Good value -- A few curious flaws

If you are looking for a decent backgammon game, this one is far superior to the free backgammon games Ive tried (e.g., Backgammon Deluxe Free). So Id say its worth springing for the $1.99. Graphics are OK (not great and with one flaw noted below). It offers three strategy levels, but stronger players will find that, even at the hardest level, the computer doesnt put up much of a fight. Nevertheless, since it keeps track of statistics, I can keep things interesting by shooting for higher win percentages. For example, Ive yet to achieve my goal of beating it 90% of the matches. I havent observed the biased dice roll behavior that other reviewers have complained about.

Id highly recommend this game to beginners except for three rather curious flaws:

1) Incorrect Scoring When Doubles Are Refused. The game developers have included doubling strategy (when to double, when to refuse a double) into their playing algorithms. But they have failed in the much simpler task of adhering to the basic scoring rules. Specifically, if I refuse I double, I should only lose the current stakes -- regardless of board position. Instead… the game penalizes the refusing player with 3 times the current stakes if they still have pieces in their opponents home board and 2 times the current stakes if they have yet to bear off a piece. This is flat out wrong. Since doubling strategy is a huge part of backgammon, this basic scoring problem warps the whole strategy in a way that will lead beginners to develop bad habits.

2) Incorrect "Points" coloring. A basic feature of backgammon boards is that the points should alternate colors. This is more than just cosmetic. For beginners trying to learn how to visualize moves quickly without having to individually "count" each point, the alternating colors provides a valuable visual clue. Strangely, in this game, points 12 and 13 are both the same color.

3) Incorrect Scoring on "Resign". If I resign, I should forfeit the current stakes. Instead, the game always just penalizes me 1 point, regardless of the current stakes. My simple work-around (to avoid skewing the match play statistics) is to simply never resign -- but this is an annoyance.

For a development team that clearly invested time and effort into playing strategy, these flaws are curious because they are so basic. They should all be easily correctable and, hopefully, will be corrected in future versions.

Blues Lover in CO about Backgammon