True Backgammon

Last updated on June 4th, 2023 at 08:45 am

True Backgammon

title

True Backgammon is one of the best $3.99 to play game in the App Store.
Developed by CompuLab, True Backgammon is a Board game with a content rating of 4+.
It was released on 1st April 2010 with the latest update 14th September 2022

Whether you are a fan of Board, Casino, games, you will find this game interesting and will absolutely like it.

Rating

2,216 people have rated 5.09

You can download the game True Backgammon from APP STORE.

Description

One of the most successful Backgammon games on the iPad/iPhone, one of the most powerful computer opponents worldwide, now has gotten even better.

ALL THE FACTS IN UNDER 30 SECONDS

  • Play against computer or humans. Choose from three difficulty levels. Play on a cool modern wood or metal board or choose from beautiful and richly ornamented optional boards. Play from left or right or play using black or white checkers. Play against friends in the same room or play against people anywhere on the internet. Your choice, your game.

  • One of the best backgammon AI in the world (BGBlitz) is available as an in-app purchase as your opponent or tutor. Find out how good you already are and let BGBlitz teach you how to get better. Because, who doesn’t love to win?

  • Connect with friends by playing with them in 2-player mode on the same device or anywhere in the world over the network. An occasional game is a great way to stay in touch with friends or to meet new people.

  • Available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch (iOS 9 or later required). Optimized for the latest iOS.

  • You could be playing backgammon like never before in under a minute. What are you waiting for?

NOT YET CONVINCED? READ ON…

ALWAYS READY WHEN YOU ARE – COMPUTER OPPONENT
No matter if it is in the middle of the night or your coffee break, your computer is always ready for a match. Choose from three difficulty levels, according to your skill. For those who only want to play against the best, there is an world class artificial intelligence opponent available as an in-app purchase (more below). Casual play or competitive match? True Backgammon has an opponent for you that is fun to play with or that is a teeth grinding challenge.

PLAY WITH HUMANS NEAR YOU – GAME BOARD MODE
Imagine you are together with friends and you want to pass some time with a match? Or you sit on a train, playing against the computer and one of your commuters turns out to be a backgammon player too? You don’t need to carry a real board with you all the time. Instead True Backgammon is your board. Play against friends and acquaintances, any time and anywhere.

CONNECT WITH FRIENDS OR PLAY AGAINST RANDOM OPPONENTS ONLINE – GAME CENTER
You prefer to play against humans rather than an AI, but there is no prospective opponent in sight? Become part of the daily growing community of people who play True Backgammon online on an iPad, iPhone, iPod, iMac or MacBook. There’s always someone willing to play a match. And you don’t just play with them, you can also talk to them via built-in voice chat.

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER – GAME BOARDS
We didn’t just strive to make a good AI and fluid gameplay, we also made it our mission to make it look good. No, not just good… we wanted to make them look drop dead gorgeous good. We found a skilled designer and then tortured him with feedback until we were satisfied. The result are two boards (metal and wood) which look awesome, while providing little visual distraction to let you focus on your strategy. And for those who love a little distraction, we let the designer run wild with a selection of (optional) fancy boards, rich with decor and beautiful details. Which one is your favorite?

AAAND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOARD, A MULTIPLE OLYMPIC CHAMPION AI – BEEE GEEEE BLITZ
From time to time there is an olympic tournament for backgammon programs. We managed to convince the maker of the three times winner BGBlitz to make his AI available to the users of True Backgammon. This AI is a world class opponent for those who only want to match up against the best. And it is a patient mentor. BGBlitz offers a tutor mode, that will point out moves that are less than optimal, and it will show better ones.

WHAT ELSE CAN WE SAY?
Long story short, we put a lot of effort into this app, not just into the game play, but on every level. If you choose it, we are sure you will not be disappointed.

Updated on 14th September 2022

  • Native support for all new iPhone 14 devices
  • General stability improvements
  • Needs iOS 12 or higher to run

If you like this app and want to support further development, please rate it 5 star, or even better, write a nice review. I appreciate your support.

True Backgammon Reviews

Have had this over a decade and it still works flawlessly. Take our iPad to restaurants and our husband and we play all the time. We’ve tried other apps and nothing comes close to this one.


