Quiz buzzer

How to run a quiz with it

1. Pick the number of teams. Type each team's name in the list and pick its colour. On a keyboard each team has its own key (A, L, Z and M to start, spread out so hands do not collide); click the key to change it and press the new one. On a tablet or touch screen each team has a big coloured zone.
2. Ask the question, then press Ready (Space). Presses before Ready do nothing, or, with False start on, lock that team out for this question.
3. The first team to press fills the screen with a sound. Everyone else is locked out; anyone who pressed later is listed with how far behind they were.
4. Press Correct (Enter) to give the points, or Wrong (Backspace) to lock that team out and re-open the buzzers for the others. Reset (Esc) ends the question with no points.
5. Turn on the answer timer if teams must answer within 5 to 60 seconds: it ticks the last 5 seconds and sounds at zero.
6. At the end, Open in Scoreboard carries the names and scores across for a big display or a round-by-round sheet.

How it decides who was first

Every key press and every touch carries event.timeStamp: the moment the browser received it, on a clock that counts fractions of a millisecond. The page keeps that time for each press and the earliest one since Ready wins. It does not go by the order its own code ran in, which matters in a near-tie: if Green's touch arrives at 12.143 s and Red's at 11.990 s but the browser happens to hand Green's to the page first, Red still wins, and the list shows Green +0.153 s. A key held down sends repeat presses about 30 times a second; those are ignored, so leaning on a key gains nothing. Under the winner the page also shows how long after Ready they pressed, for example 0.812 s after Ready.

Lockout means the others cannot win this question: their later presses are still listed, so you can see that Yellow was 0.040 s behind, but only Wrong (the rebound) gives them the next chance. After Wrong the team that answered stays locked out until the question ends with Correct or Reset; if every team has been wrong, the question ends by itself.

What it cannot do

• No buzzers on separate phones. Linking each player's phone needs a server and a room code; this page runs on one device, with every team on the same keyboard or touch screen.
• Many keyboards cannot register some keys pressed at the same moment (key rollover, often 2 to 6 keys, and some pairs block each other). Before a big quiz, test your teams' keys together on the keyboard tester; a press the keyboard never sends cannot be counted.
• Timing is only as precise as the browser's event clock, about 1 ms (some browsers round it coarser for privacy). A touch screen adds its own delay of tens of milliseconds, but the same for every zone, so the order stays fair; a gap under about 5 ms is effectively a tie.
• A wireless keyboard or a long USB hub adds delay to every key on that keyboard alike; two keyboards on one computer are not told apart, and if one is slower its teams lose ties.
• It does not read questions out or check answers: the host decides Correct or Wrong.

Privacy

Team names, colours, keys, scores and your settings are saved in this browser's local storage under polyatic-quiz-buzzer-v1 and nowhere else; Clear saved deletes them in one tap. Open in Scoreboard puts the names and scores inside the link after the #, the part a browser never sends to a server. The page counts an anonymous page view and two fixed words, buzz-open and buzz-round; never a name, a key or a score.

Questions

Is there a free quiz buzzer online that needs no app or account?

This one. It runs in the browser of the laptop, tablet or classroom computer you already have, with no account, no room code and no phone per player. Every team buzzes on the same keyboard or the same touch screen.

How does a game show buzzer decide who tapped first?

Each key press or touch carries the time the browser received it (event.timeStamp, to a fraction of a millisecond). The page compares those times, not the order its code happened to run, so in a near-tie the earlier event wins. The others are locked out and listed with their gap, for example Green +0.143 s.

Can I use it as a game show buzzer for the classroom on a smartboard or tablet?

Yes. On a touch screen the page splits into one large coloured zone per team, and several fingers can press at once. Full screen fills a projector or smartboard. A touch screen adds its own delay, the same for every zone, so the comparison stays fair.

What happens when a team answers wrong?

Press Wrong (or Backspace). That team can lose the minus points you set (0 by default), is locked out for the rest of the question, and the buzzers re-open at once for everyone else: the next press counts. This is the rebound used in quiz bowl.

Can a trivia buzzer keep score too?

Yes. Correct adds the points you choose to the team that buzzed, scores show on each buzzer, Undo takes back the last change, and the scores are saved on this device. Open in Scoreboard carries the names and scores to the Polyatic scoreboard for a big display or a round-by-round sheet.