Last updated on June 7th, 2023 at 12:25 am
Texas 42
Texas 42 is one of the best Free to play game in the App Store.
Developed by Mike Emery, Texas 42 is a Card game with a content rating of 4+.
It was released on 29th June 2012 with the latest update 12th April 2020
Whether you are a fan of Card, Family, games, you will find this game interesting and will absolutely like it.
What is the rating of Texas 42 ?
43 people have rated 5.3
What is the price of the Texas 42 ?
It is free for download on iOS.
When was the Texas 42 released ?
Texas 42 was released on 29th June 2012.
When was the Texas 42 updated ?
The latest updated date of Texas 42 on 12th April 2020.
Where can Texas 42 be downloaded ?
You can download the game Texas 42 from Apple Official App Store.
Description
Welcome to the Official State Domino game of Texas! Texas 42 is a trick taking game similar to bridge or spades. Invented in the late 1880s, it has become a tradition across generations of players.
The sole motivator for the development of this app has been to create an AI that doesn’t make the users wish they spent their 2 dollars on a soda instead of frustrating computer play. Much work has been made into creating an AI that makes the same moves you would. Since you don’t have the same play style as everyone else, you can set each computer player to have one of 3 specified play styles "Conservative", "Normal", or "Aggressive". You can mix and match these styles as you see fit and can change them at any time in the game.
A conservative player will tend to bid lower than the rest of the players. Its main focus when it has the lead is to draw all the trumps in play before moving on to non-trumps. If the conservative player does not have the highest trump, it will tend to lead with a junk/punt tile to draw out the higher ones, while holding on to tiles with count until it knows it can win with them.
A normal player will tend to bid higher than a conservative player. Its main focus is holding on to its trumps for cases where count is on the table. If it does not have the highest trump it will tend to attempt to punt to its teammate.
An aggressive player is a mixture of the two. It tends to push the bid to 31 or 34-36 with weaker hands than the other two and is more willing to bid marks if it has a strong hand. It is also willing to lay down trumps with 5 counts in an effort to draw out the ones covering the 10 count. Its more willing to play count at risk of hoping its partner will win the trick.
For bidding purposes, your partner will respond to your bid. If you bid 30, you are indicating to your partner that you have a helping hand and it will be much more likely to outbid an opponent win the bid.
Here’s what some beta testers have had to say about the app:
"The AI has been impressive for me so far, not a single play that I’ve seen has been stupid yet and I’ve probably played around 10 games. Very solid game for my experience"
"I really like your idea of the different styles of play and I think you are pretty close to that reality."
"To date it is the best one out there. I have never felt like I was playing true 42 on the other apps."
Updated on 12th April 2020
More multiplayer tweaks. Should be the last one needed for a while.
Texas 42 Review
Our son is teaching us how to play, and this app is great for single player and being able to adjust the skill levels of the other players. We tried a different 42 app, but our partner kept making stupid moves. This apps partner is much smarter! Worth the $1.99 to not be frustrated.
We’ve played this game for years. It is frustrating at times. The main frustration is our partner setting us. It isnt consistent. It will play under our trump when it has the highest non double trump and has other doubles it could play. On the other hand, it holds high dominoes instead of playing them. When we play a double, it will play under, then cover our off, then set us by playing into count. When the partner wins the bid, it will continue to play lead instead of playing its off. That is usually on the last trick we get set because we gave up the domino that could have covered us. (The opponents had the off we were holding for). We know it must be a difficult program to write, but we became used to playing Win42. That was an awesome game The 5/5 is still played like it is only count. This isnt a bad game, just frustrating at times.
Needs some work in multiplayer. Love the game, but cant finish with an invited player. Please fix!
Cant play multiplayer. Just keeps freezing for players and they cant do anything. Single player works well. Thanks.
We’ve been able to complete ONE full game with an invited opponent!! It just wont work! Needs more tweaking we guess! Love playing against the computer, would really love to play against friends and family that we encouraged to get the app!!
We also have played for several years. The two players on both sides of us me seem to get hands that hit each other, where we cant normally hit our partner. We get the worst hands and most of the time have a very hard time making 30. Our partner will bid 30 and get set more than 50% of the time. The game could be more fun but now it is very frustrating. We hope you improve it. Havent improved as of yet.
Not very happy with this app. Crashes or freezes all the time. If we play with our partner and two other players. It is not a 100% that we can Ginos game. We can receive a text or phone call and it stops the sound. It also throws us out and sends us to single player. We cant even invite 4 friends it freezes or doesnt let the 4th join. Sometimes it lets the 3rd person join. Allows us to play a little while then it freezes. Also there is times our partner cant get any dominoes during a game. This is very frustrating.
