Backgammon ∙ Hack 2.15 + Redeem Codes

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

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...

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.

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?

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.