The Game Show Forum

The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: BrandonFG on January 30, 2005, 11:07:42 PM

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: BrandonFG on January 30, 2005, 11:07:42 PM

From time to time, someone asks where to find game show lockouts.

For $70, you can one it from eBay! (http://\"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2518&item=5951755263&rd=1\")

There's 5 available.

Also, a 1969 LMaD episode, 16mm B&W (http://\"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=63821&item=6362922169&rd=1\")

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: Steve McClellan on January 31, 2005, 12:48:59 AM

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 30 2005, 08:07 PM\']From time to time, someone asks where to find game show lockouts. [/quote]
In addition to the 4-player setup there, there are also 3-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 15-player systems at the company's website (http://\"http://www.svbz.com\"). After a bit of research, it looks like they've only been around since last March. Has anyone here picked a set up yet? If not, I guess I get to be the guinea pig. ;)

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: clemon79 on January 31, 2005, 01:30:52 AM

[quote name=\'Steve McClellan\' date=\'Jan 30 2005, 10:48 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 30 2005, 08:07 PM\']From time to time, someone asks where to find game show lockouts. [/quote]
In addition to the 4-player setup there, there are also 3-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 15-player systems at the company's website (http://\"http://www.svbz.com\"). After a bit of research, it looks like they've only been around since last March. Has anyone here picked a set up yet? If not, I guess I get to be the guinea pig. ;)

[snapback]73636[/snapback]

[/quote]
I'd be interesting in knowing how well it works. I would surely drop $75 on a four-player set if it works well.

I'd also be interested in opening up Home Base and getting a look at that circuit board. I bet he builds them himself.

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: Steve McClellan on February 05, 2005, 02:15:11 AM

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jan 30 2005, 10:30 PM\']I'd be interesting in knowing how well it works. I would surely drop $75 on a four-player set if it works well.

I'd also be interested in opening up Home Base and getting a look at that circuit board. I bet he builds them himself.
[/quote]
Well, for one thing the guy ships quickly. I already have mine in hand. It looks like a good, no-frills system.

For one, it's very small. An entire eight-player system was shipped in a 14 x 4 x 4-inch box. The base is 4 x 3 x 1; player units are 3 x 1 x 3/4 each.

Taking a look at the innards, each player appears to have only four resistors and a transistor; the base has a piece of RadioShack-type perfboard (no relation), neatly screwed in place, with a couple of diodes, a couple of transistors, a couple of PLDs, half a dozen resistors, and two yellow gizmos I can't identify (capacities measured in millijoules). It looks like the work of an individual, but one that's pretty darn good at what he does. All soldering appears to have been done by hand, but it ain't flimsy.

On the outside, each player has a button, 7/16" in diameter, and a very bright LED, in a red, 1/4" cylindrical shell. The base has a power button, a buzzer, and a compartment for the lone 9-volt battery that powers the whole thing.

In terms of function, the biggest thing of note is that it's self-resetting. The system is automatically reopened about four seconds after a player signals. The player's LED fades out to illustrate this, a nice touch. (The system is open a small fraction of a second after the LED is completely out.) The reset interval can be manually shortened with two presses of the base's button (effectively turning the system off then back on), but can only be lengthened by turning the system off entirely.

The sound made when a player signals reminds me of a smoke detector, about five beeps over a second and a half, with the last one audibly fizzling out. (The documentation---a 3 x 4 piece of card stock---says this will decrease as the battery wears.) A finger or a piece of tape over the buzzer's opening can muffle the sound well enough to keep my neighbors from shooting me as I experiment with the thing this evening. (Unmuffled, it seems loud enough for most any purpose.)

On the more expansive systems, each "team's" player positions are daisy-chained. Not ideal, but not unfair unless you have more teams playing than the system is designed for. Since any player holding down his button when the system is turned on prevents *anyone* from getting in, I don't recommend this for J!-style games of timing, but it looks great for any pure jump-in game, and all in all, I think any serious game show person should own one.

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: clemon79 on February 05, 2005, 06:17:13 AM

VERY interesting. No printed circuit board, and it sounds like the duration of the light and the sound are both controlled by capacitor (the cap powers the light, once it's depleted, the circuit can reset for the next triggering). You seem pretty savvy electronically...if I showed you this Web site, would you be able to tell me if any of these designs rang a bell?

http://www.techlib.com/electronics/games.html (http://\"http://www.techlib.com/electronics/games.html\")

I'm handy enough with a soldering iron that I might well be willing to build it myself if I can figure out what he did, and then I could add some additions (such as modular buzzers that plug and unplug from the main base, and the use of arcade buttons and microswitches rather than whatever Radio Shack dealie he has in there)...

Title: E-bay finds
Post by: Steve McClellan on February 05, 2005, 03:35:16 PM

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Feb 5 2005, 03:17 AM\']if I showed you this Web site, would you be able to tell me if any of these designs rang a bell?

http://www.techlib.com/electronics/games.html (http://\"http://www.techlib.com/electronics/games.html\")[/quote]
Looks nearly identical to the second ("Another Game Show Timer"). My electronics knowledge is quite rusty, and I didn't go so far as to pay attention to exact voltages, resistances, etc., but the only differences that I noticed were the power supply and the addition of a capacitor to regulate the duration of the buzzer.

Quote

I'm handy enough with a soldering iron that I might well be willing to build it myself if I can figure out what he did, and then I could add some additions

Seeing as though we've probably lost the interest of just about everyone else, if you have any luck with that, or need any more info, drop me a line off-board. I may be in the market for a custom lockout before too long.