We have tried many different backgammon games on our iPad, and this one is, by far, the best and its free! It offers a choice of boards (wood or metal for free, or multiple leather looks for $0.99) and game options that are easy to understand. The graphics are beautiful, and the computer does not « cheat (such as giving itself multiples doubles near the end) like we’ve experienced with other backgammon games.


We tried a few and this one is our favorite. Easy, fast and we love to try to beat the computer. It would be great if they added a score count for our games against the computer so we an see our progress.


We know the developer insisted that the game is fair and that the dice arent loaded but when the cpu in some games gets one double after another and nine times out of 10, your unprotected player is caught, we wonderIn reality, no human player is that lucky. Randomness flies out the window. We take back our words. We do win from time to time although it gets frustrating when we dont. The CPU is a very good player. We’ve been playing this game for some time now and admittedly we win (rarely) but having observed the dice rolls we’ve come to the conclusion that this game is definitely slanted toward the computer. In almost every game, the proportion of doubles and rolls that inevitably result in knocking out your player and protecting his in the same move to the players is uncanny. Opponent: 4 doubles in a row at the end of the game. That doesnt happen in real life. Im lucky if we roll one double in a game. Too bad this game isnt more true to life. It would be a lot more fun.


EVERY backgammon game on the App Store have a huge amount of reviews complaining about the computer cheats. As someone who played backgammon frequently as a child on a physical board and dice, while it can sometimes FEEL like things are rigged, thats not at all the case. Developer of this app goes out of their way to prove this, even though it doesnt really add any value to the playability. Speaking of playability, its fantastic. Graphics look excellent, animations are smooth, and sounds are spot on. You just cant go wrong for less than 5 bucks, especially since they dont collect ANY user data.


This app is fun, fair and a good way to learn the game. Im a beginner and have tried many backgammon apps. This one is the best we’ve triedno distracting ads, graphics, and nice layout. One thing we’ve noticed reading reviews of this and many other apps is that backgammon players always seem to believe the apps are cheating them. We have to admit we saw some weird patterns myself in another app we played. But this one seems to have no motivation to cheat and the developer has gone out of his way to show that he isnt including the option to roll your own dice. We read some words of wisdom that placing your checkers in the best position gives your rolls the most chance of leading to good outcomes. Makes sense to us! In our opinion this app is well worth the small fee.


This game is the best ever. Very realistic.


The computer play is solid, the best BG we’ve seen. We love playing on this. But we havent been able to lose unless we try. It doubles very conservatively, so dont ever accept a cube. We think it accepts cubes very aggressively, and we win a LOT because of (what we consider) pretty loose acceptances. You can cheat by resigning a clear, clear gammon which the computer will always accept and charge you with a single loss (according to current cube position). You can cheat by looking at upcoming rolls and adjusting your checker move accordingly. We dont see ANY way the computer can cheats. It doesnt. Promise. We win a fair amount of 15-0 matchessome 15-3 or 4. A few 15-10+. We’ve lost once, maybe twice. We question some plays: it hits loose in his (or her) back court at times, and skips some hits for reasons Im not seeing. 1 game opened with 5-1 computer, which the computer used a standard open. The following roll was 4-4 played by the computer! It was not our roll. We tapped and the third roll was ours and game was fine thereafter (I won). But we stared at the 2-roll setup for a long timeassuring we wasnt crazy. Im about 95% sure that it took two opening rolls. We’ve never seen any bug sinceI may be crazyIm ok with that. Nice work BG guy!


True Backgammon is absolutely one of the best backgammon apps on iOS. We would rank this one right up there with Backgammon NJ and XG Mobile. This one has the cleanest interface of the three, best boards, world class AI and fair dice. No glitzy graphics and ads. The in app purchases are totally worth it and if you want to play on the same device or online against others that is all there. We would like to see a clock option to simulate matches irl and like online on Galaxy and perhaps a real time evaluation engine option but even if these things arent implemented it is a near perfect app. Icing on the cake would be a built in clock and score card to use for live backgammon matches but this is probably outside of scope of what this app is trying to be. Developer support is up to date and communicative too. In any case we highly recommend this one. We only have 5 BG apps on our phone after sifting through the sea of apps out there. True Backgammon is on par if not a notch above NJ for general play and features. XG is probably best for analysis. Galaxy best for online timed matches against strong opponents and BG Buddy for our scorecard and clock.


