Question about the various PYL software out there

[LA the DJ]

Looking for a little help from the software aficionados:

Are there any PYL games in existence that allow you to keymap the buzzer key? I ask because I recently purchased some buzzers for my business (a game-show themed pub quiz), and I'm just wondering if I could use them on my computer in my free time to play PYL with my friends. Not worried about quiz round buzz-ins, just stopping the board.

[clemon79]

Looking for a little help from the software aficionados:

Do the buzzers behave as keyboard strokes or as gamepad buttons?

[LA the DJ]

It would appear they are keystrokes, unfortunately. I think if they were controller buttons, most of the game keymappers out there would work. Someone offered me up some sort of remapper program for Windows, so I'll give that a try.

[parliboy]

Joy2Key FTW.

[clemon79]

It would appear they are keystrokes, unfortunately.

Joy2Key FTW.

Precisely why I asked. If they were controller buttons, Joy2Key and you can go to town. That said, if they are keystrokes, I *have* to think that they can be remapped without too much trouble in some way or another.

[LA the DJ]

Well, I was sent a program called SharpKeys, which uses a registry hack, but it didn't work. JoyToKey doesn't even read it as an input device. I dunno what they did when they made these things, but they made sure you could only use em with what they allow you to. Even to get the buzzers to register as a number one and two keypress, I have to have an EXE running.

[clemon79]

Would you let us know whose product this is, then, so we might save people in the future from buying it? There's just no reason in the last decade for a set of controllers like that to represent as anything but a keyboard or a game controller. None.

[pacdude]

They're from DigiGames, and according to them (I've chatted with them via e-mail) their buzzers register as Human Interface Devices, which means they get to sell their shitty software to make it run.

Make your own or buy from Buzzers.com.

[dazztardly]

I use to hack those Buzz! megaquiz USB controllers to wire up my own switches. I'd take apart one or two of those controllers(depending on how many buttons I need), jump the leads on the PCBs that closed the button circuits, and wire them to speaker terminals. Very primitive hacking for me, at the time. Then I'd use Joy2Key in the background. 5 1/2 years ago, I made a video on Youtube showing what I did. After word of mouth spread, I think I ended up making about 7 or 8 sets of these mods for people in the game show community. I quit making them, because it was starting to become too difficult to find the Buzz controllers.

Nowadays, I use much more durable and stronger equipment. If you're handy with wiring, look up I-Pac at http://www.ultimarc.com No background software is needed. Wire up the buttons to the terminals on the board, plug and play, go. You can use a configuration tool that can be downloaded separately, to reassign the keystrokes to the board. Program it once, and it's burned right into to the board's firmware. For connectors...I typically now use XLR cables/jacks. They're more rugged.

[pacdude]

I just ordered these bad boys to use at the Game Show Gauntlet. The PS2 version worked like gangbusters but the wires were relatively unwieldy, so these will hopefully work much better.

[parliboy]

They mostly do, except that they will turn themselves off after a few minutes, since they're battery-operated.

[Hastin]

You also have to send a HID command to them for presses to work.

See here: http://www.decsoftware.com/wireless_buzzers.htm

[pacdude]

You also have to send a HID command to them for presses to work.

See here: http://www.decsoftware.com/wireless_buzzers.htm

Would anyone know how to do that on a Mac?

EDIT: I managed to get someone to develop the proper application to get it to work. I can share if necessary.