Needs some work
Mon Oct 09 2017 Island 43It is a fun app, you can choose your difficulty levels. The part that gets tiresome is when playing the computer in a "hard" setting, they constantly roll doubles beyond anything you would see in normal dice rolling.
Also, when your in the bearing off mode and there is no danger of hitting or being hit by another pip, this game has no automatic roll-off, in other words, you must tirelessly keep rolling and removing your men and waiting for the computer to so the same when at that point it should just be automated bearing off. I'm sure there are some apps that have that, I just don't know which ones do.
In the meantime, this is a fun free app that will keep unnecessary occupied for hours.
A Couple Fixes Needed
Tue Jan 30 2024 Gane WizardThis game has a nice interface and is easy to work. There are two things that need to be added/changed. First, and this one is minor, is there needs to be a conceded button. As it is, you have to go back to the menu or play out the game. Second, and this one cost it two stars, is the dice rolls. They are nowhere near random. Playing against the computer, the computer gets many more doubles and in numbers that best benefit it. When you get doubles they tend to be less useful, like many times you get doubles you cannot use when you are on the bar trying to get back in. Also, when a marker is on the bar, the computer gets in much quicker than you do. Finally, the number of times that the computer rolls just what is needed is astronomically off the charts statistically. Fix these two issues and this is a world class app. Until then, it’s a dog.
Lousy but entertaining
Sat Dec 19 2020 AerospaceXpertUpdate on Dec. 19, 2020: They change the look of the app. It is awful. All the older comments stand. Old comments: I use this app in advanced mode and still manage to beat the brown out of it. Once in a while, in order to beat me, poor app comes up with dice combinations that are against reason and statistics. Yes, it is possible one throws 4-5 doubles in a row, but NOT every other game and - mainly! - NOT so precisely what's needed to squeeze a victory. Though sometimes it does silly things like kicking you out while leaving 3-4 singles in its own field, for you to kick out at the next dice roll. Overall a poor game algorithm, unable to react at blocking tactics for example, with a strong optimization for bringing the stones home as soon as possible and helping that with "the right" dice numbers, easily beatable if it's not cheating. Still, entertaining enough and probably one of the decent games of its kind out there. But cheating, which some people may be annoyed with.
I play daily
Wed Jun 21 2017 Lafinboy57I really enjoy the game. Play daily. Dice rolls seem to be fairly random to me. One thing that the computer can't figure out is that it will often except a double when it is pretty clearly behind in bearing off. I play five game matches against the computer and some of the games go down to the wire. I will sometimes make a few illogical moves so that I can work on my back game skills.
Too many double rolls for computer
Tue Nov 16 2021 Dave2109TAs others have mentioned, the double rolls that the computer gets is statistically very unlikely. It is somewhat frustrating to play a well thought out match only to lose it due to the computer rolling doubles 4 times out of 6 rolls. I also question the randomness of some of the other rolls when it’s tight or the computer is behind… if you roll in a way that forces you to open up a piece, the computer seems to almost always magically roll that number.
However, it is just a game and you know when you’ve won on your strategy and merits and the loss is bogus…. So overall it’s still fun to play.
Computer rolls are a little unbelievable
Sat Nov 28 2020 Joe1stbassIf you want to learn how to count moves and take chances on open pieces you are not going to get a lot of practice. However, if you want to learn how to play as conservatively as possible then play this apps computer. If you leave one of your pieces vulnerable the computer WILL roll to knock you out. When you play an actual person you see that on one is that lucky. I will say you strengthen your skills because zero chances in this game are tolerated against the computer. Hence it teaches you to never take chances which is one way to play.
Good game
Fri May 04 2018 13carmineI've tried 4 backgammon v. AI games and this is the best so far. Some say that the hard setting wins by rolling doubles. I do find that to be true-when it d videos to win it has rolled the perfect shot or even up to 5 doubles in a row. I get almost as many doubles as it does at some opportune moments. I do wish hard were a bit harder but perhaps I'm a better player than I think. It does beat me sometimes though.
Especially if I'm too wild in my moves but that's to be expected. I do enjoy whiling away my time on it.
It doesn’t seem to understand the doubling cube, and will accept a double that it should not. Good game, worth the price.
Good overall.
Sat Aug 01 2020 Mary Lu huI like this game overall but you reach a point where you realize the dice rolls seem to your advantage when playing at a lower level and the dice rolls seem rigged against you at the hard level. I’d rather it was more of a strategic challenge than a challenge based on chance.
Also it would be nice if you could forfeit if you clearly are going to lose to speed the match up. The computer too could offer to forfeit when losing is obviously inevitable. The doubling cube helps to a degree but there is still a lot of monotonous bearing off.
Mysterious doubles show up out of nowhere
Mon Oct 01 2018 Tenay10iI like so many aspects of this game except when it’s time to bear off. That’s when the game starts getting back to back doubles (or, sometimes gives them to me.) This is a highly unlikely element in a real game. Honestly, it makes me angry that I can be 40 pips ahead and then the game gives itself double 6s, then double 4s, then double 5s and beat me by a lot. It’s also not a satisfying win the other way around, either. I’d like to win according to the strategy of how I have placed my pieces throughout the game, not on waiting for the luck of the roll of the dice. I’m looking for a different game, now.
Lying, cheating computer. Gives doubles to itself 4x more!
Tue Jun 13 2017 Robot VictimI thought I had finally found a game that was competitive. The games were closer than any backgammon computer game I had ever played. I was winning about 40% to 50% of the time which made the game more interesting. Then I began to count how many times the computer gave itself doubles compared to me. I observed that the computer gave itself doubles three to four times more than it gave me. That's why I call it, lying cheating computer. Developers: Why not improve the logic inside the game instead of going the easy route and making the algorithm give more of the doubles to the computer?
