Quiz Show User's Guide

Table of Contents

Before You Play the Game

Using the Game Board to Play the Game

Opening the game
Viewing category names for regular game rounds.
Viewing questions/answers to which players will respond
Playing a “Daily Double” square
Advancing to the next round
Playing the final round
Using the “refresh” button
Turning sound on and off
Returning to the main menu without exiting the game
Accessing help
Quitting the game

Game Rules

The role of the emcee
How to play the game

Creating a New Game Using the Board Builder

Before you begin to build a board using the Board Builder
Opening a new game file
Entering game content into the Board Builder
Setting “Daily Double” squares
Setting or removing a final round
Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another
Removing a link to another board to reduce a game to one round
Adding (linking to) a background image
Removing a link to a background image
Editing an existing game board
Returning to the Menu

Printing the questions/answers that are on the game board for a Board created using the Board Builder

Creating a New Game Using a .txt File

Adding game content by entering text into the template
Setting “Daily Double” Squares
Setting or removing a final round
Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another
Removing a link to another board to reduce a game to one round
Adding (linking to) a background image
Removing a link to a background image
Editing an existing game board

Printing the questions/answers that are on the game board for a Board created using a /.txt file

System Requirements

Copyright Information

Before You Play the Game

  1. Before you play the game, you must make sure that:
  2. The game is designed to be played in a face-to-face environment with an active emcee or game director (or a group of people who fill these roles). The emcee or game director is responsible for:
  3. The game board (with the contents of the squares) can be printed out but the correct player responses are not entered into the game system and cannot be printed out using the system.  The emcee (or a panel of judges) is responsible for knowing what is and is not an acceptable answer.
  1. There are three main parts to the game.
  1. When you create a game using the Board Builder, two different files will be generated. The filename.xml file is the game. The filename.html file is the printable version of the game. Both files will need to be in the same folder or directory as the quizshow.exe file in order to function properly.
  1. There are two different ways that you can create a game.
    Note that if you want to modify a board, you will have to edit it in the same mode in which you created it. You cannot edit a board created using the Board Builder as a .txt file or vice versa. 

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Using the Game Board to Play the Game

Note: The Game Board is designed so that you cannot click a button while there is action happening on the board. For example, if the game board is being populated, you cannot click the arrow to advance to the next round. You must wait until an action stops before clicking to make a new action happen. The only exception is the Audio button, which you can click at any time to turn the sound on or off.

Opening the game

  1. Find the quizshow.exe icon on your computer.
  2. Double click the quizshow.exe icon.
  3. Click the Click to enter graphic.
  4. Click the Play Game button.
  5. Find the name of the file you have set up to use as Round 1.
  6. Click the name of the file you have set up to use as Round 1 and then click the OK button.
    Note: Double clicking the name of the file will not cause the file to open. You must select the name of the file and click the OK button to open the file as a game.
  7. The game board will appear with category names across the top and the game squares will gradually become visible on the board with point values on them.

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Viewing category names for regular game rounds

The category names will appear in squares in the top row of the game board.

  1. Click a square in the “category name” row to make the square expand to fill the entire game board. If you click the expanded square, it will go back to its normal size and position in the “category name” row.  This function enables the emcee or game director to isolate and enlarge the category names to introduce them at the beginning of each round if desired.

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Viewing questions/answers to which players will respond

The game starts out with a point value on each square on the game board. 

  1. Click the square selected by a player or team to display the question/answer to which the player or team should respond. The square will expand to fill the entire game board.
  2. Click the expanded square when a player or team has given a correct response or time for a response has run out. The square will disappear, leaving a gap in the game board where it was once positioned.

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  Playing a “Daily Double” square

A “Daily Double” square looks like any other square. There can be any number of “Daily Double” squares on the game board (note: “Daily Doubles” are set when the game board is set up. See the Creating a New Board Using the Board Builder and the Creating a New Board Using a .txt File sections of this document for more information about how set questions as “Daily Doubles”).

  1. When the emcee or game director clicks the square of a “Daily Double,” the words “Daily Double” will appear instead of a question/answer.
  2. Once the player or team has decided how many points to wager on their response, click the “Daily Double” square. This will reveal the question/answer to which the player or team should respond.
  3. Click the expanded square when a player or team has given a correct response or time for a response has run out. The square will disappear, leaving a gap in the game board where it was once positioned.

