Backgammon Guru Pro User Reviews

Top reviews

Does not work on iPhone 12

This highly-rated app is unusable on an iPhone 12.

DO NOT BUY!

Expanding on my earlier review, I tallied up the 28 starred reviews and here’s how they came out: 12 one-star (counting mine), 3 two-star, 3 three-star, NO four-star, and 10 five-star. The absence of any four-star reviews, which created an inexplicable jump from rotten to awesome, and the fact that all the five-star reviews sounded remarkably alike made me suspect (and I’m being kind here) that they are without truth or merit and were likely written by the developer. Bottom line? This app is not even mediocre. It is useless. Do not buy.
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Useless

cannot use this on my iPhone 12. The formatting is not compatible. Checkers are overlaid over the screen without reference to the board or points.

User interface is broken and unusable

I have an iPhone 12 and on my screen the graphics are completely broken. The checkers appear outside the board and it’s impossible to play. I regret paying for this useless app.

Waste of 3 bucks!!

Beware!! I wish I read the warnings before purchasing. Apple should be ashamed of allowing apps like this on their site. There should be a one hour cancellation policy!!

Buggiest app ever

Where to start? Game board display places chips not centered on the points, point numbers appear off the board, can’t discern where the opponent is moving, etc., etc. I’ve been robbed by buggy apps before, but this was the quickest realization that I’d been taken.

AI cheats

I write this after first move of a new game. Black (AI) starts. Black moved w19/w21(2) and w12/w14(2), but dice show 52. That would be a valid move if the dice were 22 (=2222), but the roll to choose who starts can not be a double. Using the rollback button, the moves unwind and the dice roll is now shown as 22. Play forward, then rollback to have dice shown as 52. BOZO (I used screenshot on iPad to preserve evidence).

Note: my experience matches Austin3443! & Antiduplicity: excessive doubles for the AI "player"

Take-Away: this stand-alone app is not a good lure for the companion website with "games" having cash prizes.
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No Support

I found a bug with the latest software that allows illegal moves. There is nowhere on the site that I see to contact the company to let them know. Poor.

Don't buy it

Trying to change number of games in a match crashes app every time. Backgammon NJ HD is a far superior app in many ways. If you are serious about backgammon, choose that.

Worst game ever

I've been playing backgammon for 30+ years and have played a number of these games. The algorithms are ridiculous and the game gets many times more doubles than the human. I bought the pro version and deleted it after about 10 matches. Terrible game.

A good tutor. Dumb and cheats

A good tutor on backgammon. Against the computer they do get many doubles. Lucky for me the AI resigns when it is clearly winning. So it needs some AI tweaks. A good way to get into the game and practice moves

Can't finish a game and so many bugs

The game crashes constantly when you change the settings. And, what is this "doubling" business? That would never happen in a real match. Anytime the AI is up, it makes you "double" or resign the game. Seriously no fun.

Fun, but not fair

I've been playing Backgammon Guru Pro (on a "strong" opponent setting) for a few weeks now on my iPhone 5. I do enjoy it most of the time, but it really bothers me sometimes that the dice rolls are not random. There is no way that the computer can roll doubles 4 times more often than me. 8 times out of 10, after asking me to double the computer will either roll doubles, or will get exactly the combination that can both knock off my piece and set up a great blockade. Just so you know, I'm a 55 year old science teacher with a Ph.D. I've been playing backgammon for decades, and I've also had multiple graduate level statistics classes, so I'm pretty familiar with the way dice rolls should work if they are truly random.
Also, it sometimes takes me several tries to get my checkers to move. If you could widen the acceptable "touch" area after a piece has been chosen that would be nice. There's only 2 places a given checker can go, so you've got at least half the screen to work with--there's no reason you should have to touch right at the points' tips.
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Crashes

First move of black crashes app every time. Rubbish.

Crashes

Crashed and closed whenever a piece was hit and sent to the bar. Wasted my money on this one.

Terrible

Help!!! This game crashes every time, keep sending reports and nothing

Wow

This game crashes every game!!! Absolutely teribble!

Great backgammon game

Great work from developer. This game has high quality graphics and great gameplay. Download today!!!

Very cool

Fun game with a great tutor and many options

super fun

love backgammon works quite nice i enjoy playing it