ScoreBlocker 2000

🏈 Overview

ScoreBlocker 2000 is advanced technology for sports fans who want to watch games without having scores from other games ruined by on-screen graphics. This sophisticated, futuristic tool is also known as a "big black rectangle".

🏟️ Features

• Always on top
• Frameless design (no distracting graphics, just a big black rectangle)
• Drag to move/resize
• Multi-monitor support with preset configurations
• Launch multiple instances simultaneously
• Auto-position over an NFL game's other-games score ticker with a double-click (Windows only — see "Auto-positioning for NFL games" below)

🏃‍♂️ Mobility & Control

• Left-click and drag: Move ScoreBlocker 2000 anywhere on your screen
• Drag from edges or corners: Resize the window
• Double-click: Auto-position over the other-games score ticker for the NFL game playing in any open Chrome / Firefox / Edge window (Windows only — see "Auto-positioning for NFL games" below).
• c key (with the window focused): snap to the most-recent known CBS ticker position on whichever monitor the window is currently on. Handy when the new season's data hasn't been added yet but you know the game's on CBS.
• f key: same, for FOX.
• Middle-click: Show current coordinates and copy to clipboard (helpful for creating config files!)
• Right-click: Exit the application

🤖 Auto-positioning for NFL games

Double-clicking ScoreBlocker 2000 will look at any open Chrome, Firefox, or Edge windows for an NFL game. If it finds one, it figures out which broadcast network the game is on, looks up where that network shows its other-games score ticker in the broadcast frame, and snaps the window over the ticker on whichever monitor the game is on.

The window border briefly flashes:

• green if it found a game and snapped (or if the network is one that's known not to show an other-games ticker, in which case it leaves the window where it is)
• yellow if it found an NFL game but doesn't have ticker data for that (network, season) yet — typical for new seasons before the data is refreshed. In that case it still snaps the window to a default position (the 2025 CBS ticker position).
• red if it can't find an NFL game in any open browser window

Press c with the window focused to snap to the most-recent known CBS ticker position on the monitor the window is on; f does the same for FOX.

There's no AI here — auto-positioning is just a lookup against a database of known ticker positions that was built once for the 2009-2025 seasons and gets updated annually. The (game URL → broadcast network) data comes from the 506sports wiki archive; the per-network ticker positions were measured by hand-annotating broadcast frames captured from NFL+ Full Game Replays. See github.com/agentmorris/auto-scoreblock for how the database is built and how to update it for a new season.

🏁 Getting Started

Installation

• Ensure you have Python installed on your Windows system
• Clone or download this repository

Running Single Instance

Option 1: Double-click the VBS script (recommended)

run_score_blocker.vbs

Option 2: Command line

python score_blocker.py

Option 3: Batch file

run_score_blocker.bat

Multi-Monitor Setup (Recommended for Multiple Windows)

For launching two ScoreBlocker windows simultaneously on specific monitors:

Step 1: Create your configuration files

Create JSON configuration files with your desired window positions. Sample configs are provided in configs/monitor1.json and configs/monitor2.json:

{
  "primary": {
    "x": 100,
    "y": 50,
    "width": 300,
    "height": 150
  },
  "secondary": {
    "x": 1500,
    "y": 50,
    "width": 300,
    "height": 150
  },
  "background_color": "#000000",
  "border_color": "#D3D3D3"
}

You can store config files anywhere (even outside the repo) and reference them by path.

Step 2: Launch your monitor setup

Use the provided VBS launcher scripts:

• scoreblocker_launch_monitor1.vbs - Launches two windows using configs/monitor1.json
• scoreblocker_launch_monitor2.vbs - Launches two windows using configs/monitor2.json
• scoreblocker_close_all.vbs - Closes all running ScoreBlocker instances

Or use the command line:

python launch_monitor.py configs/monitor1.json

Step 3: Create desktop shortcuts

Create desktop shortcuts to launch_monitor1.vbs and launch_monitor2.vbs for quick access to your different monitor setups.

Configuration File Format

Configuration files specify two window positions (primary and secondary) plus color settings:

{
  "primary": {
    "x": 100,
    "y": 50,
    "width": 300,
    "height": 150
  },
  "secondary": {
    "x": 1500,
    "y": 50,
    "width": 300,
    "height": 150
  },
  "background_color": "#000000",
  "border_color": "#D3D3D3"
}

Customize background_color and border_color using hex color codes (e.g., "#FF0000" for red).

🏅 Technical Requirements

• Operating System: Windows
• Python: Any version with tkinter (usually included)

⚙️ Advanced Usage

Command Line Options

python score_blocker.py --help

Available options:

• --config_file PATH - Use a specific configuration file
• --position primary|secondary - Launch at specific position from config
• --close_all - Close all running ScoreBlocker instances

Custom Launchers

You can create your own launcher scripts to set up multiple windows with different configurations. See launch_monitor.py for an example.

🤝 Contributing

Found a bug? Want to add a feature? We welcome contributions! This is open-source software under the MIT license.

📜 License

MIT