An End to Slapbowl

[whaatt]

It's summer again, the time of year where I spend above-average periods of time working on QB-related projects. With that, I bring to you a revolution in buzzer technology: an internet-based mobile buzzer system called Buzzr. The motivation for this was, as the title indicates, a need to play pick-up games of Quiz Bowl without having to slap tables, shout buzz, or perform any action that results in a less-than-perfect gameplay experience.

The idea behind Buzzr is that everyone with a phone (regardless of platform, works on Android/iOS/Blackberry/Windows) should be able to start this app, join a game room on the central server, and use their devices as buzzers. Administrators, which are by default the first devices to enter rooms, can clear the buzzer system (locking buzzed individuals/teams out), reset the buzzer system (unlock all players), or give administrator privileges to other players.

This is sort of like another application (I Buzzed First) that someone posted on this forum, but the key difference is that Buzzr runs over the internet rather than a local Wi-Fi connection, so that anyone, regardless of means of connection (3G/4G/Wi-Fi) can play. The caveat of this, of course, is that you must have internet, and there will be a certain amount of inherent latency/lag with this, though I am trying to mitigate this as much as possible.

Oh, and did I mention it's free? Right now, the only platform for which I have a downloadable app is Android; however, on any mobile or desktop platform, you may simply access this page in a browser to join in. Report prolonged server trouble here, or wherever, really.

Please leave your comments, thoughts, and feedback for me! Screenshots available on the Android page.

Edit: For best results on Android, I strongly recommend that you use Firefox Mobile to access Buzzr instead of the native app or native browser, since FF supports a far faster data transport (Websockets). Apple devices (iOS 4+) should automatically use the faster connection method by default, I believe, and Blackberry devices should also be fine in this regard.

Another Edit: Experimentally, you may try a version of Buzzr with sound effects at this location. Speed is likely affected on mobile devices.

[whaatt]

Just curious; has anyone given this a try by themselves and/or with other QBers? (Summer Vacation notwithstanding )

If so, I'd enjoy knowing how it went, particularly if it didn't seem to work very well or was clunky. Thanks!