We have been playing this game for months, and loved it. However, now all kinds of errors are present. From not scoring a trick correctly to just shutting off in the middle of a game. What’s happening? Another huge flaw, although we have set our partner to conservative, he constantly out bids us, and usually gets set. In real life, a partner would never out bid his partner unless he had a sure hand. Also, is there a way to Change trumps when you accidentally hit the wrong trump button? This is a new PROBLEM, we’ve just started having!! Our partner has the bid, with 6s being the trump! Partner played a low Trump, the player after us caught the trick, then led blank 4, partner plays an off, player to our right cant follow suit, we play 4-2, obviously higher than 4-blank, but the trick went to the opposing team!!! This has happened a couple times before, but we hadnt taken time to right!! When things are going well, it is our favorite game!!
We have played 42 for probably 60 years. Both our family and our husbands were huge 42 players. If you have played much this app will drive you crazy. It inappropriately plays trumps – our partner will play a smaller one after player to the left plays one. And then wont play one when the situation calls for it. Plus partner will trump in on a double we have led – then goes set on an off. Go figure. We are moving on from this game – save your money.
Multiplayer fails at some point during a game for someone and makes it impossible to finish.
Tried to play multi game with four people in tha Back yard for over an hour and could not get the game to work consistently, it worked for two tricks and would loose a player , some times a player would only get four dominoes! Terrible, we finally gave up. We’ve noticed app never gets any updates.
We see several reports of inept partner and couldnt agree more . We even switched back and forth from conservative to aggressive play style which made little difference . Partner seems like he is throwing the game sometimes when we have the advantage ?
We have played 42 for years. The game should be fun to play. NOT FRUSTRATING!! No matter how you have setting, you still get your backside tanned.. If you dont understand that! You have not been playing 42 long.
This app does not remotely reflect the game of 42. It constantly plays to the computers favor, even so far as your partner making stupid plays to lose a hand. Dont buy this. Its a waste of money.
As someone who plays regularly and loves to play, its super frustrating having a computer partner that is so bad. About 70% of the time he misplays trumps/count. We do not recommend getting this app if you enjoy 42.
Multiplayer never connect with an opponent. Just sits there and spins forever.
On multiple occasions it gave the trick to other team when it was our trick. Since when does a six four beat a six five when a six blank is lead and aces are trump and only other domino on the board is a five four.
We have played this game every evening (for the last 6 months)with our dad who lives more than a 1000 miles from us. Very seldom do we ever miss a night. We just want to thank you for creating this game that makes it possible to play online. Our family has played 42 for many years and this version of the game is perfect for us. We win probably 50 to 60 percent of the time so it is a challenge and yet we get the satisfaction of a win at least half of the time. We would say the AI is spot on!
First we do like this game, but we agree with some of the others, the AIs dont play right sometimes period. But our main issue is when you have a lay over 84 hand (ex. 6 trumps and a double), and you have to play it out. If you have a lay over hand there needs to be a lay over option after youve won the bid, or closer to the end of the hand when you have the rest of the hand made for sure. The way we play is fast so we can continue on and play more games instead of dragging it out. We mean our opinion only, but seriously something the developers need to think about.
Our husband and we have the same type of phone but he can splash and plunge whereas our app wont allow us too. Why does our partner not play out the highest trumps first. This is critical with most partner hands. Overall its a fun game.
Partner bids and play is so bad. The opponents as well. Playing with three idiots. We dont think creator has ever played the game. For instance; EW bids 31 in sixes and leads 6/1, we have no sixes, we gamble our partner has double six and play double five, They play 6/3 and partner plays 6/0, then later trumps a 1 point trick with the Double Six! Inexplicably Stupid. Partner bids 36 with lay down 84! Again, ridiculous. All 3 make odd random bids of 34, or 37 etc. No rhyme or reason. Technically it works but developers havent a clue about how to bid or play 42. Partner discards double six on second to last hand retaining useless double ace. Opponent takes our six blank with 6 deuce and we go set. Such poor stupid play. The final straw: we bid 84, with an off six. Partner discards double Six on penultimate hand, keeping the double blank,and we go set. The dumbest possible play. Why on earth keep a double blank? Throw away the double six to keep the double blank! We just cant play this anymore. Like playing with 4 year olds.
Computer partner regularly misplays points. Not well programmed for computer play.
This app needs many updates, we have iPhone 11 Pro, every time we get loaded into a game with 2 of our friends, during the first play where you are drawing dominoes to see who goes first, it has crashed every. Single. Time. It works okay for single player (not as good as the other 42 app, but we paid to downloaded this one because it seemed to be the only where you could play your with your friends… Unfortunately we cant play with our friends because it doesnt work :/ we will give more stars when it works.
Hardly a reflection of the game.
We have kept track of how often the opposing player has the double for their trumps and it is over 90%. We emailed the developer and he/she said it is definitely random. Not at 90% it is not! There arent many choices so we guess we will have to live with it.
