| IMDB |

IMDB - The Internet Movie Database

You definitely know this situation: After leaving the cinema you gossip about Hollywood's actors and actresses. When exactly did Gwyneth Paltrow date Ben Affleck? How do you pronounce the word 'Buscemi'? How many 'John Carpenters' are there? What is the biggest budget James Cameron ever used for his films? Who played Cmdr. Powell in 'Dark Star'? So many questions, but just when you're about to forget everything (nice greetings from Mr. Alzheimer) the IMDb comes in and provides solutions to all of your questions.

Where can I find this Database?

Location 1: http://www.imdb.com

Location 2: aminet:misc/imdb

Well, I assume that nobody will ever have problems using the online version, it offers many interesting links to official movie sites, trailers, screenshots, and much much more. You also have a picture of the movie's video cassette cover or poster available. But now let's go on to installing the IMDb onto your harddisk:

I hope for your sake and telephone bill that you have a fast internet connection or you know a possibility to download without any costs (e.g: your university, your working place, etc.). Then you visit an aminet ftp-site and download all files from the subdirectory misc/imdb. You should download all files at once, and make sure that the list-files hav the same datestamp (or nearly the same, at least). If you own a 14k-Modem only, you can forget about it. It's about 120MB of data to download. And if you already have IMDb installed, why the hell are you still reading this? ;) Otherwise read on, here is a quick overview of what the IMDb consists of:

actors.lha 19M Actors.list (12.03.1999) actresses.lha 9.3M Actresses.list (12.03.1999) aka-names.lha 386K Aka-names.list (12.03.1999) aka-titles.lha 1.6M Aka-titles.list (12.03.1999) alternate-vers.lha 210K Alternate-versions.list (12.03.1999) ApplyDiffs2_3.lha 25K ApplyDiffs for IMDB-Diffs biographies.lha 11M Biographies.list (12.03.1999) business.lha 576K Business.list (12.03.1999) certificates.lha 398K Certificates.list (12.03.1999) cinematographr.lha 1.2M Cinematographers.list (12.03.1999) color-info.lha 1.3M Color-info.list (12.03.1999) complete-cast.lha 278K Complete-cast.list (12.03.1999) complete-crew.lha 77K Complete-crew.list (12.03.1999) composers.lha 1.0M Composers.list (12.03.1999) costume-design.lha 357K Costume-designers.list (12.03.1999) countries.lha 1.8M Countries.list (12.03.1999) crazy-credits.lha 76K Crazy-credits.list (12.03.1999) directors.lha 2.4M Directors.list (12.03.1999) distributors.lha 834K Distributors.list (12.03.1999) editors.lha 850K Editors.list (12.03.1999) genres.lha 1.2M Genres.list (12.03.1999) german-aka-tit.lha 332K German-aka-titles.list (12.03.1999) goofs.lha 260K Goofs.list (12.03.1999) imdb3_5a_upd.lha 91K The Internet MovieDatabase Amiga imdb3_5_bin.lha 351K The Internet MovieDatabase Amiga imdbDiff990205.lha 1.5M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990212.lha 1.5M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990219.lha 1.4M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990226.lha 1.6M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990305.lha 3.2M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990312.lha 1.4M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990319.lha 1.5M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990326.lha 1.4M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase imdbDiff990402.lha 1.3M Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase italian-aka-ti.lha 416K Italian-aka-titles.list (12.03.1999) keywords.lha 1.5M Keywords.list (12.03.1999) language.lha 1.3M Language.list (12.03.1999) laserdisc.lha 852K Laserdisc.list (12.03.1999) literature.lha 772K Literature.list (12.03.1999) locations.lha 576K Locations.list (12.03.1999) misc-companies.lha 240K Miscellaneous-companies.list (12.03.1999) miscellaneous.lha 6.2M Miscellaneous.list (12.03.1999) movie-links.lha 1.6M Movie-links.list (12.03.1999) movies.lha 2.1M Movies.list (12.03.1999) mpaa-ratings-r.lha 54K Mpaa-ratings-reasons.list (12.03.1999) plot.lha 6.2M Plot.list (12.03.1999) producers.lha 1.8M Producers.list (12.03.1999) production-com.lha 1.9M Production-companies.list (12.03.1999) production-des.lha 389K Production-designers.list (12.03.1999) quotes.lha 1.4M Quotes.list (12.03.1999) ratings.lha 444K Ratings.list (12.03.1999) release-dates.lha 1.2M Release-dates.list (12.03.1999) running-times.lha 917K Running-times.list (12.03.1999) sound-mix.lha 656K Sound-mix.list (12.03.1999) soundtracks.lha 1.2M Soundtracks.list (12.03.1999) special-effect.lha 48K Special-effects-companies.list (12.03.1999) taglines.lha 297K Taglines.list (12.03.1999) technical.lha 1.0M Technical.list (12.03.1999) trivia.lha 485K Trivia.list (12.03.1999) writers.lha 2.6M Writers.list (12.03.1999)

How do I install this bunch of files?

