Last updated on June 10th, 2023 at 06:20 am
Absolute Backgammon
Absolute Backgammon is one of the best $4.99 to play game in the App Store.
Developed by David Byrum, Absolute Backgammon is a Education game with a content rating of 4+.
It was released on 5th October 2013 with the latest update 24th February 2023
Whether you are a fan of Education, Board, games, you will find this game interesting and will absolutely like it.
Rating
27 people have rated 8.23
You can download the game Absolute Backgammon from APP STORE.
Description
No ads, no up-selling, no gimmicks, just great backgammon and acey deucey. If you liked Absolute Backgammon and Acey Deucey for the desktop, you will like this version too – same great backgammon.
Works with iOS 8.0 and later
Designed for the iPad, but now works on the iPhone 5 and later. Absolute Backgammon is a full featured backgammon game that contains both backgammon and acey deucey. You can play against a computer opponent (5 skill levels) or against another person on the same device or another person on a different device using bluetooth.
Board Design: Marco Olivares – STUDIOMARCOLI
You can download a manual from the website – bestbackgammon.com
Features:
- Works on the iPad and iPhone 5 to the latest iPhone
- Play Backgammon or Acey Deucey
- Play against the Computer
- Play against another person on the same device
- Play against another person on a different device using Bluetooth
- Play against a friend over the internet (beta feature)
- Match Play when playing against the computer backgammon opponent
- 5 skill levels
- Keeps game and sessions statistics as well as running/cumulative statistics.
- 3 different methods for moving the piece
- Gives suggestions for moves
- Gives Doubling Cube Advice
- Save your game to finish later
- Switch board direction and colors
- Helpful messages during play
- Can choose to have messages spoken
- Change the speed of piece movement
- Beaver option supported
- Jacoby rule optional
- Option to not allow backgammons
- Choice of shorter dice sound for faster play
- Can adjust the sound level of for the game
- Shows the last moves for the computer using arrows
- Option to show possible moves when a piece is touched
- Plus more…
- Plus more to be added later.
Updated on 24th February 2023
- made several changes to the game server code
Absolute Backgammon Reviews
We never play against the computer so we dont have to deal with the issues Im reading about the computer cheating. We purchased this game to play against friends remotely and it works fairly well remotely. Our only issue and it sounds like Im the only one that has this issue. More times than not the player who picks white statistically over multiple games gets the better rolls. At first we thought okay the person Im playing for lucky a few times and got the perfect rolls right when they needed them. But it was happening too often. Not every time but more times than not. Finally we started keeping track of the doubles and acey deucy rolls and its about 30-70 and we played different friends about 100 times. We didnt get this to play the computer only to play friends remotely. We know there can be a certain amount of luck to a game we just want to feel its more of a random roll and that isnt the case. We still give it 3 stars.
It is absolute alright. Absolute cheating ripoff. Unless your masochistic and love getting beat, choose a different game. This is not our 1st rodeo and based on our win/loose record, we are very good in both acey ducey and Backgammon and went through training in the Navy with our squadron spending 6 months in Adak, Alaska with nothing to do in our off time except these two games and players always had an audience of critics. You learn fast … Plus we’ve been playing and teaching others for over 50 years. In thisgame the computer ALWAYS get the numbers it needs and you never will. There are FAR fairer Backgammon games out there with random rolls. There are reviews on this that state the opposite but Im sure friends of the builder or paid. DONT WAIST YOUR MONEY ON THIS ONE (unless the builder can make it fair)
Not sure what happened to our favorite game, acey-deucy, but it seems to be kicked to the curb. Highly disappointing.
Does not work with current iOS.
We can only assume the programmers used a poor random number generator to get the dice rolls. Like other comments, the computer seems to roll a lot of acey-deuceys and doubles. We recently played a game where the computer rolled three aces-deuceys in a roll. Not statistically impossible but damned unlikely. Bad game.
Been playing twice a week remotely for a year. Occasional glitches when weather takes out the server but it’s otherwise seamless. Of course, when playing the computer it beats us often, but we win our share. Some days we get the rolls and some days the computer does. Seems pretty fair to us. It’s the only backgammon game in the app store we have found that is not full of nagging and extra cr?p. If you just want to learn/play backgammon, this is the one.
We have been playing Absolute Backgammon on an iPad, a laptop and remotely with a friend for well over a year. Contrary to claims that it is rigged, the game is completely random and fair. We have played hundreds of games; sometimes the dice break your way and sometimes they do not, just like in real life. For one thing it is a fabulous learning tool for a novice or experienced player given that you can play at various levels and ask for suggested moves. This feature also allows you to learn to avoid blunders. Any claim that the game cheats is childish and absurd. There is no incentive whatsoever for David to create a game that is not fair and random. To the contrary he is a very skilled and talented programmer and constantly accepts input and works to improve the game and a players experience. This is a terrific value, the best Backgammon game we have come across. In short, it is a beautiful implementation of a valuable learning tool. Ignore the shallow childish negative reviews.
