Quiztari Buzzer Program! [99% DONE]

[KevKelley]

During college I played college bowl (quiz bowl) with my school.  The usual setup was two teams of 4 players.  A reader asks questions and at any time the players can buzz in and attempt an answer.  When you buzz in it locks out the others players.  If you get the answer correct you get 10 points.  If you get them wrong you lose 5 points - a "neg." Each round consists of 20 questions.  If you answer the question correctly you go into a bonus round, with a variety of of questions in various formats.

 

There are of course different standards of questions, but this is not what this program is.  This program is the buzzer system.  It consists of 4 buzzers for each side. 

 

After the titlescreen there are two sets of 4 buzzers.  In the middle of the screen there will be a letter.  The default is "J" for joysticks.  Each direction of the joystick would account for a buzzer (left, right, up, down).  Player 1 would be on the left and player 2 on the right.

 

Using the Game Select switch the letter would change to a "Q".  This is for QuadTari compatibility.  With this you can plug in a QuadTari and 4 sets of paddles for each of the 8 players to have their own paddle.  The button on the paddle would buzz in. Press Game Select again to go back to joystick mode.

 

I have also considered making a buzzer controller, which would basically be 4 one button buzzers plugged into a single controller port on the Atari, or a 4-way splitter to allow for 8 joysticks (but each joystick would essentially be the same). 

 

To reset the buzzers and lockout, simply press the reset switch.

 

I am considering coming up with question packs or decks of cards to accompany this game as a kind of hybrid Atari/tabletop game similar to the Magnavox Odyssey 2 games or modern games like Scene It. Or if a team were to want to do so, they could use this in place of their current buzzer system!

 

I am not sure what more I can add.  I am considering offering different buzzer sounds for each side using the difficulty switches and had considered using the score for something should I make an accompanying tabletop portion.

 

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this.  I will probably do some minor tweaking here and there but for now this is the basic functionality. 

 

Here is a link for a video demonstrating gameplay.

 

 

 

 

QUIZTARI_6_19_21.bas.bin

QUIZTARI_6_22_21.bas.bin

QUIZTARI_6_29_21.bas.bin

Edited June 29, 2021 by KevKelley

[KevKelley]

I had just uploaded a new version.  After some thought I made some changes to improve functionality and ease of use and additional features.  I also changed the titlescreen to something a little nicer and more readable.

 

Here are the features of the buttons/switches.

 

• Color Switch changes from Quadtari mode and Joystick mode.
  • Quadtari mode allows for the connection of up to 4 sets of paddles (8 total paddles). Each paddle's fire button activates a buzzer.
  • Joystick mode allows for 2 joysticks to be used - one for each team.  Each direction operates a buzzer.
• Left Difficulty Switch allows for in-game resetting using the joystick fire button.
• Right Difficulty Switch turns on and starts a timer.  This can be used for various game play, like timed questions or bonuses.
• Select Switch - Changes buzzer sound.
• Reset Switch - Resets screen and clears lockout on buzzers.

The only changes that I will probably look are the following:

• Adjust timer to be compliant with competition rules, like NAQT or state competitions.  
• Perhaps add different length timers for questions, i.e. 5, 10, 15 seconds, etc.
• Additional sounds.

Apart from changes to the program, I am considering creating either a question booklet or deck of cards with questions so that this program could be used as a kind of party game.

[+Karl G]

Super cool! And nice title screen, btw.  ?

 

You may want to consider adding in the data string to force Stella to detect the Quadtari, btw - that would make testing easier for you, I'm sure.

 

[KevKelley]

11 minutes ago, Karl G said:

Super cool! And nice title screen, btw.  ?

 

You may want to consider adding in the data string to force Stella to detect the Quadtari, btw - that would make testing easier for you, I'm sure.

 

I forgot about that! I was debating including it in the beginning because I didn't know if I should have it default to QuadTari or Joystick but I suppose it is probably best too.

[KevKelley]

I am loving Alien Bill's title screen maker. It is very quick for me to play around with when at work, especially with all of the distractions. The first two were kind of place holders.

 

And thank you for the answers before. This was kind of a quick little side project merging a couple hobbies. Just something to good off with on break. Also needed a reason to buy a QuadTari. Now I can tell my wife it is for "testing." ?

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is checking out Quiztari on tomorrow's (Fri Jun 25, 2021) stream LIVE on Twitch at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 7PM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

ZPH Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/

 

Games:

• Torpedo Torpor (2021) by MrTrust @MrTrust
• Quiztari (2021 WIP) by Kevin Kelley @KevKelley
• Katamari (2013 WIP) by Rabbit @Rabbit 2600

After Dark

• Super Cobra Arcade (2017) by John Champeau @johnnywc

 (WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY!)

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[vitoco]

Hi!

 

I tried it with a Quadtari in my 7800, and it didn't work in Q mode like in the show.

 

I had to keep pressed the PAUSE button (replacement for the TV type swithch), but I just want to let you know...

