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.
Today, we have iPhones that are smaller than Quiz Wiz and can do a whole lot more than “buzz” irritatingly at incorrect answers. In 1979, however, this was cutting-edge, miniaturized technology.
Here is an original TV commercials for the Quiz Wiz.
In the 1990s, Tiger Electronics released an updated version of this toy.
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