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Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

buzzinga.io

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Re: Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

#24
post #14

This is really nice. Well done! I've had a jeopardy based toy project on the backburner for several years, with the north star goal of solving the problem I've had with every jeopardy game I've ever played: you need an Alex/host who knows the answer and can judge players right or wrong. This ability to buzz in, be wrong and then have another player respond is fairly crucial to real strategic play. I get this is for f…

In the menu you'll see there is a "Show answer" button. The host can log in on a different tab or device to see the answer to the currently flipped clue.

I cannot find this button. :( It also took me multiple reloads to find the menu button since it disappears after a few seconds. My eyes are drawn to the board and not the upper left hand corner.

Re: Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the menu you'll see there is a "Show answer" button. The host can log in on a different tab or device to see the answer to the currently flipped clue.

I cannot find this button. :( It also took me multiple reloads to find the menu button since it disappears after a few seconds. My eyes are drawn to the board and not the upper left hand corner.

You'll only see it if you're logged in. I'll fix the menu button!

Re: Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

#26

That looks like a lot of fun... can you share a little about what you used to make phones work nicely as buzzers?

So overall, the site including the buzzer page uses websockets for (close to) real-time client-server communication.

Obviously latency can be an issue, so my non-perfect B+ solution is to essentially calculate the round trip of the buzz, divide it by 2, and subtract it from the server time.

client ------------ pingTime ------------> server

client roundTrip = pingTime + pongTime

buzzTime = serverTime - (roundTrip / 2);

The server time is always the source of truth since client times can vary. Not using NTP which could possibly be more accurate.

Re: Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

#27
That's funny, I too made a phone-buzzer app to watch Jeopardy with the in-laws. All it does is pause the video on the laptop for 10 seconds when someone presses the button on their phone, and show their name. On the plus side it works for any YouTube/PeerTube/local-file video, on the minus side no score-keeping or even checking of the answer.

https://github.com/remram44/video-buzzer

I think we only used it once, years ago.

Re: Show HN: I built a Jeopardy game maker with buzzer support

#28
When I was in high school in the mid 80s I was in the av club and we filmed things for local access cable. We made a jeopardy game on a Commodore 64 and converted a joystick into three buttons with latches to prevent ties. We broadcast three episodes and had the most feedback to the local paper of any local access tv show. We were proud. Fun to still see kids doing this.
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