Go on iPad

April 27, 2011 10:18 AM

A well-made Go game app for the iPad (or iPhone)?

I recently downloaded Deep Green, a fantastic app for playing Chess on the iPad/iPhone. Quickly realized how much good user interface/interaction contribute to my likelihood of using an application.

On those lines, are there any decent Go playing games for iOS, specially iPad? Most look pretty amateurish, including Ancient Game of GO which I own.

posted by raheel to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 answers total)

I like SmartGo, but I haven't used anything else, so I'm not sure how it compares. Seems professional enough to me though.
posted by milestogo at 10:21 AM on April 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ditto for SmartGo. It has a bunch of tutorials to show you the basics, then it'll automatically scale the computer's strength against your own ability level.

I'm still floundering my way through learning Go, but it's more than good enough for me. Supports multiple board sizes, replay of famous games w/analysis, etc.
posted by jpeacock at 10:41 AM on April 27, 2011

I'm actually thinking of writing one. What features/UI behaviors would you like to see? Feel free to MeMail me.

(for the record, I use SmartGoPro, which is good for practice sessions because of their wealth of Go problems, but for various reasons it doesn't satisfy my Go needs)
posted by Afroblanco at 10:45 AM on April 27, 2011

Another vote for SmartGo. It has better computer AI than other apps IMO. The full board can be a little hard to play with on the iPhone but I imagine the experience on an iPad is nicer. The only thing that's lacking is the ability to play with someone else who has the app.
posted by vilandra at 10:47 AM on April 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have the dubious distinction of having bought every Go app on the Apple market. SmartGo Pro is the best, which is not to say it's perfect at all. The UI is the least irritating of them all; the AI is weaker than Igowin, but hey, it's on a phone. If you want to do Go problems like tsumego, Go Grinder is pretty good, but the UI isn't especially streamlined.

If you want to play on servers against other people, or just watch other people play while waiting for the bus, Tetsuki gets an honorable mention. I personally can't conscience playing online when I might be disconnected or interrupted suddenly, it just feels impolite.
posted by doteatop at 1:38 PM on April 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

I like smartgo pro a lot for the problems, and I think it has a nice & polished interface. Its AI however is not very strong and behaves (even) less like a human than other AIs I've played (mainly gnugo). So if you're just beginning make sure to balance it out by playing with humans; goes for any AI really.
posted by advil at 2:31 PM on April 27, 2011

I have Igowin, and am happy with it. I'm not at all a serious Go player though, so your needs may be different than mine.

I think there's a free version you can try out, where the UI is exactly the same as the full version but the playing strength is capped. I think it includes a decent Go tuturial as well.
posted by philipy at 2:42 PM on April 27, 2011