BINGO software

[daleadmin]

I an working on some BINGO software. When a game is played it will pick the numbers and display them on the screen using REALLY HUGE characters that can be seen from quite a distance. In addition there is a grid of all possible BINGO numbers on the screen and as the numbers are picked they will change color in the grid. This will allow monitors to check winning cards against the grid to make sure the numbers were actually picked.

The program will print BINGO cards. The cards can be generated randomly or the program can crerate and store a series of randomly created cards. For example you will be able to generate a set of 3000 random cards, all of which will be different. (You may set the number of cards in a series when the series is created.) The cards in the series will be numbered and you can pick out a card from the series either at random or you can pick a card by number.

If you print out random cards (not from a series) the program will insure that on any one day that no two cards are exactly identical.

The cards will print a header of whatever you want and the date. It will also print a serial number which will be different for each day.

OK, now what? I have never been to a BINGO hall and have no idea how it works. Do you pay for one card and then use it for many games? Is one card good for only one game? If it is "one card, one game" can you pay extra to use the same card for several games? How do you tell which cards can be used for which games? It would seem to me that it would be more efficent to use the same card for several games so that you do not have to print out so many. What do you want printed on each card to indicate which games it is good for?

What else should be printed on the cards? Cards will be printed at one card per sheet of paper.

Would it be a good idea to network this so that one computer picks the numbers and the other computers are displays only. This will allow many computers to be placed around a huge room, or many rooms, and everyone could keep track of numbers picked. If the space bar is pressed on any computer the "picking" computer will freeze to check for a BINGO.

Of course the computer picking the numbers would not be the same one printing cards. Should the printing computers be networked also so that all the computers can make sure that no identical cards are printed?

And last, does anyone care about this or is this a huge waste of my time?

[lemon535]

Personally i think its a waste of time but there may be heaps fo people out there that wants it.....

[IAN]

interesting, but not as aplicable to everyone as the pos software would be,

usually you can buy books and each page is coloured differently per game, say forinstance there be a game for £0.20 per game, the book holds 5 games thats £1.00 per book and usulally 6 books can be bought for / per one person

so they would have to pay minimum of £1 per book and up to £6 for the full ammount

you do get the "flyers" which is a single game and could also be charged at £0.20 per game and full page being max of 6 flyers per page so that be up to £1.20 (only for flyer game not the main games)

anyway they dont usually use computers to draw, they use standalone equiptment. they press a button to draw a random number. also the number generator shows which numbers been taken, so when someone shouts out "bingo, house, E-yar etc" they pause the game and go to the payee counter and they call the numbers on the winning board/ticket and the number caller confirms each number.

they call the numbers to be checked different but the fastest i seen are shortened, eg 1, 5, 10, 22-3-6-7, 45-6, as to show that 22 23 26 and 27, 45 and 46 are marked on the ticket, its realy quick to the checking of the tickets.

i hope that helps

[IAN]

as to say, if you wanted to continue this you would have to print realy a minimum of 3 full tickets and each numbered game so no one gets confused, also it be quite good on a recipt printer but it have to be a smaller font and thicker paper.

another thing to think about some people may think its not "random" as computers can be fixed so many could think.

the best bet is not to print the tickets but use the pc to generate numbers.

** also if you want people to throw away the ticket/book you can offer a £5 lucky draw/dip, people throw the tickets in the bin then when everyone settles get someone to stir the bin and pick one out. this means cleaning would be minimal and everyone goes home happy

[grahamsw]

I think it might be better if the card printer was a seperate TOTALLY SEPERATE programf

Just my input