I was looking for a checkers app for my iPhone 4S when Bob mentioned that he was planning a Checker Maven review of apps for Android phones, and asked if I could add some info on the iPhone apps I tried. I installed about a dozen apps, played a number of games, and made some notes about each app. As a checkers player of average ability, I was looking for something that I could use for practice games. I wanted an opponent that was at least as strong a player as me (not asking a whole lot!), and preferably stronger. I was also hoping to find an app with features such as arbitrary position setup, and an analysis mode with infinite search time and search results with numeric search scores.
Some of the apps have other features such as pairing you up with another human opponent online, or keeping track of your game results history. I was not interested in these features and did not evaluate them.
Some of the apps have a free version and a pay version with more features. In most cases I first installed the free version and evaluated it, then installed the pay version and looked for improvements in play. In a few cases I did not try the pay version because the description indicated that the differences did not affect playing strength or ease of use and were not important to me.
I did not find any checkers apps that had all the features I was looking for. None of these have any kind of analysis mode, position setup, or give any indication of their evaluation of the game. I found one that for my purposes is clearly the best of the lot, although it is far from ideal. A few others could also play a decent game, at least in the opening. A strange feature of many is a choice of turning forced captures on or off, and some default to it off. Forced captures are not optional in checkers, and if you're not playing this way you're not playing checkers! Even the app that I picked as the best of the lot does not handle all captures smoothly. When making a capture move jumping 2 or more pieces, after jumping the first captured piece a pop-up box ask if you want to continue jumping, and gives you the choice to answer yes or no. Of course you can play legal checkers by selecting yes, but at the very least this is tedious and unnecessary.
Most of the apps played poorly and were not strong enough to give me a competitive game. Only 3 of the apps played well enough to give me a good game. These are Checkers Free from Optime Software, Fantastic Checkers (free) from Ensenasoft, and Teeny Checkers ($0.99) from Geoffrey Rainville. IMO the best of these is Teeny Checkers ($0.99), although it is far from ideal.
I played a few games between the 3 strongest apps, with the results shown below. These apps do not allow play to start from an arbitrary position setup, and there is usually no variety in the moves they play. Each time they are presented with a particular position they (usually) play the same move. I could typically only play 2 unique games between each set of opponents. In the games between Teeny and Fantastic, one of the apps varied in one of its early moves and this allowed a third game.
Checkers Free vs. Fantastic: +1, -0, =1.
Teeny Checkers ($0.99) vs. Fantastic: +2, -0, =1.
Teeny Checkers ($0.99) vs. Checkers Free: +2, -0, =0.
Developer: Ignazio Motisi (http://www.outofthebit.com)
- Plays 4 variants: English, Italian, Spanish, and 8x8 International. The program help describes the rules for each version. But these rules are incomplete, and the app does not enforce several rules relating to captures. For example, in Italian checkers, it implements the rule that men cannot capture kings, but not these rules: 1) If there are several capture moves available, the maximum number of pieces must be captured. 2) If there are several moves that meet rule 1) then if possible the captures must be done using a king. 3) If there are several moves that meet rules 1) and 2), then the maximum number of kings must be captured, and 4) If there are several moves that meet rules 1), 2), and 3) then a king must be captured as early as possible.
- 2 levels: easy and medium
- No undo.
Decent graphics, but program plays a weak game. I played several games of English checkers and won every game. I switched to 8x8 International, a variant that I have never played, and won that game as well.
In English checkers it enforces the capture rule.
Moves are easy to make. You can use drag and drop, or touch source and destination squares.
The user interface tries to show which pieces have legal moves by bouncing them up and down about once a second. This is quite annoying when you're trying to think about your move.In the screen capture you can see that all the light colored pieces that have legal moves are not centered in their squares, as I caught them in the process of bouncing.
Developer: Ignazio Motisi (http://www.outofthebit.com)
This version adds a third "hard" level. I beat it twice in 2 games (English checkers) at this level. In a 4 kings vs. 3 kings endgame, it put up almost no resistance, allowing me to force trades when it could have easily postponed them.
Company: Optime Software (http://www.optimesoftware.com/)
- moves are made by touching the source and destination squares.
- Playing strength is good, it beat me in 3 of 4 games on the strongest setting. The playing strength is controlled by a slider that seems to have about 7 different settings. I beat it both games on its middle strength setting.
- Against Fantastic Checkers, it gained a winning advantage in the first game but could not complete the win. The second game was a draw.
- has an undo move command.
- There is a $0.99 version that has additional turn-based multiplayer features against Game Center friends or random network opponents. I did not try it because the description did not mention any changes to playing strength, or additional analysis features.