Good play. Would be nice to have a better interface for playing others on the Internet.


Get knocked off early and youll always roll double sixes.


We know you have disregarded this issue, saying the computer has no bias, but. If you want to see what the complaint is, take stats on games that have been played. We can conservatively state 60-70% of the rolls, particularly dbls goes to the computer. As well as the initial starting roll. It becomes very obvious when you lose repeatedly to the baring off rolls of the opponents dbls.


We’ve been playing this game for a long time and our opinion is that when you play the advanced level that 9 times out of 10, the cpu has the advantage of numerous doubles and rolls that repeatedly knock your players out such that you cant advance. It would be fun if the odds were more even and the rolls were random such that you had an equal chance of winning. The developer says they are random but more often than not, we find that hard to believe.


We know the developer says the app doesnt cheat but there is something wrong with the dice in this game!


Great app, but its laughable how lucky the computer is.


We just cant imagine a real life scenario when our opponent rolls 4 double sixes and multiple other double rolls during a single match. Used to play this game a lot and remember how the author was so adamant about fairness. That might be, but when it hits rolls that are so statistically improbable, its just not fun. Deleted the game again. Games shouldnt be luckier than a human opponent.


The dice are rigged like all the rest. Despite the claim they are fair, they are not!


In terms of playability, this game is in a class by itself. But in terms of fair dice, the game is terrible. At least in the advanced format, you are outmatched by a mile. The computer will ALWAYS, get 4 or 5 times more doubles and usually at the most opportune times; the computer will almost ALWAYS knock you out and even at specific points then double up. We would bet $ that no actual game board backgammon with real dice would play like this. Clearly, the player is at a disadvantage. Wheres the fun in that? It has the potential to be a lot more fun. Id be winning as much as the cpu if we rolled as many doubles, consistently.


In terms of playability, this game is in a class by itself. But in terms of fair dice, the game is terrible. At least in the advanced format, you are outmatched by a mile. The computer will ALWAYS, get 4 or 5 times more doubles and usually at the most opportune times; the computer will almost ALWAYS knock you out and even at specific points then double up. We would bet $ that no backgammon board game would play like this. Clearly, the player is at a disadvantage. Wheres the fun in that? It has the potential to be fun. Id be winning as much as the cpu if we rolled as many doubles, consistently. The review by Longtime user was spot on. We too am a longtime user and this version is laughable. Really! 4 doubles in a row??


Played about 50 games in 2 days. Id say the computer has won 90% of the time, and Im a great player. The computer rolls double after double, Im constantly rolling a 2 and 1. Im deleting this one and downloading another. Updated review: we gave this one a second change. Also noticed that when we select the hard setting, the bots seem to get better rollls and more doubles but doesnt play as aggressive. Its a choice between what feels unfair and what feels a little too easy. Developer (and other folks) say its impossible to rig the game to the benefit of the computer. Sure doesnt feel that way when Im losing game after game on the hard setting and winning constantly on the medium setting. And the only difference seems to be dice rolls.


When you play in the advanced setting this simply means that the cpu will be getting multiple doubles (way more than you), consistently knocking out your players and consistently protecting its players. We find it very hard to believe that you would get the same results if you were rolling real dice. As we said, it would be fun if both sides had an equal chance of winning.


In terms of playability, this game is in a class by itself. But in terms of fair dice, the game is terrible. At least in the advanced format, you are outmatched by a mile. The computer will ALWAYS, get 4 or 5 times more doubles and usually at the most opportune times; the computer will almost ALWAYS knock you out and even at specific points then double up. We would bet $ that no backgammon board game would play like this. Clearly, the player is at a disadvantage. Wheres the fun in that? It has the potential to be fun. Id be winning as much as the cpu if we rolled as many doubles, consistently. The review by Longtime user was spot on. We too am a longtime user and this version is laughable. Really! 4 doubles in a row?? TRUE BACKGAMMON is clearly a misnomer. Why dont you just program the game for the computer to roll ALL doubles. Almost every other roll is a double. If we rolled that many doubles Id win most of the time too. The game could be a lot more fun if it were more true-to-life.


