Buzzer Lock-Out Software, Any recommendations? Options

[Sodboy13]

I just bought "Buzz! The Mega Quiz" for PS2, and it appears the USB buzzer cluster is very PC-friendly. The device is completely plug-and-play, and gets recognized as "Buzz" by the computer. Now, I'm just looking for some software to go along with said buzzers. I gave the free buzzer software from buzzers.com a go, and yeah, that's crap. Next to no customizable options, and an incredibly grating buzzer noise. I realize that if I want to get something good, I'll likely have to lay out some money, but I'd actually like to know it's good before I buy it. Can any of you point me in the right direction? If it helps, what I'm really looking for is something which would make a good setup for "Sale of the Century," but the more adaptable the program is, the better.

Oh, and a Super Mega Double Bonus if anyone knows how to make the big red buttons light up when pressed, like they do when plugged into in the PS2 game. (That was a pleasant surprise.)

[jmangin]

When you push the buttons, do they register a character input? To check, plug the USB in and open MS Word, then hit each of the buttons one at a time. Check if any characters are typed when you hit each of the buttons.

If they do register a character, I might be able to help you out with some custom software.

[Sodboy13]

I should be able to accomplish that with a program I already have called Joy2Key, which translates joystick buttons into character inputs.

[clemon79]

I should be able to accomplish that with a program I already have called Joy2Key, which translates joystick buttons into character inputs.

Yeah, I was just gonna suggest that. Jacob, the Buzz lockouts show up as standard USB gamepad buttons...I haven't had a chance to play with them to find out exactly how they map, but Joy2Key can remap those to the keypress of your choice, if you (like me :)) don't know how to address the gamepads directly. :)

Making the buttons light up is going to be a REALLY tough nut to crack...you'd have to figure out what call that Buzz was making to the controller that triggered the light, and I don't have the first inkling how you would go about that without the source code to the game. And I'm guessing that the Buzz folks aren't going to be sharing that anytime soon. :)

(I would have been ALL OVER the Buzz controller if the wiring wasn't so flimsy and the buttons didn't feel so cheap.)

[parliboy]

Making the buttons light up is going to be a REALLY tough nut to crack...you'd have to figure out what call that Buzz was making to the controller that triggered the light, and I don't have the first inkling how you would go about that without the source code to the game. And I'm guessing that the Buzz folks aren't going to be sharing that anytime soon. :)

Well, given that the only real input that ever got sent back to PS2 controllers was force feedback, I suspect it's a hack of that.

So the question is, "How do you toggle force feedback in a PS2 controller when it's plugged into a PC?"

[clemon79]

Well, given that the only real input that ever got sent back to PS2 controllers was force feedback, I suspect it's a hack of that.

But remember, this isn't a PS2 controller, this is a USB device. (Which is why you can plug it into a PC in the first place...this is going directly in and is being enumerated by the OS, this isn't going through a PS2-to-USB dongle.)

[jmangin]

Let me see what I can do in Flash and I'll try to post something here in a few days.