I like to write software in my spare time. You can see some of the other stuff I do at these three websites:
- StuHasic.com – My other software and my interactive brain teaser site
- StudentResponseNetwork.com – My “Virtual Clickers” software
- ParallelDivergence.com – My blog where my random thoughts pour out into articles
Other than that, I work pretty hard in the public education sector and much of my software is targeted at schools. As for Quiz Boxes, well this newest version has been a whole lot of fun. Very challenging for me because I’ve used programming techniques that I’ve never applied before and it’s probably the first application I’ve done that is likely to have worldwide appeal. That’s why this blog was developed to go with it – so the Quiz Boxes “system” can grow with the help of its users and the blog’s readers. Together we can make this a fantastic educational resource and I look forward to your contributions.
Feel free to tell me of your experiences with Quiz Boxes in the comments box below.
Stu.
Stu's Quiz Boxes! 
When trying to logon to https://jeopardygame.wordpress.com/download/
in order to download the file, it says my download is starting, but then nothing ever pops up! 😦 The next message is “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”.
Please help! I was hping to use this tool for a class i’m teaching tomorrow night
Unfortunately Nicole, we’re all at the mercy of what’s up and what’s down on the Internet. If the MediaFire link on the downloads page is down, you should be able to use the alternate link just below it.
Hey stu..I was wandering what programming language you used to create this? Have you had alot of experience in the field of programming?
Hi Chambon, I’ve been programming as a hobby since 1985. Over the last dozen years I produced a few different apps that you can see at stuhasic.com – Stu’s Double Jeopardy was my attempt at seeing how different a Visual Basic app I could produce. Hope you like it.
Good stuff.. I like it…so you programed with Microsoft Visual studio pro 2005? Can I get away with just basic or do I need pro 2005 or 2007? I was just curious what program to buy…maybe since you’ve been programing since 85..I image that you’ve used Qbasic and such. Out of all the programing languages out there what do you recommend?
Any Thoughts of Adding video or pictures for the questions?
No Chambon, it’s actually done in VB6. I have done some small projects in Visual Studio Pro 2005 and that’s probably the way I’ll head with .NET really starting to shine. It’s taken a while for that to happen. I started with FORTRAN and COBOL at university, then Quick Basic, Turbo Pascal, Delphi and VB6 on PC. But another option to look at is RealBasic because of its ability to produce standalone apps on Windows, OSX and Linux from the same source.
Adding images and videos is in the pipeline, but I’d like to see this current version take off first.
I’ll definatly help you out with that…telling all the school teachers about it here in Vegas…Where do I buy VB6…do I need the professional edition..?which one do you use?
MS Visual Basic 6 Pro pre-dates MS VisualBasic.NET and Visual Studio Pro. While you can still get it on EBay, it’s no longer a current product (although MS Vista is compatible with apps written in VB6). If you’re going to be learning something new, I’d go for a newer version based around .NET, although many high schools still teach using VB6. The school may already have it. Best of luck with your endeavours.
Thanks a million Stu. I’ve been looking for some replacement for Marathon Muse’s Flash based Jeopardy game for a while.
I want to cast a vote for image support. Maybe even Flash? I use it to teach math and being able to animate graphs or even equations is really helpful.
Jimndeb
Hi Jimndeb. I hadn’t seen the Marathon Muse product before, so I googled it and came up with this: http://www.marathonmuse.com/projects.php – but it doesn’t go anywhere from there. Is it now gone?
Images will definitely be in the next release. Videos and Flash are a possibility and may be there. I’m guessing few people who would want to build quiz files for Jeopardy could easily do the questions, but very few would now how to put together a video, let alone a flash object. Still, that doesn’t mean I should exclude it as an option! But don’t expect to see the new version until around June.
In the meantime, make some quiz files and submit them for sharing. 🙂
One of our departments is very interested in utilizing your application as it has many benefits for them. In order for us to download and install it on our network we require specific application information. Can you please email me so that I may send you a short application evaluation questionnaire on your product?
LeeAnne
Hi Stu…I created a Occupational Therapy History Jeopardy for the students in my course. We use an online teaching system and I am unable to get the game to post without including the entire list of quizzes and other information …would really like it to just post the OT History game without the other items.Is there a way to do this? I have had a couple of friends try without success. I would really appreciate your help
Thanks
Carol
@LeeAnne – it’s a free program, but what the hey. I’ve emailed you.
@Carol – not sure what you mean by “get the game to post without including the entire list of quizzes and other information”. If you mean you want to give the game to someone and for them just to see your game as the only choice, then you need to delete all the other quizzes in the quizzes folder inside the Jeopardy folder (do this in My Computer) – so you just leave one text file, being your quiz.
