TPiR technical question

[Joh...@my-dejanews.com]

don't know if anyone know the answer to this or not, but it's worth a shot:

the bid displays in contest row are lit up usally one number at a time...for
exaple if someone bid $550 you would see XXXX, X5XX, X55X, and finally X550.
presumably whoever's running the thing punches in each number in succession.
however during the showcase, and most other digital numeber displays (usually
of the eggcrate variety) the number just apperars all at once in it's
enitrety. so how do the controls to these suckers work? ocassionally i'll
see someone bid say $605 and for a brief second the last digit would display a
4 before changing to a 5. i remember an old football scoreboard at my high
school had controls for the down and yards to go displays as telephone dials
that would cycle through the numbers until reaching the one you dialed...does
TPiR use something similar? maybe somone in the biz might know?

JohnCTT

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[WLTXPromo]

> i remember an old football scoreboard at my high
>school had controls for the down and yards to go displays as telephone dials
>that would cycle through the numbers until reaching the one you dialed...does
>TPiR use something similar?

If I remember correctly...and I'll have to check some footage that may still
exist here...I think there are four keypads sort of like those on a regular
adding machine. I've seen the same phenomenon you've mentioned that looks as
though the numbers are "cycling" up at contestant's row, but I didn't see any
number dials at the keypunch center backstage.

I believe the eggcrate system must require an "enter" keystroke to display the
number. The contestants row displays may display the numbers as they're typed
in, which would explain the number changing if someone accidentally hit the
wrong button followed by a "backspace" key (or whatever the similar button
might be).

[ton...@my-dejanews.com]

In article <6jaunk$tr6$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,

Joh...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> the bid displays in contest row are lit up usally one number at a time...for
> exaple if someone bid $550 you would see XXXX, X5XX, X55X, and finally X550.
> presumably whoever's running the thing punches in each number in succession.
> however during the showcase, and most other digital numeber displays
(usually
> of the eggcrate variety) the number just apperars all at once in it's
> enitrety. so how do the controls to these suckers work? ocassionally i'll
> see someone bid say $605 and for a brief second the last digit would
display a

> 4 before changing to a 5. i remember an old football scoreboard at my high

Well, this one I CAN answer as opposed to that 1st episode blooper mystery ;)

The one bid displays in contestant's row are controlled by a completely
seperate device than the showcase displays.

It's a device that has 160 buttons, in vertical column format from 1-0. like
this:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

etc....

when a contestant bids, the numbers are pressed corresponding to the bid.
Those numbers then depress and light up. There are two other buttons on the
board as well. One for "erasing" the bids, and one for making the correct bid
flash. That's pretty much it. When you see a number change from 4 to 5, it
just means the operator pressed the wrong number. The operator also keeps
track of who starts the bidding with a little velcro arrow that's used as a
pointer over the bank of numbers corresponding to the first bidder.

The showcase podiums are controlled by a different device. The numbers are
registered, and then a key is pressed to show the bid at once.

Other games like Any number have yet another deperate console used, while
games like Cover Up and Magic # are controlled by a computer (running DOS :).

- Tony

[Charles Blaquiere]

ton...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> The one bid displays in contestant's row are controlled by a completely
> seperate device than the showcase displays.
>
> It's a device that has 160 buttons, in vertical column format from 1-0. like
> this:
>
> 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
> 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
> 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
>
> etc....

I'm really glad to read this, because it's what intuition told me for
years, just by seeing the numbers appear. (e.g. sometimes, the third
number might appear a split-second before the second, indicating each
column was separately controlled)