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Advancing to the next round

Click the arrow in the lower right corner of the screen, to the right of the round number, to advance to the next round.
Note 1: The arrow is visible even if the game is not set up to last for more than one round. If you click the arrow and the game does not advance to the next round, it probably means that there is no second round set for that game.
Note 2: If you are in a game that is set up to have two rounds before the final (single question) round, and you decide that you do not want to play the second round before going on to the final round, just click the arrow to advance to the second round. Then click the arrow again to advance to the final round (note that you cannot click the arrow again until the game board has been fully populated and the action has stopped).

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Playing the final round

  1. Click the top (Category) square on the final round board to reveal the category for the final round.
  2. Once all players or teams have decided how many points to wager on their responses, click the bottom (Answer) square to reveal the question.

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Using the “refresh” button

Click the Refresh button in the lower left corner of the screen to restart a round from the beginning.
Note: This option is not available in the final round.

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Turning sound on and off

Click the Audio button in the lower left corner of the screen to turn the sound for the game on or off.
Note: If the sound is turned off, you will see a red circle with a slash through it over the Audio button. The default value for sound is on when you open the game; you will need to click the Audio button if you want to turn it off.

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Returning to the main menu without exiting the game

Click the Menu button to return to the main board if you want to quit the game without exiting the system (i.e., if you would like to play a new game, create a new game, or edit an existing game).

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Accessing help

Click the Help button to view this User’s Guide to receive information at any point in the game.

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Quitting the game

    1. Click the Quit button to end the game and exit the system.
    2. Click the OK button when it asks, “Are you sure you want to exit?”

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    Game Rules

    The role of the emcee

    As noted in the Before You Play the Game section of this document, the emcee or game director is responsible for:

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    How to play the game

    1. The player or team with the first turn selects a category and a point value.
    2. The emcee clicks the square.
    3. “Daily Double” rules
      Note: There is no limit to the number of “Daily Double” squares on the board – the position and number of “Daily Doubles” is determined by the person building the board, as described in the Creating a New Board Using the Board Builder and the Creating a New Board Using a .txt File sections of this document.
      If the square is a “Daily Double,” the player or players who selected it must make a wager before the question or answer is revealed.
      The following rules generally govern the making of wagers for a “Daily Double.”
      • When a “Daily Double” is revealed, the player or team must choose how many points to wager on an answer.
      • The maximum amount of points on the board for that round (500 for round 1 and 1000 for round 2) is the maximum amount of points that can be wagered.
      • The maximum amount can be wagered even if the player or team has zero points or fewer.
      • The minimum wager is 5 points.
      • The player or team can make it a 'True Daily Double', meaning that they are wagering all the points that they have up to that point.
      1. The player or team makes a wager.
      2. Once the wager has been made, the emcee reveals the question or answer and reads it. 
      3. The player or team provides a response
      4. Proceed to Step 5.
        Note: Only the player or team that selected the “Daily Double” can respond to it. No others can buzz in or answer if that team responds incorrectly.
    4. After the question has been read, the first team to “buzz in” responds.
    5. Points are added or taken away as dictated by the teams’ responses
    6. The player or team that provided the correct response selects a category and point value.
    7. Repeat Steps 2 to 6 until the time allotted for the round is up or the board is empty.
    8. Round 2 begins with the player or game with the lowest point total at the end of round 1 picking a category and a point value (if the next round is the final round, skip to Step 10)
    9. Repeat Steps 2 to 7 for round 2.
    10. After all standard rounds have been played, begin the final round by having the emcee or game director click the square with the category name.
      Note: Only participants with positive point values can play in the final round.
    11. Once the players or teams see the category, they must decide how much of their point total to wager on their responses.
      Note: Players or teams can wager from 0 points to their entire point total in this round.
    12. After the wagers have been submitted the emcee or game director reveals the final question and the players write down their answers on a piece of paper.
      Note: Participants have 30 seconds to come up with an answer in the final round.
    13. At the end of the allotted time, players or teams reveal their answers.
      Note: The player or team with the lowest point totals reveals the answer first and the player or team with the highest point totals reveals the answer last.
    14. The amount of points wagered is added to a player or team’s score if the final round question is answered correctly. It is subtracted from the player or team’s score if the final round question is answered incorrectly.
    15. The winner is the player or group that has the most points at the end of the final round.