This is a rather simple task, just copy this stuff to a ZIP-Disk or burn it on a CD-ROM, then carry it home to your beloved Amiga. Unpack the files imdb3_5a_upd.lha and imdb3_5_bin.lha and install the program MovieMUI somewhere on your harddisk. You should have about 220-300MB free disk space. First, install the old version, then drag the main program's icon ('MovieMUI') over the original icon.

Next you have to unpack all list-files into your list-directory. This can be anywhere on your harddisk, but I prefer 'lists' in the IMDB's directory, which is the default setting. You can configure this stuff with 'MovieMUI' (e.g. I have shortened the path, where MovieMUI resides by renaming 'MovieDatabase' to 'imdb') and then just click on 'Update database'. Now it's time to make yourself something to eat or watch a movie, because this process took one and a half hour on my Amiga 4000 with WarpEngine and SCSI2 harddisk making 8.5MB/s - thank you, FastFileSystem!

The programm doesn't need any assigns or libraries, just a lot of harddisk space and a fast harddisk / filesystem for quick database access.

[IMDb comp search]

How do I keep my database up-to-date?

After you have successfully installed ApplyDiffs in C: or elsewhere in your path, read the ReadMe. Unpack one diff-file (either .lha or .tar.gz) after another into any directory and then use the programm ApplyDiffs to update your database. If you specify no parameters, you will only see the command template.

lha x cd0:imdb/imdbDiff990205.lha applydiffs listdir fox:imdb/lists/ diffdir diffs/

That's it. The output goes something like this (a bit shortened):

ApplyDiffs 2.3 (22.03.97) written by André Bernhardt; © 1996-97 IMDb Ltd. Test File actors.list - OK. Test File actresses.list - OK. Test File aka-names.list - OK. [...] Test File crazy-credits.list - OK. Test File directors.list - Error: Missing Listfile Test File distributors.list - OK. Test File editors.list - OK. Test File genres.list - OK. Test File german-aka-titles.list - OK. Test File italian-aka-titles.list - Error: Missing Listfile Test File keywords.list - OK. [...] Test File production-designers.list - OK. Test File quotes.list - Error: Unsuitable Diff-File Test File ratings.list - OK. [...] ApplyDiff Statistics - Sat Apr 24 20:27:52 1999 Lines Lines Status Removed Added Listfile ------------------------------------------------------------ OK 0 0 actors.list OK 0 0 actresses.list OK 0 0 aka-names.list [...] OK 0 0 crazy-credits.list Wrong Diffs 0 0 directors.list OK 0 0 distributors.list OK 0 0 editors.list OK 0 0 genres.list OK 0 0 german-aka-titles.list Wrong Diffs 0 0 italian-aka-titles.list OK 0 0 keywords.list [...] OK 0 0 production-designers.list Wrong Diffs 0 0 quotes.list OK 0 0 ratings.list [...] WARNING: ApplyDiffs could not successfully apply all diffs.

I wouldn't consider a 'Missing Listfile' a severe error (e.g.: Who needs the Italian AKA-Titles?), a 'Unsuitable Diff-File' indicates that you'll have to apply some other diff-file(s) first. I, for instance, unpacked several diff-files into the same directory, but in the last archive there was no 'quotes.list', so the programm recognized that this 'quotes.list' was from the wrong diff-file and skipped it. So you can see that there ain't no problems with applying diff-files - a nice lil' tool which does it very well.

And what else can I do with it?

Quite a lot. You can submit your own impressions and information on movies, actors, actresses, etc, view the best or worst movies of all time, rate movies, save or print information, and that's all, folks!

Bernhard Lukas
Bernhard Lukas

IMDb result window 1 (GIF; 17K)

IMDb result window 2 (GIF; 13K)

Complete database (GIF; 14K)

Name search (GIF; 2K)