Backgammon ∙

The implementers of this game could have made a game worth playing if they had just implemented truly random dice rolls. They didn’t. The number of times duplicates such as 6, 6, 6, 6 are rolled is much much much greater than probabilities would dictate. You can be certain that you’ll get quad 6’s several times in a game whereas the probabilities suggest you should get any particular dice roll once every 36 rolls. And it’s totally frustrating to play a game against the computer when the computer consistently “rolls” just the perfect dice combinations based on the configuration of the board. The strategy you must follow to have any chance of winning is to avoid at all costs leaving any of your pieces exposed because you can be pretty certain that the computer will roll a combination that results in you losing those pieces. So look elsewhere for a fun game. This one is not fun, it’s just frustrating.

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).

I agree with others here: this game is clearly not using only a random generator for dice rolls. Far often enough, once you are in your home and poised/begun to move your pips off, the apps player starts getting a suspicious amount of doubles. BUT, it’s also quite stupid; sometimes instead of moving off even one pip to prevent you from scoring 2 points, it moves its pieces forward within it’s home area?! Also very occasionally you are prevented from making a valid move! I even took a screenshot of this occuring. That was all of “medium” difficulty. At least then you have a chance of winning. On hard, it’s just playing against a cheater - how frustrating! Rather than rely on only strategy, the app controls the dice very much to its advantage. I just received a rare app update for “minor bug fixes” - the first game played still resorted to double rolls. Besides all of that, it’s not obtrusive with ads at all, you can learn the basic mechanics and at least develop your own strategy/play style. I’ve left the game alone for long periods of time, came back with renewed interest for a simple app to pass time, but always end up bored and a bit frustrated. Keeping it installed only to try 2-player mode teaching my granddaughter how to play.

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.

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

In “hard” mode, you won’t beat the program very often in single point matches because the program selects what it wants or needs to roll. 9 out 10 games it will roll more doubles and/or more relevant rolls. Just finished a game in which the program rolled double 6’s four times in a row while it only let me roll low numbers. In short, you will find it abundantly clear that the program uses a logarithm as the game progresses to dictate the outcome and most often you will lose because you are in “hard” mode. You won’t lose every game, but you won’t win most that you should. In summary, do not download this app thinking you are playing the latest and greatest artificial intelligence; you are playing a program with zero skill and 100% magic dice.

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...

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?

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?

This is still the best app for backgammon that I’ve found. That being said, I usually play against the computer. While the game professes random rolls of the die, be prepared to lose first play rolls most games. And it’s remarkable how the computer nearly always gets exactly the roll it needs to bear off and win. Too, if the computer challenges you, know that you might as well concede the game because your efforts to thwart a loss are oftentimes useless. Not impossible to win against the computer, just a lack of fairness. The app used to provide stats on how many doubles each rolls and other such data but that disappeared a while back. I’m assuming it’s because the lack of randomness was all too evident. But I have no one to play with other than the computer, so that’s where I am in life. I still enjoy playing from time to time so that’s why the 4 stars.

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.

I’ve had this app for a while now and play frequently until lately. Nice graphics, good speed, but there are issues. As others have mentioned, the hard setting doesn’t change strategy, rather it changes how lucky the AI is at landing the exact roll it needs. If you leave a pip open you can almost guarantee the computers next roll will bar you. On other settings the amount of doubles the computer rolls is proportionally in favor of the computer. Lately, the app has been opening safari with some junk “congrats you win” ad even if you don’t tap any on screen ads. I’ve had the same ad pop up 4 times in one game. Each time I was tapping either the roll button or making a move, nowhere near the ad space at the bottom of the screen. This is a big issue for me. I get ads on free apps, but this is more like a huge bug that needs to be fixed.

I’ve been playing this game for two months now. I’ll play on the medium setting and switch over to hard. The latter is so frustrating because I absolutely cannot seem to win. Not because the computer is playing with better skill but because the computer almost ALWAYS gets the first turn, it rolls double after double, it rolls perfect combos to NEVER leave a man vulnerable, it rolls the perfect combo to bump my man, and IF - big “if” here - my men are ready to bear off but the computer has several men outside the box, suddenly it’s double after double (usually 5’s and 6’s), and I’m rolling 1 and 2 over and over. So, obviously, I lose! It is so obvious to me that better skill isn’t required on the hard setting; you will rarely win on the hard setting. And unfortunately, the computer doesn’t play aggressive on the medium setting, so this is a frustrating game. I win ALL the time on the medium setting, NEVER on the hard setting.