This game has become more frustrating to play because of the numerous duplicate rolls of the dice. What we mean is that a roll like 3-1 will often come consecutively for the same player or occur a few times during a game. It doesnt tend to benefit either the CPU or us, but we seriously question the randomness of the rolls (despite the protestations of the developer).


We’ve played this version ALOT and experienced the program refusing to move our man to capture his player. For example, we roll a 3 and 5. Three move would capture his man. The program moves 5 spaces and refuses the 3 move. We closed the game and re-booted to no avail. This has happened on several occasions. Very frustrating.


Loved this game for a long time. But, stopped playing for a while and recently came back. Upon our return, the dice are not as fair as they used to be. The computer gets exactly what it needs EVERY SINGLE TIME. Thus, a lot of games seemed to end in us getting backgammoned, gammoned, or us resigning. We were winning maybe 1 in 5 games out of pure luck. Please change the game back to how it used to be.


As others have reported, the algorithm delivers in ordinate doubles to self at the expert level. This issue doesnt happen at the casual level. Unfortunately, you wont have a fair game at the expert level.


It will freeze twice now when we are bearing off. It allows smaller moves but no bearing off.


Be warned, this game does not play network players as advertised. It complains about an iCloud problem and never connect to the a network user.


This game is almost always rigged in favor of the computer. Its laughable how many double rolls computer gets and how rolls are so perfect for what computer needs to win. Such a joke!


Its not fair and its rigged to favor the CPU no matter what the developer says. Too many times the cpu dice rolls are too perfect – too many doubles and too many captures. Of course its going to win and real life games wouldnt go that way. We’ve been playing this game for a long time and play well but its not real life play. Really?! The cpu got 4 doubles in a row. We received 0 the entire game. In a recent game, the cpu had 10 doubles to our 0. The advanced version simply means that 9 times out of 10, you wont stand a chance of winning no matter how good you are. Fix this please and maybe the game might be fun to play. CONTRARY TO A PREVIOUS REVIEW, its definitely not fair!! Again, the player who gets the most doubles and captures cant help but win. The evidence is in the fact that when we get lots of doubles (EXTREMELY RARE), we win. FIX THE BLOODY GAME!!


This game has the most computer skewed dice among all backgammon games. It is upsetting that we paid for such product.


Just play it a few times and you will see the patterns. The computer gets all the doubles. The human only rolls doubles when there are no moves. The computer seems to roll exactly the combination they need. We have played several versions of backgammon on line, and they all have predictable dice. We dont recommend this one, especially since it isnt free.


Been going on two years now. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. Most of the time the person gets the invite and accepts. But then just freezes. Bluetooth may be a good option down the road.


This game feels more like playing slots than backgammon – its all chance and no strategy and clearly weighted in favor of the house. Rolls and moves are fairly predictable and, more often than not: (1) the computer will win the 1st roll, (2) the computer will quickly block your two checkers in their home board, (3) if your checker is exposed and there is only one possible roll for the computer to knock it out, the computer will roll that combination, (4) if your checker is on the bar, no matter how many possible rolls would put you back on the board, it will take you multiple turns to get off the bar, and (5) you will roll more doubles when your checker is on the bar (and the doubles cant be used) than at any other time during the game.


We changed the game speed to slow. Started new game and the computer rolled 6-3 and the computer moved the checker to the 6-4 position. We have documented with a photograph and will continue to do so. We agree with the app developer that there is no incentive for them to cheat, therefore we know the app has a bug.


We know the developer insisted that the game is fair and that the dice arent loaded but when the cpu in some games gets one double after another and nine times out of 10, your unprotected player is caught, we wonderIn reality, no human player is that lucky. Randomness flies out the window. We take back our words. We do win from time to time although it gets frustrating when we dont much. The CPU is a very good player. We’ve been playing this game for some time now and admittedly we win (rarely) but having observed the dice rolls we’ve come to the conclusion that this game is definitely slanted toward the computer. In almost every game, the proportion of doubles and rolls that inevitably result in knocking out your player and protecting his in the same move to the players is uncanny.


We know the developer insisted that the game is fair and that the dice arent loaded but when the cpu in some games gets one double after another and nine times out of 10, your unprotected player is caught, we wonderIn reality, no human player is that lucky. Randomness flies out the window. We take back our words. We do win from time to time although it gets frustrating when we dont much. The CPU is a very good player.


