Handheld Backgammon Game Search

December 4, 2008 11:13 AM

Which handheld Backgammon game is worth getting?

I’m getting back into Backgammon after not playing it for a long time. I've downloaded both GNU Backgammon and 3DFIBS and plan to start playing online on FIBS and other sites. While both of these are excellent for training and honing my game before I get into online play, I can only use them on my laptop. So I am looking for advice on getting a good handheld Backgammon game that will allow me to play anytime I have a spare few minutes.

I am hoping there is something out there that is the size of a blackberry and has enough power to play at a challenging level (expert and above) and give hints or tell you when you are making a boneheaded move. There’s plenty of chess games that offer this but is there one for Backgammon enthusiasts that’s not too wildly expensive? Christmas is coming, so I’d like to get my letter off to Santa for this as soon as possible.

posted by 543DoublePlay to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

iPod Touch might fill the bill here. Not sure about the backgammon availability but I would assume that's covered.
posted by troy at 11:17 AM on December 4, 2008

I run Backgammon Pro on my Palm Treo. I like it.
posted by jclovebrew at 11:59 AM on December 4, 2008

There are a few iPhone / iTouch versions:

gameloft do Backgammon Classics (3.5 stars ave. rating from 20 reviews). Also available for other mobiles, PSP &c. Looks ugly.

PosiMotion do Backgammon
(3* / 42 reviews. This score seems lower than it should be because of a few 1* reviews from people convinced it is cheating :-) I'm going to give this one a try myself.

As an extra, as you mentioned FIBS games, multimedia-go do Backgammon Online (4.5* / 6 reviews) which can play using FIBS bots or humans. Of course, you need to be online.

Maybe getting an iPhone/iTouch is overkill unless you have one already. Then again, I paid for a iPhone synthesiser app this morning which is worth the cost of the phone so I'm happy (noise.io if anyone's interested). Now I too am going to pick up my lost art thanks to your question so thanks.

BTW, you probably know this already but Backgammon by Paul Magriel is the bible and worth asking as another present ;-)
posted by i_cola at 1:11 PM on December 4, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies. No iPhone, Ipod touch or Treo unfortunately so they're pretty much out. I found something called "Touch Backgammon" from Excalibur which is a small handheld game, but of course there is no way of knowing how strong a game it plays, or how random the rolls of the dice will be. I believe Excalibur make pretty good chess, crossword and sudoku games so I guess there's not much to lose from getting one.

Thanks also to i_cola for the reminder on Magriel's book, the price on the used copies looks pretty good.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 2:44 PM on December 4, 2008

If you can find a Palm/Treo, there are two programs that actually play a decent game. The first, Slapgammon, is no longer supported and is impossible to find. However, the other, Agushka Backgammon, while also no longer supported, is now free, and can be found at various download site, such as here. I think they are both based on the Jellyfish backgammon engine and are good enough that you can find all sorts of forum complaints that they cheat.
posted by rtimmel at 10:35 AM on December 5, 2008