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.

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.

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.

This particular Backgammon App. does not have the computer programmed appropriately in order to complete games properly according to the official rules of Backgammon. Pieces are left in the opposing player’s Inner Table rather than being moved strategically toward the end of each game. Thus, wins are more significant - more Gammons rather than Simple Wins and more Backgammons rather than Gammons. This flaw should be corrected. Also, I preferred the previous “look” of the Board and the Written Words rather than the current iteration - it was more traditional. I don’t like the ads either - they are much too loud. The dice roll speed is good, as is the placement of the dice on the board. The Roll Button is well-placed. The movement speed of the pieces is excellent and the Undo Feature works very well.

The computer gets an awful lot of doubles compared to what the human player gets, but I like to play anyway, just to see how many times I can win. My suggestions are to add an auto-finish for the inevitable endings, and put in the scoring system where the winner gets a score based on how many opponent's pips are left on the board. I mute the sound because when the computer wins, the Nya-Nya tune is much louder/longer than when I win and get applause. Irksome! Thank you. new: just recently the game has been resetting in the middle of a game, kicking me out and restarting from the beginning. Can you fix this please? I tried reinstalling the App, but it still reboots in the middle of a game. Frustrating!

If doubling cube is activated in the options, shouldn’t it appear somewhere on the game board? If it’s there, it’s too well hidden for me. Also, when bearing pieces off the board, isn’t there some kind of shortcut, i.e., the pieces are highlighted and you simply tap them? I didn’t see any highlights or any kind of short cut for bearing pieces off, and it just felt rather tedious and mechanical. The tap interface also feels rather primitive; you have to touch exactly where the piece is, or else it’s unresponsive. this aspect of the game needs some refinement. From the players point of view, when there is exactly one move that’s allowable, the game should simply make the move, or else you just generally tap the piece and it goes to the right place. It seems to me this game makes the human do an inordinate amount of work and I find it just tedious to play. Fix these problems and I’ll reinstall.

First, I'm 60. I have a demanding career and a very full life. This app is my secret indulgence, and I really enjoy it. This backgammon app has been great for keeping me occupied during doctor appointments, standing in line at the grocery store or anytime I have about 5 minutes to kill. I upgraded to the non-ad version, and it was worth it. I wish it kept a log of the number of games won and lost, but that has nothing to do with how much fun it is. I had to turn off the game sounds on my iPhone so people in public wouldn't hear it, but I still have the game sounds on my iPad. I've had the app well over a year and have played backgammon waaayyy too much. I recommend this app - it's a lot of fun. You won't be sorry.

First, it is a visually pleasant game so if you are just interested in passing your time pleasantly, this game is for you. If you want a game whose AI is challenging to beat because it is good at the game, forget it. I have never seen a game manipulate the dice as much as this one as a mechanism to make the game hard. In other words, it cheats. The roll it makes after you have to leave a piece alone ALWAYS (and I am using that word on purpose) allows it to send your isolated piece to the bar and usually it tolls doubles, which compounds it’s success in that situation. If you do manage to get ahead, the second you start to take pieces off the board it miraculously begins to roll doubles not once, not twice, but I had this thing roll doubles for itself four times in a row in order to catch up to me. Oh, and it will roll doubles about 3 times to your 1. My favorite is I had this situation where the ONLY roll combination that would send my one isolated piece to bar was a roll of 6 and 4. Not 5 and 5, that wouldn’t have done it. Had to be a 6 and 4. I turned to my wife and said “after I make my move here the AI us going to roll a 6 and a 4.’’ It did. She looked at me like I was Nostradamus. I just said to her, “no I can’t see the future, this thing is just a very reliable cheater.” I have even undon

After beginning a game, sometimes I have to stop and put it down for a day. When I return, my board is “lopsided “ and the pieces are not in the right slots. It is as if the board shifted an inch but the pieces haven’t. It is frustrating because I have to go to menu, restart the game each time. Not sure if it is an iPhone issue I would also recommend adding the feature of keeping my stats vs the computer. It would be nice to see a winning percentage or more gamification here. It’s like you win or lose and it’s no big deal either way Otherwise I think it’s the best backgammon out there