 

[KevKelley]

5 hours ago, vitoco said:

Hi!

 

I tried it with a Quadtari in my 7800, and it didn't work in Q mode like in the show.

 

I had to keep pressed the PAUSE button (replacement for the TV type swithch), but I just want to let you know...

 

Thanks. When I get to my computer I am going to double-check to see if I used the modified standard kernel. There is a chance I forgot to make that change, as I have only tested it in emulation 

[+Karl G]

8 hours ago, KevKelley said:

Thanks. When I get to my computer I am going to double-check to see if I used the modified standard kernel. There is a chance I forgot to make that change, as I have only tested it in emulation 

Maybe something changed after you tested? I wasn't able to get it to work in Stella, or select Qt as a controller option when I tried myself. Let me know if you need any help with this.

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, Karl G said:

Maybe something changed after you tested? I wasn't able to get it to work in Stella, or select Qt as a controller option when I tried myself. Let me know if you need any help with this.

Thank you. I assumed it worked when I would test it. When I would select "Q" mode I would just press the fire buttons and clear them at random to see if they would switch back and forth. Everything seemed to work but there is a chance that when I moved around the switch functions I forgot to change a variable. I didn't really bother to label everything since I kind of whipped it up pretty quickly. 

 

There is also a chance my baby got to the keyboard when I wasn't looking. I caught him the other day excitedly hitting the "K" key and reciting the alphabet so he may have thought my program was a perfect opportunity to practice. Lol.

 

I will check on it Monday when I get my laptop and see what went wrong.

[KevKelley]

I just looked at my program and I think I never copied the new standard kernel for the QuadTari so I went ahead and copied the .asm and went and also added the data statement in the code for Stella.  I couldn't tell the difference, as everything seemed to work the same as it did before on my computer but I went ahead and copied it into my project directory anyway and hopefully this corrects any problems folks had with the program. 

 

Thank you all for the help and now that I am back in town I am hoping for some more time to sit down and play around with some stuff some more. I updated the first post and added the newest .bin.

Edited June 29, 2021 by KevKelley

[KevKelley]

I just caught the @ZeroPage Homebrewshow. I'm sorry you guys had to get out all those controllers for nothing. I don't have a QuadTari to test on. The way I was testing was that in QuadTari mode I was pressing the particular direction associated with that paddles button to see if the buzzer switches teams and it seemed to work well when I tested, unless there is a better way to check functionality. 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

18 hours ago, KevKelley said:

I just caught the @ZeroPage Homebrewshow. I'm sorry you guys had to get out all those controllers for nothing. I don't have a QuadTari to test on. The way I was testing was that in QuadTari mode I was pressing the particular direction associated with that paddles button to see if the buzzer switches teams and it seemed to work well when I tested, unless there is a better way to check functionality. 

No problem! We wanted to show off the unique use for the Quadtari you've created, it looks like it would be great for those a buzzer system for game night!

 

- James

[+Karl G]

18 hours ago, KevKelley said:

I just caught the @ZeroPage Homebrewshow. I'm sorry you guys had to get out all those controllers for nothing. I don't have a QuadTari to test on. The way I was testing was that in QuadTari mode I was pressing the particular direction associated with that paddles button to see if the buzzer switches teams and it seemed to work well when I tested, unless there is a better way to check functionality. 

I was trying to test the latest version via Stella first, and the quadtari detection code does work, but hitting select to switch from joystick mode to quadtari mode isn't working for me.

[vitoco]

29 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I was trying to test the latest version via Stella first, and the quadtari detection code does work, but hitting select to switch from joystick mode to quadtari mode isn't working for me.

The same happens with the latest ROM available through the PlusCart (currently 6_29_21) in my 7800.

 

BTW, there is a way to detect the QuadTari device. Is there an attempt to detect it before allowing the selection of the J/Q options?

 

I also noticed that if I move the joystick in J mode while the button is pressed, no trigger action is displayed, only the buzzer is heard. The same happens when the Reset button of the console is kept down.

 

[KevKelley]

1 hour ago, Karl G said:

I was trying to test the latest version via Stella first, and the quadtari detection code does work, but hitting select to switch from joystick mode to quadtari mode isn't working for me.

The game select switch changes buzzer tone. The color switch is what changes to QuadTari mode. 

[KevKelley]

After working on Red Light Green Light’s QuadTari functions I had some issues that I couldn’t quite figure out until I realized in some of my settings I forgot to set at qtcontroller. I have to find my file for Quiztari as I made this on my old laptop and see if this was the reason why the selection didn’t work quite right for everyone. 

[KevKelley]

Some may know that I had been working on a controller for the Atari that plugs into either a drum pad, trigger, or pedal. 
 

it had occurred to me that the controller I had made - found here - is actually compatible with Quiztari if you do not use the Quadtari attachment. One would need two Drum Controllers, one for each controller port. Plugged into the controller a team could use any kind of buzzer or pedal with a 1/4” jack. This would be very similar to units like a Judge system. 

Edited April 19 by KevKelley