We bought the paid version sometime last year and today the game is telling us that Im playing the lite version!! Why?
Enjoyed playing backgammon/acey duecy in the app for years (and not the lite version). Now app tells us the options are only available in the full version, but the App Store shows that we have the full version and doesnt give us an option to pay for it even if we were willing to pay. We cant restore a previous purchase either since it wont show any settings/options inside the app. This app needs to be fixed.
An update. We do play this occasionally. The new update took away our purchase. Buyer beware! – Back when we first played this on our Mac, it always rolled to put you off, 17 times out of 20 or so. 9 times out of 10 it played first. The lite version seemed to be better, so we were trusting and bought this.. That was a mistake. We purposely left a piece alone, just to see what happened. The game rolled what it needed to put us off 16 times in a row. We have played first twice in the last 20 games. The game cheats. That is the only sensible answer.
If you play against the computer the game is rigged. We’ve been ahead significantly many times but have always lost as the computer gives itself a Ely ducey time after time making sure it wins . What a crock.
This is an excellent game and we unreservedly recommend it. To the people writing bad reviews (neophytes or competitors), we say learn about probability. And/or grow up! Some of you sound like beginning players or children. That word is not in the dictionary, or he cheated, etc. Why should David cheat? Is that what you call refining an algorithm? He is a conscientious programmer that has always been responsive to sorting out problems and making improvements on his excellent program. What more can one ask for? If you still feel that something underhanded is going on, we would be happy to play you for money, and you could check out your abilities with a human player. Absolute Backgammon still often thrashes us on the highest level, it is relentless. Thank you David, and keep on doing great work.
Yes, the computer has more than its fair share of doubles, but with enough skill you can still beat it 35% of the time. Because the app developer knows a lot of good strategy its a good challenge for really good players. We just wish he would write the same version app thats completely fair without any computer advantages. Id be willing to pay almost anything for an app like that!
Is it us or does the computer roll an incredible amount of doubles constantly? Also, if there are 4 spaces open for us to get back in you can be sure we will roll the wrong ones all the time. Isnt there a backgammon game that you can play with the computer that has truly random rolls?
Despite a few occasional bugs, the backgammon logic and play is far superior to any other we’ve found.
We’re surprised this game is still being offered. Had to tap star to highlight title. One star is too much. It cheats. If we get too far ahead, by playing crazy, it will lock up. If you are playing for enjoyment, you may not find any with this game. Asked for help from developer, was offered none. Not expecting it to get better. May have to get our old manual game back out.
This game is awful. Don’t waste your time. It doesn’t even keep the correct statistics. It gets every roll it needs every time.
Finding a backgammon game with the proper rules for acey deucey has been impossible. We’re sure different people may have some different rules but those should be options. We thought paying $5 to get a game would help. Unfortunately it is almost a complete waste of money.
This game is not working. We paid good money and it breaks down constantly. The voice used by the computer sounds like an a psycho-killer. This is very annoying!!
We love the game acey ducey. But the computer cheats so bad. If this was a ole skool roll of the dice ok, but the computer controls the game. If we couldn’t play we wouldn’t leave a comment. But this is ridiculous. We keep playing just to see how it will cheat on the next game. What can u do? Lhh.
We’re super bummed as for the most part this looks like it would be amazing and unlike most digital backgammon apps this is one of two that play acey ducey. Sadly though after paying $5 we are not able to play acey ducey as anytime we roll a 1-2 the game gets caught in an infinite doubles loop. We hope this gets fixed as the game board is lovely otherwise. UPDATE: they seem to have fixed the loop, however it’s incredibly hard to play against the computer as it tends to get the best roles, 2 aces duceys in a row, multiple high number rolls and always gets the exact number needed when you have an alone chip. Doesn’t matter what level you choose, beginner or expert. If they can fix that it would be great.
We agree. This game could be great but the computer will not let you win. Really… How can you roll four acey-ducey in a row. Whenever we get ahead the computer rolls doubles until it wins. So, no fun to play.
Those without a willing playmate can find hours of entertainment. Game is set up to play Onesy-Twozy, a great variation on the game. A good way to practice facing a human opponent.
Do not pay for this. Even at easiest level it can’t be beat. There is no difference between easiest and hardest.
Dice rolling favors computer at all levels. Computer rolls doubles far to often to be random & far more often than human. DO NOT BUY!