While I enjoy this app very much -- good way to waste time in a doctor's office -- it seems to me that the computer is always luckier with the dice roll than I am. While I have not done a "statistical" study, I have noticed the following "coincidences": 1) The computer usually rolls a double after offering the doubling cube; 2) Once one it's inner table, the computer seems to roll 3 to 4 doubles while bearing off; 3) when I have blot on the board the computer seems to have an uncanny ability to roll the exact number to land on it far too often to be the result of a good random number generator. In spite of these apparent flaws, I still play the game several time a day and enjoy losing most of the time. I would enjoy it even more if the odds of winning were evened out. Can you"fix" that?

Finally deleted this app because even on medium, the computer gets every roll it needs. I can have all but one point covered and the computer will roll that open point to get off the bar every time. The computer can have only 3 points covered and yet those are the only rolls I get. I will try to play very conservatively, but eventually my roll will force me to leave a single piece open, and the computer will always roll to hit me. I have tried playing aggressively, hitting the computer at every opportunity, and somehow I still end up having more pieces on the bar and losing badly. If we are bearing off, and started from a similar number, the computer will always roll doubles and clear first. I don’t mind losing due to bad luck from time to time, but almost every game? At medium? I can’t imagine what hard is like. Will look for a more fairly programmed game.

Get a better random number generator. The odds of getting the same dice roll 3 times in a row is low, yet this app seems to do it more often than not, not to mention all the doubles. And I do believe there is some sort of cheating, as the computer always seems to get just the right roll at the right time. Also, the AI needs serious tweaking, as the double cube is accepted always, even when I'm about to finish bearing off. Also, nobody leaves pieces in the opposing players Home area; I have gotten too many Backgammons in Difficult ( I only at difficult). Oh ... Add a "Resign" button while you're at it. After a long time playing this app, it almost starts to feel more like a psychology experiment or candid camera show than a game ... How many times can the computer get just the right roll, multiple doubles, doubles as the last roll, etc. before the human gets angry enough to quit.

Great interface. Unfortunately game play needs some calibration. On Level 2 the computer is easily beaten most games because computer makes numerous poor moves while rolls seem reasonable both ways. Level 3 on the other hand is like playing with an angry child who gets to decide the rolls (both ways) in advance to their maximum advantage. Skill and strategy are irrelevant. Computer wins opening roll what seems like 8 of 10 games; rolls unrealistically high number of doubles; minimizes exposure while maximizing mine (and capitalizing *every single time*) and an annoying habit of giving me many doubles (including sometimes multiple in a row) when they cannot affect the game ie when I’m on the bar and can’t use the roll, or long after the game is out of reach. A waste of time really. Sad. Uninstalled…

As many others have said this game is just too frustrating. On anything but hard it's not much of a challenge but on hard it gets near impossible. I just finished playing over a dozen matches to five and didn't win a single match. In several of matches I'd get up 4-0 then suddenly couldn't win that last game. Many times I'd have a game won till magically I'd get the only bad roll that would leave a disc open. Amazingly the computer would roll exactly what it needed to hit me. Then even though there were 2 or 3 open spaces I couldn't get back on the board for 5-6 even 8 rolls? Or it would be close and the computer would roll 3-4 doubles in a row to win. I'm deleting this app and finding another.

I’ve time, the bloatware that clogs the front end and if you ever pause… has become too much. There’s no deciphering some of the ads as well. I mean, if you’re into foreign ads where you can’t read where to click anything, and enjoy endless loops where you don’t even get to play the game, than this is the app for you. If you ever let the screen lock up and have to unlock your screen, you’re watching ads then too. Get a call/text while you’re playing?.. you’re watching ads to restart playing. I get that the universe is as driven; what do you want for a “free” game? But there’s a line, and this developer has crossed it. I deleted the game, despite enjoying playing. I just found it hard to actually GET to the game after a while.

