. We have to thank 'Levende Billeder' for use of their pictures and scanner! We also have to thank Tom Pedersen for LOADS of pictures. Some pictures though, are from the PD library. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OVERVIEW ======== Here's a short overview of the keyboard/mouse short-cuts and wildcards: WILDCARDS ========= Wildcard '#': Lists titles INCLUDING your searchstring. Wildcard '*': Lists titles BEGINNING with your searchstring. No wildcard: Lists titles which are exactly your searchstring, in either title, DK-title or director. When searching for an actor/actress, the '#' wildcard is always turned off, so entering '*' or '#' in the end of the string is unneccesary. Note that 'The', 'An' and 'A' are ignored, so searching for "Honeymoon Killers", will search for "Honeymoon Killers", but also that title with ", The", ", An" or ", A". Hot-keys ======== HELP - Setup Screen ALT+P - Plot Summary (Expert Mode only) ALT+B - Browser ALT+T - Topics ALT+L - Lexicon ALT+M - Miscellaneous ENTER - Complete information about a title (Novice Mode only) Also quits from COMPLETE INFO screen (Novice Mode) RETURN - Quits from biographies on biographies screen. Arrowkeys ========= LEFT / RIGHT Moves the searchflag cursor left/right. UP / DOWN Move title-marker up/down. PG DN (3) On COMPLETE INFO screen, moves down one page of text. PG UP (9) On COMPLETE INFO screen, moves up one page of text. Lex, Topics and Today ===================== RETURN does the same as the left mousebutton, e.g. chooses text to read, returns to list etc. Text Reading ============ In all text-reading windows, you can use the arrowkeys or 8 and 2 on the numeric keypad, to scroll up/down! In novice mode, in the fullscreen window containing all information about a title, you can use PG UP (9) and PG DN (3) to scroll up/down a whole page! Other keys ========== ESCape - Quits program. BACKSPACE - Aborts searching. Mouse - Novice Mode =================== RMB - Pressing the right mousebutton while searching, aborts. LMB - Clicking on an actor/director with the left mousebutton, will give you a mini-biography on that person, if available. Clicking again when you've seen the biography, will get you back to the main screen. LMB - Clicking on a title with RMB, will show complete info on that title! RMB - You can press the right mousebutton over a name (actor/director/ composer etc.) on the credits screens, to change the searchstring to that name - the search type will change to the relevant as well. Mouse - Expert Mode =================== RMB - Pressing the right mousebutton while searching, aborts. RMB - Clicking on an actor/director with the right mousebutton, will give you a mini-biography on that person, if available. Clicking again when you've seen the biography, will get you back to the main screen. RMB - Clicking on a title with RMB, will show a picture from the movie! Clicking againg will remove the picture. Availability is low! LMB - Besides moving around the different options, you can press the left mousebutton while positioning your pointer over the shown titles director, and you'll get a list of that directors work. Pressing the button, while over a cast-member (marked in blue), you'll get a list of his/her work as a an actor/actress. Examples ======== Included on disk 1 is a couple of examples, showing the data format we use for the movie titles. These data are in PenPal ASCII format! Also included is an example showing the Internet-files plot summary-format! Later on, we hope to include a PLOT-editor, so that you can write your own plots, and send them to us, so that we can make the most complete plot summary collection. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- OK, now we think you should run the program, and play around for yourself. ENJOY!! Updates ======= Currently there are no plans for further release of the program - however, new datafiles will probably be released as they're updated. If YOU are interested in getting the program updated with new features etc., you should tell us, so we know, that there is a demand - if not, we won't do any more updates! All suggestions are welcome. Corrections of uncorrect informations, spelling etc. in the movies texts are just as welcome. Errors ====== If you find any errors, that be incorrect information, wrong spelling, or if you can help filling in some of the missing information, you're very welcome to send data error-reports to: SVEND ERIK POULSEN MARBAEKVEJ 4B, LIME DK-8544 MOERKE DENMARK Or via FIDO to: SVEND ERIK POULSEN -- 2:238/81.6 Bugs ==== If you find bugs in the program, send bug-report to: SIMON RAVN FREDERIKSSUNDSVEJ 193A, 3. TV DK-2700 BROENSHOEJ DENMARK Or via FIDO to: SIMON RAVN -- 2:235/49.37 Any suggestions for improvement, are just as welcome, at the same addresses. Getting the updates =================== As written earlier, this will maybe be the last version. A version including the possibility of entering your own movies, as well as adding