The Hollywood Movie Collection, with Classic Videos

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Picked Upload!   This is a picked upload! It showcases some of the best talent and creativity available on MTS and in the community.
This download is part of the Old Hollywood Creator Challenge
Uploaded: 14th Oct 2007 at 3:57 AM
Updated: 27th Jan 2016 at 6:26 PM - The second set of companion videos in the rotation are now available online.
Title The Hollywood Movie Collection, with Classic Videos


Notice

August 21, 2012: All the accompanying classic video trailers are now online - please access them via the Install Instuctions tab.


Description

Now your Sims can gain a variety of skill points while watching foreign language (i.e. non-Simlish) Hollywood classics! As an extension of SEVEN's FIY TV Channel with Mechanical Skill Gain project and inspired by Katy_76's Creativity and Logic channels (currently offline), I have created a set of four additional skill building channels that would allow your Sims to gain all the skills they need from the comfort of their living rooms, while watching TV. While I think it would be rather boring to have them do it this way, I do like the idea that Sims can learn skills from more than just the cooking and exercise channels. In addition I have provided a higher fun non-skill building generic movie channel, since the game itself does not come with one.

This picture above shows college students gaining charisma points while watching "The Silver Screen" on senesi2003's Theater Screen with Transparent Back.

The new channels shown in the selector above are associated with the following skills and movie genres that I have adapted or intended for them in the list below:

The Arts Channel - Creativity - drama, plays, musicals
Film Unlimited! - no skill gain, but higher fun value - action/adventure, romantic and light comedy, erotica
Science Phantasy - Logic - science fiction, fantasy, horror
The Silver Screen - Charisma - classic blockbusters, epics (impressive material to make your Sim the life of the party)
Without Spot or Stain - Cleaning - cleaning commercials (not really applicable to this contest, but provided as a bonus)

Of course you are completely free to use whatever movie associations you would like, or to make your own custom Sim content, or download Sim videos for your own use from excellent sources such as Sims99.com. You would probably need to convert Sims or other movies to a suitable low resolution AVI format, and instructions for doing so are located in this thread (I use Super for the final conversion, as noted at Post #107).

You may notice that none of these new channels except "Without Spot or Stain" come with the game's built-in commercials. My intention was that these channels would be suitable for use in community and OFB theatres, where such commercials would be out of place. So consider that when used at home your Sims are watching DVD video, pay-per-view, public or state funded television which are advertising free.


Installation

Please be sure to follow the custom installation instructions found under the Install Instructions tab.

While I am happy to help with the installation and use of these channels, please do not clutter this thread with problems in making your own new channels from scratch. This process has already been discussed at length in Eric's Tutorial - Custom Television Channel.


International Translations

Thanks to Mihura's language skills, I have included her translations for the channel change selections and skill gain messages in French, German, Italian and Spanish. I am also very grateful to Mihura for her wonderful encouragement and patience (this project started out with being for just one new movie channel), and for allowing this release to be more inclusive and fun for a larger portion our international community.

If you are using a language other than those supported by translations, you will at least see an appropriate message in English, rather than the original messages about switching to the cooking channel or gaining a cooking skill point.


Notice on Base Game Compatibility

The skill gaining channels are all based on my extraction of the cooking channel, done with SimPE in base game compatible mode. The fun only "Film Unlimited!" channel is cloned from the base game music channel. All these modified channels will work in a base game environment. However - and I tested it with modified channels from other sources too - the base game video player seems to be unreliable at playing back external video tracks. Typically it will freeze playback when it reaches the end of an AVI file, although sometimes this will happen somewhere earlier in the file. This phenomenon actually does not affect game function - the Sim will continue to have an increase in fun and skill even while watching a blank screen. Normal operation can be restored either by changing channels or switching the television off and on. If you have installed any of the expansion packs you will likely only experience playback freezing or skipping if you are playing large complex lots and/or your computer is not up to the challenge.


Copyright Notice

American movie trailers produced prior to 1964 are now in the public domain in the United States, as are the still images taken from movie trailers. The majority of the movies and all of the commercials were located through Google Video but a few movies came from Reel Classics.

EA/Maxis has tacitly permitted the free non-profit use of their game's code, and I am placing my modifications to it in the public domain. It is quite easy to use SimPE to change the text of any of the SDTV skill gaining packages to suit your own preferences and I encourage you to do so. If you decide to upload these changes it would be polite to use your own GUID and channel name so that users are not forced to choose between one version or another. It would also be nice, although this is not required, to include a credit in the posted description and send me a PM.