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    Creating a New Game Using the Board Builder

    Before you begin to build a board using the Board Builder

    1. Understand how individual rounds are combined to create games.
      Each file you create using the Board Builder is the board for a single round. This game has been designed so that you can have games with one or two rounds, with or without a final round.  In order to play a game of two rounds, you must use the Board Builder to create the link between the two rounds, as described in the Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another section of this document. If you decide to use that round in a different game or a different order in the future, you can use the Board Builder to remove the links.
    2. Decide whether to play using questions or answers.
      You can set up the game either to display answers to which players must give questions (the traditional way) or to display questions to which players must give questions.

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    Opening a new game file

    1. Find the quizshow.exe icon on your computer.
    2. Double click the quizshow.exe icon.
    3. Click the Click to enter graphic.
    4. Click the New Board button.

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    Entering game content into the Board Builder

    1. Open the quizshow.exe file.
    2. Click the New Board or Edit Board button.
    3. Enter the category names into the top row of squares.
      Note 1: You can copy and paste text from other documents into the Board Builder squares, but it must be unformatted. If you have content in a formatted (e.g., Word) document and you want to paste it into the board builder, you will need to save the document as a plain text document before copying and pasting it into the Board Builder. To do so, go to the File menu in the source document (e.g., the Word document), select Save As…, and select Plain Text (*.txt) in the Save as type box. If you get a File Conversion warning window, select the Windows (default) setting in the Text encoding area. Once you have saved the document as a plain text document, close it and then open the plain text version. Select the desired content in the plain text document, copy it, and paste it into the Board Builder square.
      Note 2 : The tab order for the Board Builder is designed to enable you to enter a category name and then all of the entries for that category before moving to the next category name. If you enter a category name and press the Tab key, you will be moved to the first game content square in that category. If you want to enter another category name instead, just move your cursor manually to the category name and click the square.
      Note 3
      : The maximum number of characters for a category name is 24.
    4. Enter the game content (questions or answers, depending on which way you want to play the game) into the squares in the column of the appropriate category.
      Note: The maximum number of characters for game content is 120.
    5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    6. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit it.
    7. When you have finished your work in the Board Builder, click the Menu button at the bottom of the page. 
    8. Click the Quit button to exit the game. When you see the Are you sure you want to Exit? box, click the OK button.

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    Setting “Daily Double” squares

    1. Open the game board file and enter game content as described in the Entering game content into the Board Builder section of this document.
    2. Click the checkbox next to the words Daily Double below the square you want to set as a “Daily Double.”
    3. To remove the “Daily Double” designation from a square, find the proper square and click the check that is in the Daily Double checkbox below it. The check will disappear.
    4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    5. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit it.

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    Setting or removing a final round

    The final round consists of a single question or answer. It comes from the board that is set as the last standard round of a game.

    1. Open the file that you want to use as the last standard round of your game.
    2. Click the Final button at the bottom of the page.
    3. To set the category for the final round, enter text in the text box labeled Category (it should be the top box).
      Note: The maximum number of characters for a category name is 24
    4. Enter the game content (questions or answers, depending on which way you want to play the game) into the text box labeled Answer (it should be the bottom box).
      Note 1: Do not use the Tab key on your keyboard to advance from the Category box to the Answer box or vice versa. You must click the text box in order to enter content into it.
      Note 2: The maximum number of characters for final round content is 120.
    5. Click the OK button to return to the Board Builder.
    6. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    7. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit the game board.
    8. If you want to remove or change the final round question, repeat Steps 1 through 7.

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    Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another

    In order to create a game that has more than one round, you will need to create two different boards (one for each round) and then use the Round 2 button to link the first round to the second round. If you want to use a single-question final round too, you will need to add the final round question to the second round that you create. Details about how to create a final round can be found in the Setting or removing a final round section of this document.
    If you do not link to a second round, your game will only have one round. If you link to a game as a second round that is already linked to another game as its second round, you will have a three round game if you do not remove that link . If this happens, you can always skip to the end by clicking the forward arrow by the round number.
    Note: It is always a good idea to review your game structure by looking at each board and make sure that the boards are linked correctly before starting to play a game.