If you’re wanting to post me your quiz so I can publish it here, then just email me that quiz file from that folder as an attachment. The steps are here: https://jeopardygame.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/share-your-new-jeopardy-quiz-with-the-world/
HI Stan
How do you make the game full screen if you want to project it
thanks
Hi John, (who’s Stan?) 🙂
The screen is designed to run at 1024 x 768, so if you’re using higher than that, you need to drop it down. Then it will be *almost* full screen.
There is no maximize function. What more do you expect for the price? 🙂
Great program! I’m a software developer and have considered creating something similar so I’m glad I did some searching before I got serious. You have included a lot more polish than I probably would of.
I’m interested in using it with an ATI RF remote to select Categories and questions as well as assign points. Basically all functionality that is not on the menus. If you haven’t already would you consider adding hot keys for all of the primary functionality otherwise could you point me to some documentation on the keys.
Hi James, glad you like the game. I’ve never really considered allowing the program to work with RF or IR remotes. Basically everything is point and click. There are no keyboard shortcuts in the program at all. I suppose I could add that one day, but it’s low priority. One thing I have developed for it but never released is a LAN-connected buzzer system. I haven’t released it yet, but feel free to take a look. http://stuhasic.com/jeopardy/jbuzzer.zip
It’s designed to work in a computer lab situation where each “contestant has their own PC or laptop in front of themselves and it’s connected via the network to the host Jeopardy PC. Each workstaion has the jBuzzer Client, while the Jeopardy host PC has the jBuzzer Server module running. There’s a readme in there to explain it better. If you feel like taking a look at it, let me know what you think. A future version of Jeopardy will include 6 keys for keyboard buzzers (contestants huddle around the one keyboard).
Hello, Can you tell me how to load this program on a Mac? I clicked the download button and nothing happened.Please help!
Terry
QuizBoxes is a Windows program Terry. There is no Mac OSX version of the program. If you want to use it with your Mac hardware, you MUST install the Windows operating system on your Mac. Sorry, I can’t assist you with this process.
This is great. Really like this better than the powerpoint ones I have made.
Have a health quiz for you to put up.
How do I do that?
Hi Julia. Have a read of this page: http://stujeopardy.com/2007/08/17/share-your-new-jeopardy-quiz-with-the-world/
Thanks
Just emailed it. This site is so great I get side tracked and find something interesting and lose my train of thought. So much to read and do….thanks
Hey Stu im making my own quiz but i dont see how do add and upload images onto the game so can you please tell me. Thanks!
Hi Nathan. I don’t suppose you tried the Instructions page, did you? http://stujeopardy.com/2008/08/10/include-images-in-your-quizzes-step-by-step/
Thanks paralleldivergence!!!
That Helped Heaps!
🙂
Hi Stu. I m trying to download the game to prepare quizzes for my classes (happy to share). The program won’t open and I keep getting the message “error reading archive”. Have tried installing on both a mac using parrallels and on a PC. Please help if you can. Also, through the DET portal, downloading is not permissable as it has been tagged as a game.
Hi Angela. NSW DET have it blocked for students, but not for staff. “Error Reading Archive” means it hasn’t downloaded properly and you should download it again. Did you try both download options? The first one at c|net should work perfectly. The finished download should be 19.2MB in size.
Hi Stu, I got a little problem with your almost perfect piece of software. I’m not from english speaking world and we are using those little things over some letters called punctuation. These chars are not included in your software so i cannot write anything with punctuation, because displayed text is broken. Is it problem to change ‘something’ to enable these letters to be displayed correctly?
Thanks for answer.
Hi Michal – Firstly, thanks for the compliment. I’m very proud of QuizBoxes.
The software exclusively uses the Arial font to display characters. Until I produce a language-independent version QuizBoxes (due later in 2010), you will need to transfer your required characters separately. I noticed from your email that you are probably Czech. Here’s a cool website that may help you:
http://czech.typeit.org/
Type your questions/answers in there, then copy/paste back into the QuizBoxes Questions Editor. Please let me know how it goes.
Note that the above site offers many other languages as well!
Thanks for answer Stu,
my problem is not the keyboard. As I’m Czech (as you correctly deduced), I got my national keyboard, but QuizBoxes cannot display chars like “ř ť č ň…” ..etc. And that’s exactly what you said, we’d need a language independent version with support of UTF-8 or something like that. I found some web browser JavaScript based Jeopardy for our fun time for now, but will keep an eye on QuizBoxes 🙂
You’re right Michal. It looks like you can only do these characters:
ú ý ž á é í ó š
I’m afraid you have two choices:
1. Save your question text as a JPEG file and have the program display that as the question eg. create it in Word or similar, capture the screen and save as correctly named JPG file for the question.