Low resolution movie posters are freely distributable promotional materials, with most of them sourced from either Wikipedia or Internet Movie Poster Awards. You may include these poster recolours in any uploaded lots, whether for free or pay - although it would be nice if you included a credit in the description and sent me a PM. Apart from using them in lots, I would prefer that you not upload the poster collection or portions of it elsewhere.


Additional Credits:

SimPE and CEP, which together make it all possible
Video Piggy (US$24.95) for downloading and converting Flash video files to AVI format
VidCrop (US$39.95), for editing and cropping videos
Super (freeware), for final video compression, resizing and formatting
BaseGameStarter Pro, so handy speeding up the development process and for compatibility testing
Corel WEB.PhotoPaint, for picture frame colouring
Microsoft Photo Editor, for adjusting poster contrast, brightness and size
Attribute Change 5.30, used to adjust a file's date and timestamp, which puts the posters together in consecutive order, with the most recent one furthest to the left.


Custom Content by Me:

- Charisma Channel: The Silver Screen
- Cleaning Channel: Without Spot or Stain
- Creativity Channel: The Arts Channel
- Generic Movie Channel: Film Unlimited!
- Logic Channel: Science Phantasy

- Bringing Up Baby movie poster, Bella #1
- Bringing Up Baby movie poster, Bella #2
- Bringing Up Baby movie poster, Bella #3
- Casa Blanca movie poster, Bella #1
- Casa Blanca movie poster, Bella #2
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #3
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #4
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #5
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #6
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #7
- Citizen Kane movie poster, Bella #8
- The Day the Earth Stood Still movie poster, Bella #1
- The Day the Earth Stood Still movie poster, Bella #2
- The Day the Earth Stood Still movie poster, Bella #3
- Forbidden Planet movie poster, Bella #1
- Forbidden Planet movie poster, Bella #2
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #1
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #2
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #3
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #4
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #5
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #6
- Gone With the Wind movie poster, Bella #7
- King Kong (1933) movie poster, Bella #1
- King Kong (1933) movie poster, Bella #2
- King Kong (1933) movie poster, Bella #3
- King Kong (1933) movie poster, Bella #4
- King Kong (1933) movie poster, Bella #5
- The Maltese Falcon movie poster, Bella
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) movie poster, Bella
- On the Waterfront movie poster, Bella
- Plan 9 from Outer Space movie poster, Bella
- Rebel Without a Cause movie poster, Bella #1
- Rebel Without a Cause movie poster, Bella #2
- Rebel Without a Cause movie poster, Bella #3
- Rio Bravo movie poster, Bella #1
- Rio Bravo movie poster, Bella #2
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Bella #1
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Bella #2
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Bella #3
- Some Like It Hot movie poster, Bella #1
- Some Like It Hot movie poster, Bella #2
- Some Like It Hot movie poster, Bella #3
- Sunset Boulevard movie poster, Bella #1
- Sunset Boulevard movie poster, Bella #2
- Wizard of Oz movie poster, Bella #1
- Wizard of Oz movie poster, Bella #2
- It's a Wonderful Life movie poster, Bella #1
- It's a Wonderful Life movie poster, Bella #2
- The Adventures of Robin Hood movie poster, Bella #1
- The Adventures of Robin Hood movie poster, Bella #2
- The Adventures of Robin Hood movie poster, Bella #3
- The Adventures of Robin Hood movie poster, Bella #4
- African Queen movie poster, Bella #1
- African Queen movie poster, Bella #2
- African Queen movie poster, Bella #3
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) movie poster, Bella #1
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) movie poster, Bella #2
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) movie poster, Bella #3
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) movie poster, Bella #4
- Ben Hur movie poster, Bella

- Adventures of Robin Hood movie poster, Peynter
- The Maltese Falcon movie poster, Peynter
- The Night of the Hunter movie poster, Peynter
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Peynter
- The Tingler movie poster, Peynter

- The Day the Earth Stood Still movie poster, Poisonous Forest
- The Maltese Falcon movie poster, Poisonous Forest
- Its a Wonderful Life movie poster, Poisonous Forest

- Bringing Up Baby movie poster, Rainy Day
- Casablanca movie poster, Rainy Day #1
- Casablanca movie poster, Rainy Day #2
- Gone with the Wind movie poster, Rainy Day
- Night of the Hunter movie poster, Rainy Day
- On the Waterfront movie poster, Rainy Day
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Rainy Day #1
- Singin' in the Rain movie poster, Rainy Day #2
- Some Like it Hot movie poster, Rainy Day #1
- Some Like it Hot movie poster, Rainy Day #2
- The Wizard of Oz movie poster, Rainy Day #1
- The Wizard of Oz movie poster, Rainy Day #2