Prevue Guide Forums

UPDATE 7/25/14: Events now work again! I forgot to add, that you can also add music to your segments. I uploaded this so I'll have a backup if I fudge anything else. I will now separate all versions of the program.

Hi to all Prevue Guide Forum community members. I've been a long time fan of Sneak Prevue, from when it first premiered, taking over my local public access channel 3 in 1993. I lived in SE Michigan, USA at the time, and we had MediaOne as our cable provider. It was a sad day when Sneak Prevue was finally brought off the air in 2008, but I'm grateful there are still many people who want to hold onto a treasured piece of the past!

Not one to just sit back and watch, I decided that a simulation app would be a great way to enjoy Sneak Prevue again! I've developed one as a result.

You can download the current version release of the app, v.0.79a here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/w8otz ... .79a-+.rar

Please read the change log, and the readme.txt files included in the .rar carefully before using the program. This was really developed for Sneak Prevue enthusiasts and was named "Sneak Prevue Simulator" during development, but it was named differently to avoid potential legal issues during distribution.

HOW TO USE IT:
Basically, you add events(channel listings) and enable/disable features in the program. As you do this, you'll notice the program picking up the new input, and automatically changing and expanding itself to your preferences. Events are added in the program, and saved into a text file for later use. You shouldn't have to venture outside the program to fully enjoy its features, it's all offline.

1. In order to see results quickly, go to "Events>Manage Event Listings" and add your desired events.
Buttons of interest
a. "Add To Event List" button: Click this to add an event with the specified information. Remember to fill out all textfields above this button before clicking it.
b. "Execute Search" button: Click this to search in the events list, using any criteria typed in the textfield to the left of the button. If you want to use multiple criteria, separate each criteria with semicolons. For example, "Sports;PM" without the quotes will search for any event contaning "Sports" AND "PM".
c. "Remove Event" button: Click this to remove the selected event in the event list box to the left.

2. Now, go to "Time/Date>Set Time and Date" to manage your app's clock. You'll want to set it to the same date and time your events have, so you can see them. Click the "Confirm" button at the bottom of the options window.

3. Then, go to "Segments>Manage Segments" to edit your segments. In the upper left corner, you'll see a combobox with the label "Movie" to the left of it. Select this and choose "Enabled". Make sure at least one of your events has "Movie" as their event type! Leave all other options as is. Click the "Confirm" button at the bottom of the options window.

4. Go to "Background>Set Backgrounds" to set your graphic data. These are what wil display as the background for each segment. Locate the first textfield, with the label "Movie" to the left. Click the "Browse" button at the opposite side. Now, find the graphic file you want to use as your background for the movie segment. Once this is done, set the month and year right below the textfield with the path to your background in it. Once the month+year is correct, click "Add".

Now, simply wait. Your events/background should show up, once the correct segment has displayed.

Once you start the program for the first time, you won't see a whole lot on-screen: However, you can start adding events and other data into the program: You can event adjust the time and date!

And you can also add graphic backgrounds: And eventually, you can come pretty close to simulating Sneak Prevue on your desktop!

I have developed this application as a labor of love and a token of friendship to all fans of Sneak Prevue young and old.

Please enjoy, and let me know if there are any features/bug fixes you guys would like in the next version release!

Just one word "Awesome!"

Hello everyone. I'd like to provide more background on this project and myself, so please consider it a short introduction. I'm doing this to help users avoid confusion, as to who exactly is developing this project, and how they're developing it.

My username is dreamer, but my first name is Craig. I called myself dreamer on the Prevue Guide forums, because I do daydream a lot. My imagination runs pretty wild sometimes! That's how I got the idea to create the Program Guide(Sneak Prevue) Simulator.

This program was created, using a game development library called Blitzmax. It can create wonderful game applications for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, but can also create exceptional non-gaming applications that are more general purpose, as you can see here.

I'm the ONLY developer on this project, there are no others. Whoever claims otherwise, is likely mentally unstable. While I do have some alpha testers, no one has any advance notice of any features, bugfixes or changes in any future version releases. Not only that, there are no guarantees of any release by early January, or even anytime in January. The next version release could be in MARCH next year for all anyone knows. But I wish to rely mostly on the Prevue Guide Forum community to help me fix up and further develop this program, because I believe to have found the best bunch of Prevue fans ever! You guys know best, so I appreciate your help and feedback.

