BGBlitz X - 2.6.2

Very nice game play. Graphics are OK, no fancy animations or 3D perspective, but to be honest, that's OK (although would be nice), because it plays so well. Recommended.

Was going to give it 4 stars for lack of eye candy, but decided to give it 5 instead to offset some of the more curious reviews that recommend a competitor's product by "phantom" reviewers.

BGBlitz is an excellent Backgammon with a really tough AI that is hard to beat and will force you to play better. Unfortunately, 16% of the games will end prematurely until you pay the shareware fee, which I think puts it into the category of "ransomware". But if you're a backgammon fan and like a challenge then look nowhere else than BGBlitz.

First I assume that Sunfish is Mr. David Byrum, author of Absolute BG, but it deserves an answer anyway.

BGBlitz played and won in 2002 and 2003 against GNU-BG, which is regarded by many people (the majority?) the best BG-program in the world. And GNU-BG is a collaborational effort of programmers from New Zealand, Norway, USA, The Netherlands and Germany. Sure it is a pity that Snowie and Jellyfish didn't take part, but that hardly the fault of the BGBlitz or GNU-BG

Regarded to the speed of the checkerplay. It is adjustable and with recent Macs it is usually a little bit too fast after installation. If someone can explain to me where it is slow and doesn't feel real, I will change that, but I assume that Byr... ehm Sunfish couldn't find some real points.

And are exaxt winning probabilities and a tutor not essential features? And match play? And and and?

And sunfish tells: He was looking for a fun, challenging game.

Abs BG is fun, for sure, but challenging? Doesn't that imply a decent playing strength? BGBlitz plays so much stronger.... it's like comparing a sports car with a bicycle.... If anyone believes this is bragging: just try it out or ask for a match. I suggest best-of-seven 13 point matches for any reasonable amount. My only condition is: I want to be sure that BGBlitz plays against Absolute BG and not against BGBlitz itself or GNU or Snowie or Jellyfish.

I came back to BGBlitz after a hiatus of several months, during which time I was playing against GNU Backgammon on X11.app. While I was away, it turns out that BGBlitz cleaned gnubg's clock in some international competition or other. So, curiosity piqued, I dug up my old bgblitz.license file (which you only have to buy ONCE, regardless of current level!) and tried version 1.8.2. Results: As usual, both gnubg and BGBlitz wipe me out, although cube play seems a bit weak for both of 'em, because I can win by doubling, not by outplaying either neural net. In the long run, I know I'm toast. But BGBlitz has really grown up -- it's now one of the prettiest backgammon programs around, thanks to some very slick boards by some very competent artists. The feature set has grown beyond anything I'll ever want, the Java code loads and executes much quicker (thanks to Panther?), and the pup is worth every dime I've spent on it -- both the antique, limited version, and this slick, modern, monster killer. Way cool, dudes. Way cool.

I purchased Absolute Backgammon last week and was so fed up with it I also had to purchase BGBlitz. I don't have a lot of money to waste, and so wish I had paid more attention to reviews. So, here's what I found out:

Strength of Backgammon Play
The big way BGBlitz shines is its backgammon engine. While Absolute Backgammon has a nice simple user interface, the actual game play is really poor so you never really learn how to play correctly. BGBlitz on the other hand uses a neural net algorithm to find the best strategy, and its adjustable to the level of play. One way you can tell the difference is Absolute Backgammon on its highest difficulity level picks its moves with no delay, meaning its just a simple algorithm driving the choices. BGBlitz takes a varying amount of time as the neural net looks for the best choice. This only takes a few seconds on all but the highest settings.

While after only a week of playing I am able to beat Absolute Backgammon 4/6 games on its most difficult setting, I rarely am able to beat BGBlitz on even its middle settings.

Game Interaction
While Absolute Backgammon is just a really, really simple game, BGBlitz is designed to help you become better at backgammon. WIth the Tutor it will pop up a warning if you make a really stupid move, it will warn you if you should have doubled, and basically makes sure you are learning. So far I've really gotten better in a short period of time.

Support
The author of BGBlitz has been really helpful. I really let him have it with some suggestions for improvements, and he actually THANKED me. He is prompt, and believes in helping the customer.

On the other hand, the author of Absolute Backgammon assumes that when things go wrong its the customer's fault. I had a problem with the game, and even sent him a couple of screenshots showing what was wrong, and he still said the problem was "user error", and accused me of lying. I've never seen this attitude in computer software before; the guy's just a real jerk.

License:
BGBlitz uses a simple license key that you get in email. You just copy it into your installation directory and you're good. You can then move the software to another machine or upgrade your OS with no problems.

On the other hand, with Absolute Backgammon you get a code that only works on that version of the OS on that computer. Want to upgrade? You have to prove to the author you really, really need a key and they go through the installation process again. I don't know about you, but I install lots of programs on my computer, and don't have time to spend hours reinstalling programs when a new version of OSX comes out.