your own pictures will probably be released shortly, though. Try calling MICRO AMIGA BBS - This is where the newest version will always be! +45 86 43 79 39 (24h, 2 nodes, 28k8, 16k8 DUAL). If you've got a slow modem (or none), you're welcome to write and get the newest version. Just send disks and SAE to: ============= SVEND ERIK POULSEN MARBAEKVEJ 4B, LIME DK-8544 MOERKE DENMARK or SIMON RAVN FREDERIKSSUNDSVEJ 193A, 3. TV DK-2700 BROENSHOEJ DENMARK RELEASE NOTES FROM THE AUTHORS ============================== Release Notes: (DATA) Svend Erik Poulsen =========================================== Bad news for all of you who expected a LOT of new entries. They are there, but not in any great numbers. Most new data can be found in the two new cast lines, the Production line and some in the DK Film section. Also the Prequel and Sequel feature and the gathering of information on the topics took up a lot of research time. There has, however, been researched some movies which proberbly would interest users in the UK. In the Topic's menu you will find all the Inspector Morse and Inspector Wexford TV movies. Good news for fans of Japanese monster movies. We should by now have most of them in this version, complete with their original title in (Org: ) after the more widely known American title. This, by the way, will from now on be the case for all Japanese (and other oriental movies). All other movies is still listed under thier original title, with the US title in (US: ) on the same line. The AKA title was listed after a -> but will gradually be put in () instead. Reviews ------- Just after the release of Movieguide 2.1 and 3.0 we recieved the first reviews of our work. The disk magazine Hydra rated MG 2.1 3 of 5 possible, and 3.0 was rated 5 of 5. Of cause we are glad our work is appreciated by the people who use it. Also, after the release of Movieguide v3.0, it has been confirmed that the the program has reached the UK. This, of cause is also one of the reasons the DK Title has been moved out of sight (but not removed). Also because we learned the program reached the UK we have made a greater effort to gather information on more English movies. Series lists ------------ As you probably have noticed, one of the new things in MG Pro is the series lists. This new feature has become quite a task, and therefore we ask you to tell us which series you would prefer seeing here. (no guarantee) Last minute note ---------------- There will not be a public release date for the next version of the Movieguide. Due to lack if interest from the general public (you).. So if you want the next version you will have to contact us. Simon an I have decided that we will continue to develop the Movieguide, but only for our own use. This, ofcause, is because we still think that this is one of the best all round and comprehensive movie databases ther is, even after having seen Cinemania and CineBase for the PC. Release Notes: (Program) Simon Ravn =================================== About the size -------------- Always trying to keep the size down at a minimum, it's been impossible to make this version working on a 1MB Ram system, unfortunately. The main program with all graphics takes up about 570k, and add to that all the varialbles etc. Therefore MovieGuide Pro requires a minimum of 1.5 MB Ram! The installation of the program is fully customizable, and let's you install what you need only, so the program can take up from about 5 MB for minimum installation to about 17 MB, including pictures, trivia/plots/biographies etc., for the more demanding user. Programming it... ----------------- ...has been fun - else I wouldn't do it!;-) But of course there's been A LOT of problems, including all these new features, keeping in mind, that it should be easy to access, and take up as little as much memory, be fast and intuitive etc. But I think that the sleepless nights pays off, when you see the final result. There are a number of features that was planned, but didn't make it into this version, because we thought it SHOULD be released now, around Oscar-time! It's been half a year since V3.0, so we thought it was about time. Those features includes browsing of single genres, the ability to view/browse a whole years releases, and a user part where your can enter your own movie-data! There'll probably be an update soon, which includes at least the user-part! Generally, the program has become more open; you can update data-files of alle kinds, add pictures seperately, and the data-format is now final, so a main-program can be updated alone also. Response -------- I would like to thank everybody who's responded to the release of earlier MovieGuides! But I'd really like to hear from more of you, either you like the program, dislike it of some reason, or have any ideas. It's always nice to hear from people who're actually using your program! CD ROM? ------- About a month ago, I was called by a guy in England, who had a CDTV with no harddrive. He would