Backgammon ∙

Name: Backgammon ∙
Rating: 4.50997 (49894 reviews)

Games

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Backgammon ∙

Games

4.5

49.9K ratings

Age Rating

Seller

Optime Software LLC

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User Reviews for Backgammon ∙

More of the same

Nice interface. But at the top level Ai's cheating, as others have noted, is blatant, relentless, and infuriating... the worst I've seen. For a while, I kept giving it a chance, but eventually abandoned it. A great backgammon would do away with the bogus "levels" configuration, which of course necessitates dice-roll manipulation and/or AI making deliberate mistakes. One "level" only, with Ai playing the game as best it can, and random number generation at all times, would be a great electronic iteration of this ancient game. I suspect it would be a popular download. Beginners would learn faster, and experienced players be more engaged, playing against a tough - but honest - opponent. Of course this assumes developer actually knows the game. I don't understand why developers are ignoring the number one complaint of backgammon users in nearly every version of this game available. Herd mentality it seems, developers all pursuing a "me too" feature that obviously ends up alienating users. Can we at least have one version of backgammon, for the rest of us, that keeps it real?

agedefying, Nov 18, 2015

Handball champ

I am happy that you turned off the highlight, I found it very very distracting , Also I don’t like the new colors, I turned off this app recently as well as checkers due to the new changes. . Backgammon had something new added it became more difficult to move the pieces without having a light on which box to move. I became frustrated!!!! I then shut off this app and then added it in hope the changes were taken off. The new changes became very distracting. I again am very happy the bright highlights were removed. They hurt my eyes. Since your company put the highlights on checkers as well I still see the highlights on them as well . I turned that app off also , and then added that back because I like your version of checkers. I really dislike the highlights , it makes the checkers blurry . Thank You 🙏🏼 David Thaler

BroOklyn Kid., Dec 29, 2020

Same nice interface more "lucky" rolls

Statistics show me through study of 20 consecutive games that the game consistently rolls doubles for itself at least 3:1 on average against opponent in final 20 rolls although double rate for overall game is statistically relatively even. Also average dice roll total in final 20 rolls is at least 20% higher on average for the game than opponent. Clearly the game needs to Cheat because no AI is going to perform that well compared to a skilled player so they have to tip the odds. Lucky rolls are part of the game after all and they admit that they increase double rolls once clearing off starts to "increase excitement" so consider this a way to pass the time not a way to improve your game. Interesting note the new version actually seems to make more mistakes than the old version leaving up to 4 uncovered men on a regular basis when Better options are available which in itself is frustrating but as I said it's just a game and it's free...

carlk4sail, Jan 26, 2016

Nice But Not the Real Thing

The UI is acceptable, but be aware that the app must resort to cheating for its “hard” level. In this the Age of AI, you would think someone would be able to better simulate proper intelligence for this game. But even accepting that constraint, it would be trivial for the developers to improve the approach to “bearing off”. For example, it does not prioritize getting its pieces out of the opponent’s home zone in order to avoid a backgammon, which causes it to lose by a factor of three unnecessarily. I am most interested in improving my own skills against a human player, so having the game simulate an idiot at the end of a game doesn’t help me. Sure, I can win more matches, but that’s not my aim. I simply want to a chance to improve my game, and with this behavior it becomes difficult to gauge my success. Again, this particular complaint is something a developer could fix in a day or two, and it’s disappointing that Optime does not want to invest in the app.

fmouse3333, Oct 26, 2018

Like all others, made so the computer wins

Where to begin? The iPad’s rolls almost never force it to leave a single pip on a point, while the player's rolls almost always do. When the player takes one of the iPad’s pips the iPad almost always rolls the exact number(s) necessary to re-enter the game, even if the player’s home row is heavily occupied by 2 or more pips per point. The player will roll, and roll, and roll while trying to re-enter the game, almost always rolling the exact number(s) necessary to land on the iPad’s points that are occupied by 2 or more pips, even when the iPad’s home row is sparsely occupied. The iPad tends to roll many more doubles than the player and its rolls, both doubles and non-doubles, tend to be more useful (example: high numbers that get its pips to the home row more quickly.) Player rolls they tend to be less useful numbers that force him to move pips 1, 2, or 3 points at a time. Once the iPad plays the doubling cube this becomes more pronounced.Long story short, the dice are not random. I’d say the iPad wins 5 or 6 out of 10 games but 8 or 9 out of 10 match-winning games. The sad part is this is the most fair backgammon game I’ve downloaded so far.

