This has got to be the easiest quiz bowl system ever…to setup and use…and at a price of $299… What are you waiting for?

Available 6-1-05

Our customers have continually asked us for a quiz bowl system that is both easy to setup and also use. We would like to announce our Easy Quiz Bowl (EQB) product.

It is designed to connect to your PC through the keyboard port. Yes as the picture above shows, you unplug the keyboard and plug in the EQB box. Then you plug the keyboard into the EQB box. Done! And you don’t have to turn the computer off either!

The keyboard still works as usual. To finish just plug the game player boxes into the EQB box using modular telephone type plugs. All cables are included. There is no power supply needed as the EQB box gets its power from the computer’s keyboard port.

How much easier can things get?

Pictured below is a player’s three-button box. Five players can play with the base system. The buttons are over an inch in diameter and are arcade quality. Three different colors are used so young players can easily identify which button to press. They can easily match the button color to the color of the button on the screen.

PLAYER BUTTON BOX

It can be used in a number of different situations such as schools, libraries, museums and even restaurants. In industry, it can be used for corporate training.

Each player is equipped with a hand-held box containing three colored push buttons that are used to select the correct answer to a question. The questions can be on any topic and can even include pictures. For example:

Which president is pictured to the right?
	Thomas Jefferson
	Abraham Lincoln
	George Washington

The three colors above indicate which button you would press on your button box: Red, Yellow or Green to indicate your answer. In this case, you would press the green button for George Washington.

The software program above is included as well as software to enter and edit question sets.

This game system is similar in some ways to the Who wants to be a Millionaire TV show. A question is displayed on the computer screen along with three answers. In the EQB system, every player gets to answer. After all the players have had a chance to press one of their colored buttons to answer, the correct answer is displayed and each player’s score is calculated and updated.

To the left is a screen-shot of the actual EQB program window. Notice on the right, the question point value is decreasing. The speed can be adjusted to suit the players.

Hoyt Library is the name of the organization.

Time is an important factor in answering because the faster a player answers the more points he receives. For example, the question point value might be set at 100 points. As each second passes, the question point value decreases by 10 points until it is worth zero points. If a player answers within the first 1-second window then he earns 100 points. Likewise, if a player answers correctly after 5 seconds he will earn only 50 points. You have the option of deducting points for incorrect answers.

The player buttons connect to the computer through the keyboard port. The keyboard is unplugged from the computer and plugged into the EQB. Then the EQB is plugged into the computer. The keyboard continues to work as normal. However each player’s switch closures cause characters to be poked or inserted into the keyboard buffer (just like the keyboard). You can easily program what characters are associated with each player’s switches. This is a very cost effective (and very easy) way to connect input devices such as switches to a computer.

The computer is an IBM PC (Pentium) running Windows and the EQB software program. The EQB program manages the entire quiz game. It displays the questions on the screen(s), totals the scores and communicates with the player buttons through the EQB box.

For simplicity only one PC display screen has been shown; however several computer screens might be used in an actual installation. A projection type screen would work very well. A large screen TV set with the appropriate adaptor can also be used to display the game information.

You decide what questions will be used in your trivia quiz game. Once you have decided on a category, you must type in each question with three answers; and provide any pictures you plan to use in your question set. Software is provided to assist you in creating question sets in the correct format. To save disk space any pictures that you plan to use should be in JPG format. JPG format is the most common picture format used on the Internet.

The EQB system can be used by many different organizations…

This system can be used by many different organizations (and is not just for kids). Some possible locations are libraries, museums, schools and even restaurants. In a restaurant, it could be installed to entertain customers who are waiting for a table.

The number of questions being asked determines the time length of the game. The game time is about 3 minutes for a set of five questions. Questions can be either multiple choice with three answers or True / False with two answers.

Question sets are available from us for $25 per set of 100 questions. Software is included with the system to type in and create your own question sets. One question set is included with the purchase of the EQB system

After a tour of a museum, a Test Your Knowledge game could be run where players could be quizzed on things they saw in the museum. You could also use this system with younger children in spelling or math games. All that is needed is to change the set of questions. Our most popular question category is Sports Trivia.

The software provides plenty of audio and visual feedback…

Players can be encouraged to compete by awarding a prize to the winner. Maybe just the thrill of getting the highest point score is enough. The software provides plenty of audio and visual feedback to add to the excitement of the game. A computer equipped with a sound card and speakers is highly recommended.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

IBM PC - Pentium 100 MHz or faster, 32 Megabyte RAM, 10 Meg hard disk space, super VGA monitor, sound card and speakers, Windows 95 (or newer).

COSTS

Item	Description	Price
EQB-1	Complete system for 5 players – includes software, all cables, Easy Quiz Bowl Box, one question set and button boxes for 5 players.	$299
Question Set	Please contact us for a list of available question sets.	$25/set

If you need to accommodate more players, two EQB systems can easily be connected together to make a total of 10 players.

Shipping and handling charges are 5% of total order price. We do not collect sales tax for states other than Pennsylvania. If your state requires you to pay sales tax then you must pay it yourself.

We welcome any questions that you may have concerning this product. Contact us

COMPUTER PRODUCTS FOR EDUCATION

PO Box 1694, Kingston, PA 18704 USA

www.cp4e.com

Revised 5-30-05