Although I initially enjoyed this backgammon game, it has gotten to be relentless with ads!! I endured it because I love backgammon. The ads however are so ANNOYING, LONG and “the straw that broke the camels back” was when the “X” prompt appeared, you tap it, and it takes you back to the ad, press the word DONE, it takes you back the the “X”, etc etc, back & forth we go “Isn’t this fun 🤯!?” The topper was when it resulted in being FROZEN on the screen. I re-boot my iPad numerous times daily as the only solution to clear the screen. Finally I deleted the backgammon game app altogether, and downloaded it again to see if that would solve the problem. It worked for about 3 rounds..then frozen. Oh also, the noise as you roll the dice and the pieces move, can NOT be muted even when the volume is completely off on my iPad…what!? Guess I will find a better brand. Bye bye 👋

The "Hard" level is not a better player or even a smarter player, it is just a cheater. Plain and simple. It was worse before the update, but now it is just abysmal. The computer rolls not only the perfect dice for itself (covers, advanced and hits), but also rolls the worst possible rolls for the single player (open points, no covers and no chance of hitting opponent single points, after multiple rolls, until the computer can move/cover). Even if you are ahead, the computer will miraculously catch up with multiple doubles while giving you a 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, etc. Then, if you are about to win and have one or two pips left to bear off, it will finally give you a double, when you don't actually need it. Gee, thanks. Look, I do get doubles too! Ughhhh. Hey BG engineers - fix this App! Your algorithm is weak and you should be ashamed of yourselves. You are turning us off/away in droves. Or, do you just not care?

Still not the brightest bulb in the backgammon chandelier, but the recent software upgrade has improved the overall gaming experience significantly. Graphics and fonts are more vibrant and crisp, audio is better, random dice rolling has become more lifelike. One upgrade I ask for is to allow the computer or a player to quit - without penalty - when it is evident the winning party has no further advantage in pursuit of their victory. This would save on time. Ex: the score is 12 blots in (with the remaining 3 blots on low number spaces) against 2 blots in. There must be AI available that determines that a win is 100% inevitable. Allow the game to be voluntarily terminated and treat the outcome as if it was played to its eventual conclusion.

We all love backgammon. This particular app has three levels: easy, medium, and hard. There are no commercial interruptions as there are with many other backgammon apps. Also, when you move your pieces, the app lets you move the pieces how you want it to move versus other apps move the pieces for you. For example, if you get a six and a one, sometimes other apps will take that and move it seven. This app allows you to move one piece six and one piece one if you so desire. I highly recommend this app for this game is it provides one with a fair chance to beat the computer.

As others have repeated over and over, the game is rigged against the live players. The constant imbalance in the number of doubles each players receives, presumably by “chance” is laughable. It essentially ruins one game out of two! The only response I’ve found satisfactory is to quit the game for a few days and engage with more ethically designed games. It’s a shame because the game works smoothly in many ways but the frequent “finger on the scale” ruins the product. Perhaps we critics should share our displeasure by switching to the products touted in the endless ads we see while playing this game.

The interface is nice. There are good quality graphics, plus I like that it highlights possible moves. Game play is very easy and customizable. Enjoy it at the beginning before the ads take over. The ads get worse with time. There are always banner ads. When you switch to another app and then go back, you have to wait through a times ad and then hunt for a hidden x to close it. That's annoying. But the worst part is that after playing for a couple weeks, it started switching over to random games in the App Store. The screen change would happen in the middle of a game and clear the game out, so I would have to start again once I returned. It's gotten to where I can't even get through a game, so I'll be deleting this app. Too bad since it looked nice at first.

I’ve had this backgammon app for several years and it has been great use. Even with ads this was a nice backgammon app. He ever recent versions have some annoying bugs. In the past, if you exited the app it would pick back up where you left off in game and match. In most recent versions, if you exit before a match is complete, when you restart the app you cannot get past the menu to play unless you remove and reinstall the app. You also use to be able to select your color choice and it would save and use that selection each time you played. Now when you reopen the app it always defaults back to the same original one and you have to reselect if you wish to change.

Put this game on hard and watch how many times your opponent not only hits your pieces but then ends up covering all its pieces. Being hard and being unbelievably lucky are two different things. The odds of what happens when the game is set to hard is unreasonable, but set it to medium and you can't loose. So it makes the game predictable and not very fun to play. On Hard you win the first then it wins then you win then it wins then you win. Also notice when you roll you hardly ever get a combo that lets you move two pieces and cover them. Just adjusted my review to one star. Did a experiment for last forty five minutes if the game got more than three doubles up or hit then recovered more than three times more than I did I restarted the game. Didn't make it through one game. Time to delete this and all Optime games.