    1. Make sure that there is an existing file that you want to link to in order to use it as a second round and that the file is in the same folder or directory as the quizshow.exe file.
    2. Open the file that you want to use as the first round of your game.
    3. Click the Round 2 button at the bottom of the page.
    4. Click (once) the name of the file you want to use as your second round and click the OK button.
    5. You should see the name of the image and a Remove button on the Board Builder screen.
    6. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    7. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit the game board.
    8. If you want to link to a different file for use as a second round, repeat Steps 1 through 7.
      Note: You do not need to remove an existing link to round 2 before replacing it with another image. If you do want to remove a link to round 2, go to the Removing a link to another board to reduce a game to one round section of this document.

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    Removing a link to another board to reduce a game to one round

    1. Open the file that you want to use as the first round of your game.
    2. Find the area on the Board Builder just below the game first round squares where the name of the linked file is listed.
    3. Click the Remove button next to the linked file name.
    4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    5. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit the game.

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    Adding (linking to) a background image

    You may want to have a picture in the background that will be revealed as the game progresses.  You can have people guess what this picture is to get extra points if you would like. If you do not add a picture, the background will just be blank. Keep in mind the following information about background pictures.

    1. Open the game board file.
    2. Click the Background Img button at the bottom right side of the page.
    3. Click the name of the image you want to use and then click the OK button.
      Note: Double clicking the name of the image will not cause it to be added. You must select the name of the image and click the OK button to link to it.
    4. You should see the name of the image and a Remove button on the Board Builder screen.
    5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    6. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit the game board.
    7. If you want to change the image you added, repeat Steps 2 through 6.
      Note: You do not need to remove a background image before replacing it with another image. If you do want to remove a background image, go to the Removing a link to a background image section of this document.

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    Removing a link to a background image

    1. Open the game board file.
    2. Find the area on the Board Builder just below the game squares where the name of the Background Image file is listed.
    3. Click the Remove button next to the image name.
    4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
    5. You should see a box that says Save successful! if the game was saved. Click the OK button on that box to return to the game board to resume entering content or to exit it.

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    Editing an existing game board

    You may want to modify a board slightly to use in a different game. To do so, complete the following steps:

    1. Find the quizshow.exe icon on your computer.
    2. Double click the quizshow.exe icon.
    3. Click the Click to enter graphic.
    4. Click the Edit Board button.
    5. Click the name of the file you want to modify and then click the OK button.
      Note: Double clicking the name of the file will not cause the file to open. You must select the name of the file and click the OK button to open the file as a game.
    6. Make any modifications that you want.
      Note: Don’t forget to review the background image, linked file, and final round question if relevant. If necessary, modify them using instructions found in the relevant sections of this document.
    7. You can either save the board with the same name or use the Save As option to create a new board while keeping the original version.
    8. You should be returned to the Board Builder page and you should be able to see the name of the file in the File Name area just below the game board on the Board Builder screen.

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    Returning to the Menu

    The Menu is the menu with buttons for the options Play Game, New Board, Edit Board, Print, Help, and Quit. Both the game board and the Board Builder have buttons you can click to take you to the Menu. The file selection windows and the final round window do not have links to the Menu. To get from one of those windows to the Menu, click the OK or Cancel button to return to the Board Builder and then click the Menu button there.

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    Printing the questions/answers that are on the game board for a Board created using the Board Builder

    1. Find the quizshow.exe icon on your computer.
    2. Double click the quizshow.exe icon.
    3. Click the Click to enter graphic.
    4. Click the Print button.
    5. Click the name of the file you want to print and then click the OK button.
      Note: Double clicking the name of the file will not cause the file to open. You must select the name of the file and click the OK button to open the file as a game.
    6. The contents of the game board will be displayed in a table in a print preview window.
    7. Click the Print… button in the top left corner of the print preview window.
    8. Use the Print controls to set options as you would with any other document and click the Print button when you are ready to print the document. The Print window will close and you will return to the Menu.

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    Creating a New Game Using a .txt File

    As with the Board Builder, each file you create using the Board Builder is the board for a single round. This game has been designed so that you can have games with one or two rounds, with or without a final round. In order to play a game of two rounds, you must use the proper line in the .txt file to create the link between the two rounds, as described in the Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another section of this document. If you decide to use that round in a different game or a different order in the future, you can use the Board Builder to remove the links. It is possible to create a game without the Board Builder by creating a text file (the filename should end in the extension .txt) using a basic text editor like Notepad. When you create the .txt file, it is crucial for you to have the correct number of lines and have them in the correct order to ensure that the game elements are in the correct place on the game board.Your file will need to be plain text, created with a basic text editor like Notepad. It will need to include 40 lines of text:

    A template (gametemplate.pdf) has been included to help you make sure that every element is included in the right place and to help you troubleshoot if the board you create using a .txt file has a problem. The file must be in the same folder or directory as the quizshow.exe file to enable you to use it to populate a game.