We play everyday against the game and we’ve gotten way better when we play other people now! Great set up and fast play love it just wish they changed up games as they repeat too often !


We dont share the common complaint that its unfair. We’ve played about five thousand games now and we win a good seventy percent of them (all on the hardest setting). However, lately this happens: Im on the bar, computer has an unprotected pip on its 1, we roll a 1,5. It wont let us hit the open pip and will only let us in on the 5. Also we’ve noticed that sometimes it seems to count the bar as a point/space, so if Im moving into our home It might move a three two spaces instead of three. Not that big a deal since its easy to catch and correct. Update: Thanks for the response. Now we feel like an idiot. Of course thats what it was. That counting the bar as a space thing is probably our imagination as well.


This is a great app (that does NOT cheat – more on that below) except for several basic but much needed improvements. Fix these and Ill change it to 5 stars with a glowing review: 1) The New Match button should immediately start a new match using the current settings (otherwise it serves no purpose). We shouldnt have to move over to the other screen and specify the type of match every single time. 2) There should be an option to show the pip counts right on the board or next to it. 3) The undo button should be right next to the board (at least optionally). 4) In the mode where you tap to move, we should be able to tap anywhere on the stack of checkers. We shouldnt have to tap on the top checker. 5) The indicator that shows where we can move a checker to should also show which checkers we can move. 6) When the doubling cube is turned off, there should be an option to have the app roll our dice automatically after the opponent moves. 7) The board slides side to side way too slowly. It shouldnt take so long to go to the settings menus and back (especially since we have to go to them every time we need to check pip counts, undo a move, or start a new match). 8) In Human vs Human mode, it should either let you enter the players names or it should say what color the checkers are on the scoreboard. Just calling them Dark and Light doesnt work for the Metal board design or for most of the paid board designs since the two colors are equally dark. We have worked with randomization algorithms myself and can say that no, the app does NOT cheat by biasing the dice or looking ahead at them, and it has features that fully prove this. So you can ignore reviews that claim otherwise. People have been making such false accusations against trustworthy backgammon apps for decades. Look up the article Does Your Bot Cheat? By Bill Robertie.


This is the most fair app for backgammon out there, but the app freezes up which is frustrating.


Your game is so shamefully stacked against the player that its laughable. Im done with it. No fun at all.


We purchased this app because we were tired of watching the ads in the free app we were using, but Im going back to the free one. Anytime we play against the computer we end up shutting down the game. The computer will get doubles six or seven times in one game when we get no doubles. In the last game we played the computer got doubles three out of the first five rolls. The computer also hits our pieces constantly. Between the constant doubles and hitting our pieces there is no way we can play a fair game. Waste of money.


There is no way this game is fair. We have tested it and its not for us. The only way we will play this is to input our dice rolls. But then we dont need your app for that.


Our wife and we play this game daily but most of the time the game freezes when trying to play an Gamecenter game. Our internet is great and both on 5G Shame about it.


We’ve played 100 plus games in True Backgammon and we’ve seen about ten times where one die changes while a player is contemplating a move. Sometimes its to the players benefit sometimes not. Why is this happenings? Thanks for the response, but: Heres the latest on the random dice change: we now state the die values after the roll, out loud, and in one game alone, three separate times after we rolled our dice, one die changes. Its usually a six to a four. Others have changed as well. Sometimes it benefits us and other times not. We dont believe this is deliberate but you have a coding error/glitch. Our wife has witnessed it too. Also, as we noticed the human rarely winning the opening dice roll, we started keeping track and over 100 games the computer won 88 of them. It cant be that random. Its a really good app and we’ve played over 400 games against it but you have bugs in your system like it or not.


Game in broken fir Gamecenter. Invites then freezes. Havent played for days. Maybe have the option to play Bluetooth? Our wife and we play this game daily but most of the time the game freezes when trying to play an Gamecenter game. Our internet is great and both on 5G Shame about it.


We have played Backgammon at a high level of skill for decades. When the algorithm wants to win it resoundingly beats you. 8 losses in a row one game won then 9 wins with the computerthe other day, how is this challenging??? Very uneven when it comes to competition!!! Lame program we so wish we could get our money back.

More pages for True Backgammon