Company: Koduco (http://koduco.com)
- Uses only landscape mode.
- 3 levels
- Can undo one move by each side.
- Drag pieces to move, very easy to make moves. The easiest program to make moves with.
- Program strength is poor, it lost every game against me at its strongest level. It let me walk right in for a king with no resistance.
- At the start of each game, you have to stare at ads for about 10 seconds, then tap an 'X' to get to play.
- Moves are easy to make, by dragging the pieces.
- Appears to have a bug. It exited unexpectedly, sending me back to the desktop in about half of the games that I played.
- There is a slider to control the playing strength, but it appears to be disabled in the free version, which is fixed at "intermediate". I beat it every game that I was able to finish without it crashing.
This version eliminates the annoying ads of the free version, and the strength control is enabled. I beat it easily on 2 games at its strongest setting.
Author: Ensenasoft (http://www.ensenasoft.com)
- Make moves either by dragging or touching the from and to squares. It seemed fussy and did not recognize many of my touches. I often had to try 2 or 3 times to make a move before I was successful. There is about a 1/2 second delay between touching the destination square and the user interface responding by making the move. That delay, combined with the difficulty in getting it to recognize touches, made it difficult to play.
- Several times it started playing in Autoplay mode, automatically playing both sides of the board, when I had put it in 1-player mode. I had to kill it to recover.
- It has a bug in its move generator. It made a capture move that crowned one of its men to king, and then continued capturing with the king as part of the same move. This is illegal in English checkers!
- No undo.
- 3 playing levels. Playing strength is good. It beat me all but one game when played at its highest level.
Author: Ensenasoft (http://www.ensenasoft.com)
- This version adds the ability to use OpenFeint to store game data on a server. I didn't try that feature. It also adds the options to play music during the game, and a second user interface theme where the checkers pieces look like cookies.
- Its playing strength and move making interface is the same as in the free version.
Author: Geoffrey Rainville (www.teenysoftware.net)
- Make a move by dragging the piece. The ease of moving is good, but a little fussier than 3D Checkers or Checkers FS5.
- Teeny Checkers lets you make illegal moves when you have a capture move!
- There are no options, strength levels, or commands to take back a move.
- The program twice hung up on me at the welcome screen, requiring a power off to recover.
- If you tell the app to play first, it plays with its pieces along the bottom of the screen, and your pieces at the top. This is backwards from the orientation that I am accustomed to.
- To make a double jump, you jump the first piece, and then a popup message asks if you want to jump again. This is unnecessary and tedious.
- I beat it in 3 games. It does not play a very strong game.
Author: Geoffrey Rainville (www.teenysoftware.net)
This version adds a strength control, a selection of board themes, and the ability to have several games going simultaneously. At its strongest strength, it searches for between 1 and 4 seconds before it moves. It beat me in every game I played.
- Unlike the free version, this requires you to make forced moves. However it has the same bug in its move generator that was seen in Fantastic Checkers. It made a capture move that crowned one of its men to king, and then continued capturing with the king as part of the same move.
- I did not experience any welcome screen hangups as I did with the free version.
- If you tell the app to play first, it plays with its pieces along the bottom of the screen, and your pieces at the top. This is backwards from the orientation that I am accustomed to.
- To make a double jump, you jump the first piece, and then a popup message asks if you want to jump again. This is unnecessary and tedious.
- In the first game against Fantastic checkers it reached a 4 pieces to 3 advantage, but it could not win the (easily won) ending. The game reached a point where both sides moved a king back and forth between 2 squares. Teeny checkers won the second and third games.
http://www.codecriticalsoftware.com/frogcheckersiphone/index.htm
- The pieces are represented by frogs that randomly blink their eyes and make 'ribbit' sounds. Surprisingly, this is not too distracting.
- Make moves either by dragging or touching the from and to squares. Moves are relatively easy to make.
- Frog Checkers lets you make illegal moves when you have a capture move!
- 5 playing levels. I won 2 games and lost 3 on its highest level.
http://sunstormgames.com/game-detail/?game_id=832
- Make moves by touching the source and destination squares.
- 3 playing levels. I won all games on its highest level. Its play is very weak.
- Unfortunately it allows illegal moves when there is a capture move.
Author: Beetle Game Works
- Make moves by touching the source and destination squares.
- Has no control of play level.
- I beat it 3 times in 4 games. Its endgame play is weak. After it gets one king, it sometimes moves that king back and forth between between 2 squares when it has other moves to crown men, or can move its king to a more central and useful position.