The Judge

The Judge is an electronic lockout system that was manufactured and sold by Electramatic, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN. While its exact dates of manufacture are unknown, it is possible that they were available in the 1960s.

The Judge is a self-contained system, with all of the parts fitting into a briefcase, with the lights on the outside of the case and the bare electronics in the inside. Players used pedal-like devices for signaling. It required virtually no setup time, and break down was a matter of fitting all of the pedals back into the briefcase.

The Judge had a spurious reputation of never breaking. It is very fast to set up. Players use unusual pedal-like devices for signalling. It is impossible to have a conversation about or around a Judge without someone making a joke about difficulty transporting it through airports, but no reports of serious problems doing so have been seriously communicated in the greater quizbowl community.