We bought this to play Acey Duecy with our husband and it works just fine. We seldom travel without our board but it’s not always convenient to carry about. This has the advantage of no tokens or dice falling off the board. It appears to follow rules we are familiar with from the U.S. Navy, however, it does not recognize an automatic loss if you roll three Acey Duecys in a row. It would also be nice if the app kept track of win-loss stats for individuals.
We can’t count the times we have been about to win, when the game will suddenly get three or more acey deuceys in a row with all the extra rolls hitting double sixes. Happens to often to be random.
This game is great! The graphics are good and the game is easy to use. It is more challenging than others we have played n a computer. We have been playing backgammon for decades and with very experienced players, and we enjoy this game immensely. We highly recommend!
Excellent game! One of most challenging we’ve played. In many of the other Backgammon games available, we find that the Computer Opponent makes some pretty horrible strategy mistakes. Your’s does not. Although, it does seem that your Computer Opponent takes chances that we wouldn’t, it seems to pay-off. We read one of the other reviews, claiming that the Computer Opponent was cheating, suggesting that the rolls weren’t quite "random", and at first, we must confess, we thought so too. However, after playing for a few weeks, we’ve concluded that this is not the case, we find that we’re able win approximately 50% of the time, and believe it’s made us a better player. Highly recommended for avid Backgammon players.
Great game from a developer who is responsive and updates when needed. Easy to play and pretty fully featured for an iPad version. Endless hours of fun. Level of play is one of the great features…. Good graphics too…
We don’t get the negative comments. The game is great, those probably don’t have a clue of probabilities and further knowledge of the game. Not always ignorance is a bliss.
We have used this game in several versions on several Apple devices and find it gets better, version by version, and is consistently challenging. It beats us about 2 to 1, since it is more consistent in tracking the odds pro/con doubling, accepting/declining a double than we am! Highly recommend buying it, and being humble when it gets "lucky". Paul r.
We’ve tried a whole bunch of backgammon games on the Mac and found Absolute Backgammon to be absolutely wonderful. Im a fairly experienced player who thought we understood the game pretty well Im been playing since the 1970s and have read books on backgammon. We initially thought that AB played an unconventional game but we have to say that after being whipped by it in match play, we learned from it changed our approach to the game. We can now give it a good match and have applied what we learned to playing with friends to rather nice results :) The iPad version of the game is wonderfully executed, too, with the same brains as the desktop version. And very nice touch-screen playing, once we got the hang of it.
We cant believe the one review we just read! We have had this game on our ipad for a while now and love playing it as much as we love it on our computer. It did take us a couple of minutes of playing to figure out rolling the dice – but that is us, not the game! We have played this quite a bit now and certainly have no idea what the reviewer was talking about.
What this AI lacks in game skills it makes up in rolling exactly what it needs. Not just one roll it needs, but for entire games at a time. We can win if it lets us, but most of the time it ensures that is impossible. Waste of money. Waste of time. Nice graphics. Nice sounds. Too bad.
Bottom line — we want our money back!! How can you possibly justify $5 for this? Obviously, the joke is on us. If we could rate this a zero or even with negative numbers we most definitely would. Plz explain to us how the computer player rolls doubles (usually fives and/or sixes) every other turn while we only seem to roll ones and twos, regardless of what level of difficulty is selected!? If we’re lucky we might be blessed with snake eyes once. Ridiculous!! This game will be deleted immediately from our iPad Air and trust us, we will spread the word. Live and learn.
We’ve never had so many opportune doubles thrown against us. Garbage. Complete waste of money. Has anyone ever heard of a true random dice throw? Only gets a star cuz we can’t dish out negatives. Do not waste your time here.
Most bugs seem to be fixed, but a huge one was introduced. Playing acey deucey if you roll a 1 and 2 you get to select the next doubles forever. So we were able to win the game on the first roll. Oops.
We bought Absolute Backgammon for our laptop about three years ago and love the game – play it all the time. So we thought I’d be getting a similar positive experience when we bought the game for iPad. Wrong. It’s full of bugs and basically unplayable. I’d like our money back. Is that possible?
The app is full of bugs. Games hang, multiple moves per dice throw, help does not work etc. Needs some serious work. Waste of money at this time.
You can’t play a human opponent and force the rules of the game to be followed. For example, if 2 player mode is selected, you can move as many pieces as you want on each turn and place them wherever on the board. Disappointing.
We’ve been playing David’s backgammon on our mac for years. This is just as good. At the hardest level, it is a worthy opponent. It doesn’t cheat nor does it give itself better rolls of the dice to win as others do. If you like backgammon, this is the one to get.