Overall the developers have done a good job. Server is fast and little down time. Can get an online game pretty much any time. Players are mostly very good. I notice players have lots of gaming hours. Good choices in terms of betting amounts and speed. Easy to pick up a fast game on work breaks or spend time gaming. Gold is very reasonably priced. Don’t expect to win all the time. Competition is very talented. Sometimes few the dice don’t go my way for extended periods but that fluctuates and it goes both ways. Hats off to the developers. They are Russia based. I wish America and Russia got along better politically. Appears Russia had a lot to offer that’s good, this game included.

I really wanted to give this app a great review but I just can’t. The shortest way I can explain this game is to say the computer always has the perfect dice roll: it starts off the game over 90% of the time, it moves in perfect increments of two so the chips are protected 90+% of the time, you can send the computer’s pip to the center of the board and have all the slots occupied except one, and it gets that magic number on the first roll almost always, you can be kicking the computer’s but, and then it rattles off 2-3 doubles in a row, or you’ll a “3” four times in a row. It’s just insane! I even conducted experiments with the Undo button to try different moves or dice rolls and the computer has the perfect counter. If the roll of the dice was more realistically random it would be a fun game. The computers strategy is great....but the dice are loaded!!!

Had to delete this game. I hate games that obviously cheat. As others have noted, the developers clearly do not have an algorithm good enough to win in the “HARD” mode so they resorted to cheating. I’ve been playing backgammon for over 50 years, have literally played close to 40,000 game and I’ve never seen anything like this. These developers should be ashamed of themselves. There are no statistics kept, likely because they don’t want you to know just how many doubles the cpu got, what the total roll of the dice was for both players or how many times each player won the first roll. If they kept statistics, how much they cheat would be too obvious. The game moves are also painfully slow which makes the games take much longer than necessary. Overall I give it only 1 star.

I have always loved playing this game even as a kid. It's great for passing the time. Do I think the computer cheats sometimes, yes. But, I still love and enjoy the game. It has always been great for passing the time when you are waiting for an appointment, or other important event that requires your attention that day, but requires you to be patient for a little while. Which is where this game comes in very handy, especially since it doesn't require the internet in area's where the wifi reception is poor quality. I would recommend this game to anyone. It's a classic. 👍🏻

I’m deleting this app immediately and finding another. I learned to play backgammon on this app and progressed quickly to the hard setting. I am finding the same issues as others with the inordinate disparity of doubles rolled by the computer and the quality of the doubles (playable vs. no possible moves) that are afforded the computer. Additionally, the dice rolls habitually leave me in single pip situations that are routinely landed on, whereas the computer too often rolls what is needed to ensure two or more pips are in a space. There is something flawed in the “randomness” of the dice roll programming. Another reviewer made a great point that the strategy of the computer should increase with the difficulty, not the likelihood of doubles and fortunate dice rolls. I’m deleting and finding another app.

I went with optime because I have their chess game on my phone. I have been looking for an honest backgammon game for a few years now. This is not it. It is better than the others. But it is not an honest game. Not even close. The AI will play the most foolish moves all game then make up with for it with “magic rolls”. 3, 4, and 5 doubles in a row, roll the only possible combination to send you to the rail. Not a brilliant, risky move, no no, the only possible roll, 5, 6, times in a row. While the only way to bump the AI is place yourself at risk, every time. With the opening rolls of 6-4, 5-3, and 6-1 and to lose by 9 pips after the AI rolls5 doubles in a row. If you are looking to kill time? This is great game to do it on. If you are looking to play a skillful game of backgammon? This is not the game to play. I have no idea why it is so difficult to build an honest random number generator for this game. But that seems to be the rubicon of app backgammon. If you are looking to learn the game of backgammon don’t play this one. It will teach you bad habits, and worse strategies.

