When I was first asked to review Backgammon 1.42 for the Palm Pilot, I thought to myself that there really is no need for a game like Backgammon for the Palm. I never played the board version of the game, so this turned into a learning experience for me. Those of you familiar with the game, bear with me a moment while I explain the gist of it to those who aren't. The rules are actually pretty simple: Move your pieces around the board and off before your opponent. The white pieces move from the lower left, counter-clockwise around the board and off. The black, clockwise from the upper left and off in the lower left. The board is split by "jail" which is where your pieces go if it is alone on the board and an opponent lands on the same space. It is then bumped into jail and no other piece can be moved until all your pieces are returned to the board. Pieces are moved from space to space and cannot land anywhere that there is more than one piece. Before any piece can be removed, all pieces must be moved into the last quadrant of the board. Pieces need not be removed by exact number on the dice, but if a piece can be advanced it must be before another piece can be removed.

OK, that's the very basic, first timer's look at Backgammon. Now, how does Stand Alone's version stack up? Well, the game is very true to the rules of Backgammon. As with any computer game, there is no chance for you to make an illegal move as you are warned with either a screen explaining your error, or a black arrow that appears on the board at the piece you are trying to move. As a newbie to the game, I did find myself in confusing situations from time to time as the game wouldn't allow me to make a move, but I had no idea why. That black arrow just kept showing up and it took a few attempts and some head scratching before I figured out what I was doing wrong. Other times, an audible beep and a warning screen explained exactly what I was doing wrong and I was able to get right back into the game. I wish that this was the case for every illegal move, although that could get annoying too. As a newbie, it would've been nice to have some sort of tutorial to help the learning process. It was also very difficult to see what the computer was doing at first, as the computer's pieces just disappeared and reappeared in their new location all in the blink of an eye.

After some research, I found an "Animation" checkbox in the Preferences menu that shows all of the computer's move. I always like to see what my opponent is doing, whether human or computer. I always seem to pick up some hints watching my opponent and their strategy. I also noticed that by default the game was in Expert mode. It took a few VERY short lived games before I figured that out and again, in the Preferences menu, I was able to switch to Beginner mode and I actually have worked my way up to Medium. Isn't progress wonderful?

Since Backgammon is a game of strategy and a little bit of the luck of the roll of dice, I'm not going to get into anymore about the game itself. Again, I found myself wishing I had a color Palm as the graphics on Stand Alone's website look much nicer in color than on the monochrome display of my Visor. But the color, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of the game. I only mention it for the benefit of the lucky Palm IIIc owners, and to once again praise developers for adding more and more color support into their applications. Hopefully soon, we'll all be enjoying the benefits of color Palms.

As with any dice rolling game, playing on the Palm takes some of the "magic" of the dice out of the game. Maybe I just like to feel myself rolling the dice. Or maybe I'm just paranoid that the computer is "fixing" the game and giving me less favorable rolls :). Either way, I haven't played a game yet that seemed "right" when the computer rolls the dice.

Other nice touches that make the game more interesting are the inclusion of both Dice Statistics and Game Statistics. It was kind of cool to be able to go in and see how often a particular combination came up. Not something that will aide you in any way, but a cool little touch that you don't regularly find.