We wanted to love this app but the game doesnt work with multiplayer.
Multiplayer doesnt work at all.
Have family in another state and we all love to play 42. We cant ever get a game started without it kicking one of us out. Im about ready to ask for our money back!
Played this for a long time and for the most part it played within reason for the logic. At least it was enjoyable. But for the past month or so, that logic changed. No one would ever play the way the AI bids or sequence of playing the dominoes. And this is very simple logic that even a novice picks up on count and when you do and dont bid.
Wont connect with multi players, not worth buying.
When we first went nello we found out that you cant make doubles low please fix this.
There are 2 42 games available. This one is far superior to the one titles 42 dominoes. Only thing not included is the ability to bid in 7s. Any chance that update will come?
Fun game and great to play with friends and family. The AI is outstanding, and the visuals are very well done. This is the best Texas 42 app out there!
This is the best. If only you could go nullo, doubles low, our life would be complete!
We agree with the other reviewer about the partner play that seems to be lacking especially if you are playing SPLASH or PLUNGE. Would be fun if we could bid SEVENS.
Please fix the lead strategy, particularLy the first trump trick of the hand. When the lead does not have the double Trump, they almost always lead with their lowest Trump, which allows others to catch it with a low Trump. Rather they should lead with the highest Trump that is not points to try and pull the double first.
Needs a mute button. We play while traveling and listening to music. The domino noise is constant interference.
We have the iPhone version and the mute button shows mute is on, but sounds are happening.
We havent been able to go splash or plunge, Ill bid two marks and and ether 3 or 4 doubles and it wont give us the option to do it. Also, low with doubles are low in their suit would be really nice to add.
If our partner is set as a conservative bidder, they should never bid with only two trumps (when those trumps are not the top two trumps). That’s not conservative; it’s silly.
This app plays great, no complaint there. But for us, a beginner, it is fast. The game needs to have a go back one move feature and a replay this game option, to allow the beginners to see what impact a different bid or play could make. We couldnt find any other apps that might offer this feature. Think about it developers.
We love the game but our partners play is sometime very lacking, especially when playing splash. We just played a game where he had bid 31 and we had 5 doubles so we bid 2 marks and went splash. The led out his trumps then led an off which we caught with a double. We then led a couple more doubles. On the next to the last trick he played his last Trump then led another off, one we had already played the double for. The other team caught it and set us. Why have splash as a part of the game if you aren’t going to program the partner to play it the way a normal person would. Actually that applies to normal play as well. Like when we Trump the other team and our partner plays an off when he could have played the 6/4. Then loses the 6/4 to the other team on the next trick. ??????
It is a decent version of 42 but is missing most of the variants that we are used to such Nello doubles low in suites, closest to 7, etc.
Play this very often despite parter AI inconsistency. We try to outbid our partner so we can maintain control. The real issue we are experiencing is a flaw or glitch. We led a certain number and no one else followed suit even though there was still one. Umber out there in the suit which was laid two tricks later!! In real life we call that cheating or reneging. Didn’t know AI’s did it too.
We have not played enough to see problems identified by other comments. The problem we encountered is the multiplayer option. It says we can’t play multiplayer because we’re not registered, but it does not show us a way to register.
We’ve played as long as we can remember!! And we find the this game to be less than satisfactory!! Our AI partner is mentally handicapped!!! And we’ve never in all our life seen dominoes shake out in favor of the opposing team so much as on here!! We love the game of 42 but this app has much to improve!!
This is the best 42 app out there? Mildly entertaining at best. AI makes mistakes too numerous to list here. Waste of time and money. Developer has all but given up on fixes and upgrades. Lost count how many times our partner bids 31+ with 5-0 off (w/o the 5-5) and actually leads the 5-0! AI trumps our clean double lead instead of sloughing. Then he leads a trash rock. Opp bid 36. Early in the game. This was his hand: 0|0 0|6 0|5 0|3 0|2 6|6 5|5 Easy 2-mark hand. And he bids 36! Wow. Our advice? If youre easily entertained, this is the app for you. Any more than that, skip it.
Texas 42 is about LUCK. The DRAW is at the heart of the game! The draw here is heavily biased toward East/West. Play a few hands with the faces visible. The computer exceeds the odds of getting doubles. You’ll win some and lose a lot! The player settings are useless. We tried our partner in every mode and it still makes stupid moves. If it needs 1/1 or 2/2 or 3/3, it will nail you every time. Silly.
This app is good only for single player. Nearly every time we play with a friend the app locks up two or three hands in. And it’s also a real hassle to get a game going to begin with. The sending and accepting of an invitation is challenging. One more bug that needs to be worked out it is the app locking up ever time there is a tie when drawing for first hand.