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 YEAR: 1979
 ITEM: Childrens' Comp./Game
 COMPANY: Coleco
 COUNTRY: USA
 IN OUR COLLECTION: Yes
RARITY: Not rare   Click here for further information on our rarity scale Information on the rarity of this item is unknown.

Quiz Wiz

 

In 1979, Coleco introduced to the world a small computerized toy called “The Quiz Wiz”, a rectangular device designed to test the limits of your knowledge. This small beige electronic “question and answer game” was equipped with a numerical keyboard, and green and red indicator lights for noting correct and incorrect answers The portable Quiz Wiz could also “lock” into various booklets colored red, green and blue, which posed questions on many different topics.

The Quiz Wiz came packaged with the booklet “1001 Questions,” but Coleco also released other booklets for subjects including Movies and TV, The World of Sports, People and Places, Trivia, Music and Books, The Ocean, Energy, The Book of Lists, Super Heroes, The Bible, Ripley’s Believe it or Not and, Monsters, Vampires, Witches and Ghosts.

There are two different models in the Quiz Wiz family, the original Quiz Wiz released in 1980 is a single-player, you against yourself to see how many questions you can answer. Quiz Wiz Challenger released in 1981 is a multi-player game that follows the format of the original game but with electronic light and sound scoring for up to four players. In the single player Quiz Wiz you choose a question from the quiz book. then enter an answer on the keypad from the multiple choices provided in the quiz book. Electronic lights and sounds tell you how you scored. If you're right, you get a green light and a pleasant "beep". If you're wrong, you get the red light and a stern "buzz".So basically the computer is comparing your answer to the one stored on the cartridge for that question number. One way to look at it is that it's really just a step above having the answers printed in the back of the quiz book and you checking each one to see if you're correct, but in 1980 it was a good use of some simple electronic logic and ROM to produce an enjoyable trivia game.

Quiz Wiz Challenger is the competitive version of Quiz Wiz, it allows you to compete against your family or friends. Up to four players can play one of two game modes. In the mode one all players answers the questions and score points for correct answers. Mode two is a race against time - only the player that's first to correctly answer scores the points.






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