Dominoes for Mac

I play Allgood Dominoes 4 more than I play any other game. The graphics, options, game variations, domino styles, player settings, are the most comprehensive of any domino game that I have found for the Mac. Actually it is the most comprehensive and customizable domino game I've played for Mac or PC. Much attention to detail has gone into every aspect of the many games within the game. The way the dominoes float to the board and the placement programming is excellent. The dominoes are bright and colorful. I play DRAW and BLOCK. Draw has the hazard of having to draw many bones before having one that can be played. That isn't a problem in Block, but block has the challenge of ending up blocked with a slew of dominoes which makes the game unpredictable. With the player skill level at medium I make it my goal to win 3 games in a row. I don't always meet my goal which makes me try harder and play more games. There are a couple of items on my "wish list." The number one wish is for the score to be larger because it gets hard to see on my Macbook Pro with its 1920 x 1200 resolution. The other wish would be for sound. Just the simple sounds of the bones "clicking" would be a nice touch for a better experience. There is one Domino game for the Mac that has more panache in the graphics department but it has none of the wide range of games and options available in Allgood Dominoes 4.

For reasons I gave in my last review of this VERY FRUSTRATING game, I just tossed it in the trash and will no longer agravate myself with the unfairness of it. $19.95 down the drain. Don't buy this unless you want to be frustrated!!!

I bought this game and have been playing it for well over a year now. Time in and time out the computer gets whatever it needs to win and I can't seem to BUY the right domino. It is a nice looking game. I play "Muggins" and have the computer play set at "Tough". I occasionally miss a better play than what I just made but usually I evaluate each domino for the best play and often the plays I need just are not there. I very often get doubles during play and, of course those numbers are not often on the board to play on. In addition to doubles, I often have 4, 5, or even 6 of the same number showing on my dominoes and often I'll have that occur with more than one number. E.g. 5 ones and 3 or 4 sevens in my hand. That makes it very difficult to win! If I play a double 9 the computer pretty often will come up with a 9/2 or a 9/7 giving it either 20 or 25 points. Oh, and if I choose the option of highest double starting the game, the computer gets to start far more often than I do. I enjoy playing this game but get VERY FRUSTRATED with the unfairness of it. I win maybe one game out of 3 to 5 games played. IN CONCLUSION, I WOULD ONLY RECOMMEND THIS GAME IF YOU ARE PREPARED FOR LOTS OF FRUSTRATION!!! I would love to see the author fix the game so the computer really does play smarter at the more difficult levels and not just with better dominoes programmed for it so it LOOKS like it's playing smarter!

Version 4 isn't much of an improvement over verson 3. Also, I would have hoped that with this new version there was some kind of sound added, but sadly there wasn't. At least add a sound when you make a play, for crying out loud!

While Dominoes 4.0 is rather nicely put together, it's obvious to me after giving it a good "test drive" that the game is programmed to give the computer a big advantage over the one who plays against it, even in easy mode. When I would place the initial domino at the start of a game, the computer virtually always had a matching tile, whereas quite a few of times when the computer placed the first one, I didn't have a matching tile and had to draw another one or more. Then, at a number of times during the games, I was unable to place a matching tile and had to keep drawing additional ones, sometimes about eight or so one after the other 'till I was able to come up with a matching one; then the computer(opponent) would too often play out its tiles, leaving me with tiles containing a high number of pips, giving it, the "opponent", 40-70 points. Only extremely rarely did this happen to the computer. Over all, the computer seemed to come up with matching tiles far more often than I. For these reasons, I decided not to purchase it, although I'm also ambivalent about whether or not it's worth $20. At any rate, I'd like to see a mode of play available, in Dominoes 4.0, in which the computer's dominoes are chosen in totally random fashion, to reflect playing in the real world.