    Adding game content by entering text into the template

    1. Open Notepad or another basic text editor and open a new file.
    2. Open the gametemplate.pdf document.
    3. Select all text in the gameplate.pdf document using the Select tool in your PDF reader and copy it using CTRL+C or Edit -> Copy.
    4. Paste the text into the Notepad document.
    5. Make sure to use the instructions in the rest of this section of the document to set daily doubles, set or remove a final round, create a two-round game, and add a background image.  Note that the template has content for all of these elements that must be removed if you do not want to include them and must be changed if you do want to use them.

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    Setting “Daily Double” Squares

    1. Find the question/answer that should be a daily double.
    2. Add a space after the question and type DD in capital letters (lower case will not work).
    3. Delete any “DD” entries that were copied from the template.
    4. Save the document.

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    Setting or removing a final round

    Note that a final round question is only needed if this round will be the final round of the game.

    1. Use the instructions in the Adding game content by entering text into the template section of this document to create a game board.
    2. If you want to use a final round question, delete the words “Final Round Category” on the template and type in your category name in their place. Then delete the words “Final Round Answer” and type in your question or answer in their place.
      Make sure that you have not added any extra lines when adding these questions.
    3. If you do not want to use a final round, delete the words “Final Round Category” and “Final Round Answer” from the template, but make sure to keep those two (2) empty lines in the document. If those empty lines are not in the document, it will not populate the board properly.
    4. Save the document.

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    Creating a two-round game by linking one board to another

    1. Find the name of the file that you want to use as round 2 (note that it must be in the same folder or directory as the game.exe file and the round 1 file).
    2. Use the instructions in the Adding game content by entering text into the template section of this document to create the text for a game.
    3. Delete the words “Round 2 linked file” from the template.
    4. If you want to link to a round 2, type in the name of the file that you want to use as round 2. It can be either a .txt file created using the procedures outlined here or a .xml file created using the Board Builder.
    5. Save the document.

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    Removing a link to another board to reduce a game to one round

    1. Open the file that you want to use as a single round.
    2. Find the name of the linked file and delete it, making sure to keep those empty lines in the document.
    3. Make sure that you have not added any extra spaces or empty lines.
    4. Save the document.

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    Adding (linking to) a background image

    You may want to have a picture in the background that will be revealed as the game progresses.  You can have people guess what this picture is to get extra points if you would like. If you do not add a picture, the background will just be blank. Keep in mind the following information about background pictures.

    1. Use the instructions in the Adding game content by entering text into the template section of this document to create a game board.
    2. Find the name of the file that you want to use as a background image (note that it must be in the same folder or directory as the game.exe file and the game content file).
    3. Delete the words “BackgroundImage.jpg” from the template.
    4. Type in the name of the file that you want to use as a background image. The filename must end in .jpg.
    5. Save the document.

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    Removing a link to a background image

    1. Open the file that has the background image that you want to remove.
    2. Delete the name of the background image in your .txt document.
    3. Make sure that you have not added any extra spaces or empty lines.
    4. Save the document.

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    Editing an existing game board

    1. Open an existing .txt file.
    2. Edit the fields that you want to edit. Make sure that all lines for categories and answers have the desired content in them and that you have either the desired content or empty lines in the appropriate lines for the final round, the linked file for round 2, and the background image.
    3. You can either save the board with the same name or use the Save As option to create a new board while keeping the original version.
    4. To keep a single version of the board with the same name, Select the File menu in the list of menus at the top of the page (it should be at the far left) and select the Save option.
    5. To keep the old version of the board while creating a new, similar board:

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    Printing the questions/answers that are on the game board for a Board created using a .txt file

    1. Open the .txt file.
    2. Select the File menu in the list of menus at the top of the page (it should be at the far left).
    3. Select Print from the list of options.

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    System Requirements

    In order to use the Quiz Show game, you will need the following:

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    Copyright Information

    This game is part of the public domain and can be used freely.

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