First of all, ignore the reviews claiming the computer cheats with its rolls. It clearly doesn’t, and the reviewers either are bad players, bad at probability, don’t understand confirmation bias, or all three. However, there is a lot of other stuff to hate about the gameplay. Maybe it's because I've been spoiled by Jellyfish, which is by far the best backgammon software I've ever used. But I can't stand this app. The game pace is very slow, the computer is a poor opponent even on the hardest difficulty, and despite awarding the point bonuses when you gammon or backgammon an opponent, the AI plays like it is not aware of these bonuses. In general the computer uses the doubling cube terribly in match play, and this is especially frustrating when you have no chance of winning a game and he won’t redouble you to end it.

Overall is great…i initially had a problem with the dice selection, but figured it out. As others have mentioned, the computer gets way more double rolls than it should statistically…. but when i lose a game due to that i just shrug… you know if you lost due to double rolls or you mad a bad move along the way; so nothing to get bent outta shape about. update: ok - i have been playing the pro/add free version and i don’t know if they did an update but it’s pretty much unplayable now. It’s impossible to win in “hard” mode. The computer “magically” rolls exactly what is needed EVERY TIME to knock you off the board. It is not random… it used to be reasonable, but now it’s so bad it’s laughable..

I enjoy playing this game, but I do so knowing the numbers rolled are definitely not random. My electronic opponent always rolls numbers to get back on board or to hit my players immediately almost every time while I never have such success. That never happens in a real game over time. Plus, I’ve intentionally used “undo” and changed my move, and the then game rolls a different number in order to either knock me off or get back on at a different place. That being said and with that reality, it is even more of a challenge.

I have been playing this game most of my adult life. Recently I went looking for a version to install on my smart phone. You know, give me something to do when traveling and so on. Backgammon is a great game! Playing it on a smart device has really left me wondering...does the number generator favor the devise? I find it hard to believe that the devise gets doubles every time it needs it and I get 1's and 2's? Can it truly be a coincidence that the devise gets the exact numbers needed to put on the bar nearly every time I leave a piece open? I don't think so, I'm calling BS on the game. Something just doesn't add up. If I were playing against a human I'd say they were really lucky. In this case, I'm struggling. If the game continues going the way it has been, I'm uninstalling it!!!

Love that it can be used as a backgammon board with another player, but the tech could be improved for playing against the computer by simply implementing random dice rolls. Playing in standard difficulty mode the computer makes strategic errors, but the rolls seem fair and equally distributed. In “hard” mode the computer eliminates strategic errors, but also manipulates the dice rolls: - you will almost always cede the first move to the computer - the computer will receive rolls that allow it’s pieces to move into guarded positions the vast majority of the time, while your rolls will leave pieces exposed to hits - the computer will receive an inordinate number of double rolls - the computer will receive an inordinate amount of high value rolls, while the player receives much lower value rolls This becomes frustrating - the easy and standard one-player modes are too easy, but it’s not fun to play in hard mode because the game is literally cheating and you have very little chance of winning even if you play perfectly.

This game throws way way way way too many doubles and most benefit the computer. Odds say a double should occur every six rolls…in this game it’s more like every 3.5 rolls. But i guess there’s no perfect game out there and this seems to be the less of a dozen available evils. I kept the app for awhile after I wrote the above paragraph. I have now deleted. Almost every roll is favorable for the computer and the computer far exceeds its ration of doubles. For every double I get the computer gets four and I would say every third roll for computer is a double. Ridiculous. Also I notice that when I hit the doubling cube, it just blew any chance I had for a win because now all the rolls are favorable for computer. Have a nice day.

I love this backgammon game and have literally been playing it for years. It is a great mindless way to spend time to unwind. But over the last several months, truly uncouth ads have been popping up. I do not mind ads - after all it is a free game and actually one of them lead me to a service I need - but I may go to another game because of the low class nature of the ads on this version. Please fix this. If it weren’t for the recent ads, I would give it a 5-star rating.

The game is great, I have played it a lot for years on my iPhones but over time I have realized the AI gets too lucky with its rolls. Especially towards the end of games. It will start rolling a lot of high doubles while the player rarely gets so lucky. Also, it suspicious to me that over 6 years or so that I have played this game I have never ever actually rolled a double on the opening roll. I have literally played this game hundreds of times and never rolled a double on the first roll. That confirms to me that the game is rigged. After you win a game it will start cheating by miraculously giving the AI a lot of high doubles. Please fix!! I would buy if you fixed it!