2. Wait for the multi-language version. I might need to contact you to help with translating the English strings file that I’ll be using.
Thanks for the software, easy to use and very intuitive.
May I ask how I could localize it into Spanish? Is there any way of contributing with the translation?
Hi Stu!
First off, I want to say what a wonder program you made. Our school recently installed touch screen monitors in every classroom, and I’ve been actively looking for programs like this to use.
However, I am having troubles with one thing. On a wide screen or rectangular shaped monitor, the quiz only takes up about two thirds of the screen. On the right hand side, I can still see part of the desktop picture. Is there anyway of making the quiz stretch completely across the screen so it doesn’t show the background? I know this is only a minor inconvenience but it would make the quiz look even better.
Thank you for your amazing program and any assistance you can provide.
Hi Dustin. I’m pleased you like it. The game is designed to run on a projector at 1024 x 768 (which is the most common projector setting). On your higher-resolution/wide screen, there will be an issue with the display, but that’s just the way it is.
With the next release, later in the year, I’ll look to address this, but no guarantees. I have no budget for doing this, as you can imagine.
Glad you like it.
Thanks for getting back to me so soon, Stu. I love your current version, and I’m looking forward to the next one, too.
Dustin
I am so looking forward to playing this with my maths classes. Thanks so much for a free and easy IT application. I saw powerpoint Jeopardy a couple of years ago but didn’t know enough about powerpoint to do it justice. This was so simple.
Hi Stu – awesome quiz box. having fun creating one formy class reunion. but I’m having trouble creating a custom foreground. somehow I was successful with the background. I’m following the same steps but can’t seem to get a foreground made. any suggestions? thank you!
To create your own skin for QuizBoxes, please follow these steps carefully: http://quizboxes.com/2009/02/15/create-your-own-custom-skins-the-easy-way/ – also take note of the questions others have asked on that page and the answers that solved their problems.
This is an amazing program for learning languages as it captures the kids’ attention. I’ve read you plan on adding support for other languages and I’m really looking forward to that as I need characters that are in the Arial Latin Extended-A subset.
For example: “Latin capital Letter A with Macron”; character code 0100; Ā
and “Latin small letter z with caron”; character code 017E; ž
Do you have an approximate release date in mind?
Hi LVLearner. Glad you are liking Quizboxes. You currently can’t include the A with macron, but you can do the z with caron. Open the Windows program called Character Map (or charmap), select the Arial font and look down the list till you find it. click on it, then click Select, then Copy. To use it, go to the QuizBoxes Editor and Ctrl-V to paste where would like it. Here’s a pic to show you: http://i.imgur.com/B6HBa.jpg
I cannot give you a timeframe for the languages support in QuizBoxes as I am tied up on other projects.
That’s exactly how I’ve been doing it. And for the other characters I need I find the closest matches. Thank you for the effort you’ve put into all of this.
Stu, I have created a jeopardy game and have tried to insert pictures according to the instructions. Unfortunately the question comes up with the url of the image but not the image itself. Is there something I am doing wrong as I am totally stumped as to how to make the image appear??? Lisa
Hi Lisa. What URL of what image? You can’t make up your own instructions for inserting images. 🙂 Go here: http://quizboxes.com/2008/08/10/include-images-in-your-quizzes-step-by-step/
Hi Stu. I have two questions about the software. For me it would be very useful to use PS-Wireless-Buzzers for the game. Because they are not genuine implemented, I try to figure out some kind of a workaround. My first idea was to use jbuzzer software, install it on 3 Notebooks and then bind the space-key (via additionell software) to the Buzzer-button. Have you any ideas if this would work respective how I could implement my Buzzers?
My other question is simple. 😉
Can I build a quiz with multiple rounds or is it just one?
thx
Kelvin
Hi Kelvin. You need to have a look at this. It might be exactly what you need – it’s another one of my programs. http://studentresponsenetwork.com/2009/11/29/playing-quizboxes-with-srn-clients-as-buzzers/ – Up to 5 clients, it’s completely free of charge. And those clients can be PCs, Macs, Linux, notebooks, netbooks, iPads or iPhones or iPod Touches!