Thank you.

dreamer wrote:Hello everyone. I'd like to provide more background on this project and myself, so please consider it a short introduction. I'm doing this to help users avoid confusion, as to who exactly is developing this project, and how they're developing it.

My username is dreamer, but my first name is Craig. I called myself dreamer on the Prevue Guide forums, because I do daydream a lot. My imagination runs pretty wild sometimes! That's how I got the idea to create the Program Guide(Sneak Prevue) Simulator.

This program was created, using a game development library called Blitzmax. It can create wonderful game applications for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, but can also create exceptional non-gaming applications that are more general purpose, as you can see here.

I'm the ONLY developer on this project, there are no others. Whoever claims otherwise, is likely mentally unstable. While I do have some alpha testers, no one has any advance notice of any features, bugfixes or changes in any future version releases. Not only that, there are no guarantees of any release by early January, or even anytime in January. The next version release could be in MARCH next year for all anyone knows. But I wish to rely mostly on the Prevue Guide Forum community to help me fix up and further develop this program, because I believe to have found the best bunch of Prevue fans ever! You guys know best, so I appreciate your help and feedback.

Thank you.

Well dreamer (or Craig), you have a very good idea in making the Sneak Prevue simulator on the PC (sorry, I'm using the Mac since I'm on vacation).

By the way, dreamer, if you try to discover more in the forums, you see that we are almost in the process of having a real Sneak Prevue emulator using the LaserDiscs and Amiga, that cable providers use since then.

Can you do a tutorial video on the sneak prevue simulator?

Matthew Joseph wrote:Well dreamer (or Craig), you have a very good idea in making the Sneak Prevue simulator on the PC (sorry, I'm using the Mac since I'm on vacation).

Thanks! PC is very widely used. Also, it's my development machine of choice(Macs are CRAZY expensive!)

Matthew Joseph wrote:By the way, dreamer, if you try to discover more in the forums, you see that we are almost in the process of having a real Sneak Prevue emulator using the LaserDiscs and Amiga, that cable providers use since then.

Yes, I do know that. This is for those who wish to create their OWN custom Sneak Prevue program guide, effortlessly through a Win32 GUI front-end. The idea doesn't have a ton of merit here, if you're a proficient programmer yourself';my hat's off to those members here who are...however, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find such an easy, customizable and user-friendly solution to simulating the program guide.

I was also planning on having a website, which works like the simulator posted here. So people could browse the internet, and view the program guide simulator, like a custom cable channel! But that's neither here nor there.

I was targeting those who may not have any app development proficiency, but still wanted to simulate Sneak Prevue with this app on the PC. You should give it a try! If anything, it's another option to enjoy Sneak Prevue!

X-Man wrote:Can you do a tutorial video on the sneak prevue simulator?

Sure, I can do that! I suppose that will come with a new version release today/tomorrow.

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to convey the news that there will be an update coming early-mid February, just to spite Angie since she was right about my last-minute Jan. plans, even though there's absolutely no conceivable way to do so.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, questions or comments(praise or criticism) about the program, please post here or send me a private message, and I'll be glad to assist you if you need help! This will also help me fix bugs or develop extra features in time for the next update.

I can't seem to get any events of mine on the screen. I've tried to see what was wrong but have failed! How do I see my events on the simulator??

Triple C wrote:I can't seem to get any events of mine on the screen. I've tried to see what was wrong but have failed! How do I see my events on the simulator??

this is still being updated at the moment seems like its on hiatus.

Yeah, it's on hiatus for now. Working on using video/overlays, and I may have finally found the right procedure. So the new version will have support for mpeg videos! But I have to learn some low-level Win32 stuff to do it. Doing that while I'm working on paid projects and preparing to move.

Triple C wrote:I can't seem to get any events of mine on the screen. I've tried to see what was wrong but have failed! How do I see my events on the simulator??

Good news is, I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Bad news is, there might be a v.0.78b release bug in the event data files, that causes event data to be considered "invalid" and then discarded in the loading process when segments are started. Will have to get on this when I finish a new version.