really like to see the program put on CD-ROM, so that it could be run from there! AND SO WOULD I! So if you think you can help us, on putting it on some PD CD-ROM (like Aminet, CDPD or 17-Bit Collection) PLEASE contact us!!!! That's all from me. And like Svend Erik Poulsen wrote earlier, there'll probably not be anymore public releases, unless we hear from YOU! Yes, the update I mentioned earlier will probably come, but that's it! So get your pen and paper out and write to us, or call us. You can find both adresses and phone numbers elsewhere in this documentation! Written Sources ==============- "Variety" (1993 & 1994 issues). "Entertainment Weekly" May 1994, October 28, 1994. "The Technique of Audio Post-Production in Video and Film", Tim Amyes, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, 1990. "Widescreen Cinema", John Belton, Harvard University Press, 1992. "Danske Spillefilm 1968-1991", Peter Jeppesen. "Filmens Hvem Hvad Hvor 5 Verdens bedste film", Bjørn Rasmussen. "Historien om Matador", Lise Nørgaard & Erik Balling "Levende Billeder i Danmark", Erik Nørgaard. "Aurum Film Encyclopedia vol 2, The - Science Fiction", Phil Hardy "TV i 70'erne 70-74", Kaare Schmidt. "TV i 70'erne 75-79", Kaare Schmidt. "Video Movie Guide 1990", Mick Martin & Marsha Porter, 1989. "Video Movie Guide 1994", Mick Martin & Marsha Porter, 1993. "Video Movie Guide 1995", Mick Martin & Marsha Porter, 1994. "Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide 1991 edition", Leonard Maltin, 1990. "Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide 1991 edition", Leonard Maltin Tak til Danmarks Radio for venlig assistence. History ======= V1.0 - Never released. V1.2 - Full working version. Not released. V1.21 - Release date: 2/4-1994. Faster search routines. Ugly bug fixed. V2.0 - * Browsing added * Plot descriptions added * More titles, bugs fixed, faster searching on title. * Year-option added at last minute! V2.04 - Several bugs fixed. V3.0 - * Topics added * Biographies added (some pictures here too) * Oscars added * Ratings added * Cleaner layout, setup-screen added * Mini-lexicon added * "Scan all" function added to browser * Faster title-search * More titles, more plot descriptions * A few pictures from movies added * A new intro added * Bugs in browser and plots fixed MOVIEGUIDE PRO V1.0 - * Extended credits: Composer, Editor, Cinematographer Screenplay, Story, Producer, Production-designer added. * Internet recs.arts.movies ratings/votes added * Two extra lines of cast added * Technical Awards information on extended credits added - covers also Golden Globe, BAFTA. * Complete series' added with "Enter/exit" function * LOADS of pictures! About 450 biography pictures, 150 from movies! * Miscellaneous functions like "Recommend" added. * Novice/Expert mode. * Program can now be controlled almost with keyboard alone * Get all information on a title in a full-screen window * Topics, lex improved. * Some bugs fixed;-) * More titles, ratings, oscars, plot summaries, biographies etc. V1.02 - * Loads of little irritating bugs fixed! V1.1 - * More irritating bugs removed! * Added KEEP function. * Added filmography possibility. Bugs ==== V1.21: None that we're aware of! But they're probably there! V1.22: Bug removed!! V2.0: None - we THINK. Otherwise we wouldn't be releasing it, would we? V2.04: Bugs from V2.0 ruled out that caused the program not to work at all. Plus a couple of small fixes. V3.0: Graphic bug in the browser. Bug in the printing routines, which makes it impossible to print data about a movie to printer! Pro 1.0: A bug resulting in some graphic corruption, can occur after using the browser. It's nearly impossible to correct this bug, as it doesn't occur often, and occurs randomly. Pro 1.02: While the abovementioned 'bug' has not been corrected, at lot of other small things have! Read BUGS.TXT for more info! Pro 1.1: A serious bug probably exists, where the program suddenly quits, after having used some TOPICS. Thanks To ========= Tom Christensen - for BBS-support! Jacob Nørgaard - for testing and suggestions! Tom Pedersen - for testing and pictures! Mr. Hyde - for ideas, suggestions and some error-correction! Martin Jespersen - for the WB Icons and the magnifying icon! Commodore Amiga - for making the best computers ever! Even though they're not in business anymore! MeloManiac - for the music! Special thanks to the following: Peter Juul, Kenneth Fribert, Klaus Ellegaard. License ======= Permission is granted by the copyright holders to distribute this package, providing all the files are unmodified, with all copyright notices intact and including all the accompanying documentation, as far as no profit is made from the package. ATTENTION! PD Companies! If you use this package for distribution on floppy disk, you should notify us beforehand! For distribution on CD-ROM, you should send us a copy of the CD, and notify us about the release. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------