This is FANTASTIC! This software is a minimum of $50 anywhere….and goes up to as much as in the hundreds of dollars! I donated $10 to this guy…if I could donate more I would! Thank you….it took me about an hour to come up with my own first quiz with questions and answers – with mp3 files and images – there’s also some learning time….20 minutes I’d say. Outstanding…very well done! One small minor issue…when I exit out of program, the gray background stays open and covers my desktop…when I go to the task manager there’s nothing to close..but this annoying gray screen won’t go away until I rebot. The only way to get it to go away, but comes back, is to hit the desktop bar in the lower right-hand cornder of the Windows (7) task bar. Can anyone help? Thanks, Carrie
Hi Carrie. Many thanks for the donation. Much appreciated. The gray background screen certainly should disappear. You’re the first to say it doesn’t. I’ll email you to see if we can sort this out.
After I save the new quiz, when I try to exit out, It will not fully exit out, even when using ctrl/alt/del function. How can I fix this? Thanks.
Exit out? Of the Question Editor or the Game? To exit the editor, click the red X. To exit the game, roll your mouse to the top to get the men up, then click Exit on the right.
Hi, Thank you very much for a great program. can i request a small change. When tick response for a team, can it automatically go back to the game board. It creates a little bit of problem with team scores. The program allows allocating poiints for a team for a question any number of times.
Truly a great program.
Ravi
Hi Ravi,
Glad you like it. When you click a tick, it does two things – adds the points to that team’s score, and displays the correct answer on the screen. If it went back to the board, you wouldn’t see the answer.
Secondly, the ticks and crosses stay on the screen because you can use them. Some people choose to play QuizBoxes more inclusively – ask the question, get all teams to write their answer and display and then mark each team. Hope that makes sense.
Also, if you click the tick twice by mistake, you can click the cross to remove the extra score you gave them. 🙂
Hi. I am a teacher of of English for military students in Romania. I have been using your software for years. I am now writing a thesis for my 1st Teaching Degree. Since I used the software in the study, I’d like to refer to it while explaining the activities and if I do that I need to cite the Website in the APA format.
My questions to you are.
1. Am I allowed to refer to your software in my thesis? I’d like to mention that it’s not for a commercial project, it’s just a teaching degree.
2. If yes, please tell me your complete name of the person or company who holds the software rights.
It would help if you answer by the 28th of August since I have to turn the thesis in by the 31st.
Thank you very much.
Ciprian Popescu
No problems Ciprian. I’ll email you.
Is there a Mac version? I love this game!
That sounds like it could be one of the FAQs. 😉 Glad you’re enjoying it Pam.
Hi, I’ve been using your great game software in my science and math classes but recently as I attempt to start I get a “corrupted DLL” window and nothing else. I uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times and still no fix.
Thank You
Hi Alain, Is this all on the same computer? Have you tried it on a different computer?
Stu,
I’ve used your program before and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I am having some trouble now, though. For some reason when I switch from computer monitor to LCD projector, either the question boxes are very small OR they are so large that some of the columns and rows are missing from the display.
I’ve tried running the trouble shooting program, but all that does is make the display absolutely huge with only a few boxes visible.
Any ideas??
Thanks,
Jonathan
Stu, I read an earlier post about the recommended screen resolution. After making the recommemded changes, the program works as successfully as always.
Thanks for designing this wonderful tool for teachers,
Jonathan
Glad you were able to work it out Jonathan.
i like the game/software
But my virusscanner give a warning.
website twice a home button?
Thanks for the game
Hi kleijn. Your Virus scanner is providing a FALSE positive. There is NO malware or adware in QuizBoxes at all, nor in any of the files in the installer. None of the reputable AV scanners report any threats whatsoever. Try scanning with https://www.virustotal.com which scans using dozens of different AV scanners and reports back the findings – upload the file and you’ll see it’s clean as far as the vast majority of scanners are concerned. The few that are reporting something are WRONG.
Stu,
I use to be a 6th grade teacher and used QuizBoxes on a regular basis in my classroom. My students and I loved it. Now I am working in the corporate realm and have been trying to use it.
I have run into a few errors recently that seem kind of odd. I was hoping you could help. Upon creating a new quiz and adding the pictures in the appropriate location as per your step-by-step guide I am receiving an error stating “The selected QuizBoxes Question File is not a QuizBoxes Question File”. The question file was created within the editor of QuizBoxes and create new quiz. I have troubleshooted in every way possible and am still struggling.
Any suggestions would be wonderful! We all love this program and can’t wait to use it in our future trainings.
Hi Tiffany. Please email me the quiz you created as an attachment to stu_hasic”at”yahoo.com – I’ll check it out for you.
I am using this on a windows 10 pc and I have no sound. I know there was a download a while back to fix this but I cant seem to find it now…can you please point me into the direction?
It’s on the Download page. The same issue affects Windows 8 and requires the quick add-on.