NH2112, Aug 25, 2018

Good UI, but...

It is a well laid-out game. It has the right player options, a good visual appearance, etc. But in the end, there's no way around the dice not being random. No amount of reviewers accusing other reviewers of being bad or inexperienced can change the fact that 4 of 5 dice rolls during bearing off are doubles (for the computer only) does not represent any portion of the normal probability curve. I have read other reviews that notice the computer can nearly always hit one of both of your pieces but you can rarely hit one, or even cover your own -- my same experience. I continue to play, but with a rule: when the computer hits my pieces on 3 consecutive turns I will "undo" back to the first hit and force a different set of circumstances. This is the only way it seems challenging. And even when you're winning a game the repeat doubles can come in and diminish the satisfaction of the victory. Can't you give us a "true random" setting and let us decide if it's too easy?

Popd out, Sep 27, 2017

Good game but suggestion

First, it needs a better random number generator. I also agree that the rolls are not random. How is it when I undo a move the computer gets the exact same roll? The AI will leave men open or actually fail to hit me. It will roll a 3-1 and move 1 first then 3 and not hit whereas 3 first would hit me and the 1 protects the piece. There is a high chance of a gammon or backgammon because the computer fails to move guys out of my home until last. If I have one guy left to take off on the two and I roll a one and a six I shouldn't have to move the one first. Good programming to make sure I use both dice each turn but when I am down to one man then let me just take it off. I really would like the roll counter to truly track how much each player has rolled. Just add up the dice each throw and keep track. I want to know if I lose how badly the computer out rolled me.

Strattdawg, Nov 08, 2017

Nice UI, But The Computer Gets Very Lucky

I like the interface. Would like to see an option where the pop up messages clear themselves after 5 seconds or some other definable amount of time. Having to hit "OK" to clear the messages gets tedious. Also, I thought it was my imagination until I started reading other reviews. I play the most difficult level and win more than lose, but I've noticed the computer getting very advantageous rolls way to frequently. Anytime I have a vulnerable piece on the board the computer gets a roll that allows it to bump my piece. Anytime I expose a piece, I start laughing cause I know the next roll will knock it off the board. Too many times I've been way ahead in pips only to watch the computer get multiple doubles to catch up. Please stick to a true randomizing algorithm. At times, it seems the computer is manipulating the roll of the dice.

TM-650-TM, Sep 08, 2016

Yuk!

There are so many problems with this program. First of all, how about those horrible ads? There is no way to remove them and they are extremely upsetting. In the hard mode, you will rarely beat the computer. This program is created to allow the computer to win. If you set it to medium, the computer make some of the stupidest mistakes I’ve ever seen in a backgammon game. You can always win when it’s set to medium difficulty. If you choose to allow the computer to show you predictive moves, the moves are incredibly inconsistent. If you roll a 4-2 and touch your PIP and try to get it to move two spaces it will move you four. If you try to get your PIP to move four spaces, it will move you two There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how the predictive function works. The final bummer, I’m sure I’ve missed a few, is there is no scorekeeping. This app is getting deleted today. Don’t waste your time playing this game as it has a huge amount of flaws.

writer12, May 09, 2022

Unrealistic rolls for computer

I have played the game many times and have found on the Hard level, the computer gets both an inordinate amount of fortunate rolls and doubles compared to myself. Hard should not mean more likely to get doubles, it should mean it employs better strategies. In the two most recent games I played, for instance, the computer had three doubles while I had none, and in the other. The computer had three doubles in a row and 5 for total for the game while I had 1 double for the entire game. There is no way one can call that a legit random dice roll algorithm.Update:I have lowered the rating from 3 to 1. In the 5 games I have played since my review, it still rolls a significant amount of doubles above what I get by a 4:1 margin. When I do get doubles, literally 1/3 of the time it is useless since I am trying to get a piece out of jail and it is for a spot that is not open. The last two games the computer rolled doubles 4 times while I did not get one for one game and the next it started with two doubles and had 4 in the first 7 rolls all told. This statistically impossible in any sort of reality outside a poorly written, apparently biased dice roll algorithm that seems to be designed to cheat (can’t say with certainty but this inordinate amount of doubles for the computer coupled with rolls that heavily favor the computer in timing would make one tend to believe such a thing).

Xerac, Jun 01, 2021

Description

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