Best way to play Yahtzee on your iPhone?

[Solver]

I’ve owned a number of different Yahtzee type games on a number of different systems from a TI-99/4 to today’s PC. Yahtzee has always been that involving luck and strategy game that you can play solo or with a group.
For my iPhone, I first bought Motion X Poker. Great game. Great graphics. But, its not Yahtzee and I didn’t want to use pencil and paper. To play Yahtzee on my iPhone, I took the no frills route and bought iDice for 99 cents. With the latest update adding high scores, I have no complaints.

 

[SlapMonkey]

I’ve owned a number of different Yahtzee type games on a number of different systems from a TI-99/4 to today’s PC. Yahtzee has always been that involving luck and strategy game that you can play solo or with a group.
For my iPhone, I first bought Motion X Poker. Great game. Great graphics. But, its not Yahtzee and I didn’t want to use pencil and paper. To play Yahtzee on my iPhone, I took the no frills route and bought iDice for 99 cents. With the latest update adding high scores, I have no complaints.

Wow, you completely missed Mach Dice on that list. It lets you generate up to 100 of just about any type of dice (4 sided, 6 sided, 20 sided even 100 sided if you want) and is using some interesting accelerometer based rendering to give a 3D look to the dice; so when you tilt the iPhone you can see the different sides of the dice.

 

[macduke]

...I took the no frills route and bought iDice for 99 cents. With the latest update adding high scores, I have no complaints.

You are really missing out on Five Dice. It's my most used app. It has pretty nice graphics too. Only problems are you have to scroll to place the score sometimes, and the dice rolling animation could be a little smoother. Other than that I think it's fantastic. It is definitely more polished looking than iDice, which is important to me for some reason. But 99 cents isn't too bad of a price for iDice.

 

[Solver]

Wow, you completely missed Mach Dice on that list. It lets you generate up to 100 of just about any type of dice (4 sided, 6 sided, 20 sided even 100 sided if you want) and is using some interesting accelerometer based rendering to give a 3D look to the dice; so when you tilt the iPhone you can see the different sides of the dice.

Opps, I missed that one. There is an impresive video demo on youtube. I guess I'm just not keeping up with the nearly 120 pages of Apple app store apps.

 

[twoodcc]

i find iDice to be pretty good, especially for the price. i had never played Yahtzee before, but i caught on pretty quick

 

[Solver]

You are really missing out on Five Dice. It's my most used app. It has pretty nice graphics too. Only problems are you have to scroll to place the score sometimes, and the dice rolling animation could be a little smoother. Other than that I think it's fantastic. It is definitely more polished looking than iDice, which is important to me for some reason. But 99 cents isn't too bad of a price for iDice.

I went for value. I already bought Motion X Poker. That gave me all the glitz I need for a five dice roller.


Quite an improvement over my TI-99/4 of the past,

 

[Jeremy1026]

I just want to jump in here real quick.

I am the developer behind iDice. I would like to thank those who posted positive comments about it.

For those who posted negative comments or mentioned a need for improvement, please let me know this things, I have no problem working on improving my applications. I just need to know what you (the users) want. High scores were something that I was working on, then scrapped for the initial release, when Solver joined my website with the suggestion I went ahead and put another 10+ hours into getting them working. He posted other suggestions which I am also working on for a later release.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail me, post on my support forums, or PM me here with any suggestions for any of the apps I am distributing.

 

[spvoyek]

A new addition to the "other" choice - iYacht

I recently released a new option for people who are looking for the best way to play Yahtzee on their iPhone - it's called iYacht. A bit of trivia - Yacht is the original name of the game that eventually became Yahtzee.

A few of the features that I think make iYacht an excellent choice are:

#1 - YOU decide how long to shake the dice and YOU decide when to roll the dice

I believe iYacht is the first implementation to distinguish between shaking and rolling the dice. Every other implementation I've seen, the person that wrote the code decided how much to "shake" the dice before "rolling" them. iYacht let's you decide how much, or how little, you "shake" the dice, adding a new personal element to the randomness of the dice. It also offers greater opportunity for you to change your mind. For those times when you get a little too anxious and start "shaking" the dice and then realize you should have selected a different scoring category or held different dice, just stop "shaking" and make your changes. It also reduces the opportunity for a game to be spoiled by an accidental shake, which can often happen with the games that use the iPhones accelerometers to detect shakes. If you accidentally start "shaking" the dice with iYacht, just stop and restore the dice. It requires a signature "throwing" movement to actually "roll" the dice, a movement that won't accidentally happen and possibly ruin an otherwise good game.


#2 - Game play is all on one screen

There is no scrolling/panning/zooming required. Just "shake" and "roll" the dice and play the game - always able to see where you need to score.


#3 - Bonus Tracking

There is an opportunity to score a 35 point bonus. iYacht provides bonus trackers that give you the information you need to make smart scoring selections. You won't have to do the math in your head, just a quick glance at the bonus trackers and you will know exactly how your options will affect your opportunity to get the bonus.


For more details, visit www.iquickiegames.com - Doesn't your iPhone deserve an iQuickie?

 

[MacToddB]

I just want to jump in here real quick.

I am the developer behind iDice. I would like to thank those who posted positive comments about it.

For those who posted negative comments or mentioned a need for improvement, please let me know this things, I have no problem working on improving my applications. I just need to know what you (the users) want. High scores were something that I was working on, then scrapped for the initial release, when Solver joined my website with the suggestion I went ahead and put another 10+ hours into getting them working. He posted other suggestions which I am also working on for a later release.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail me, post on my support forums, or PM me here with any suggestions for any of the apps I am distributing.

As a fellow developer, I try to support (both in buying apps and posting reviews) those who offer constructive posts here, like Jeremy does frequently. I was playing with iDice for quite a while last night in fact! I'm new to Yahtzee, but learning, and it's fun! And there's a chance at $15 iTunes cash!

 

[spvoyek]

I apologize if my post was out of line. There hadn't been any posts here since August 2008, so I'm assuming that it was mine that triggered the one 7 minutes after it?

Basically, I did a Google search for iPhone Yahtzee and found this topic. It looked like a great place to throw mine into the mix.

I chose my words very carefully, the last thing I want to do is flame another implementation and/or developer. I'm always disappointed when I see that behavior in the App Store.

I think iDice is a quality implementation... I do own it. In fact iDice, Five Dice and Yahtzee Adventures were my "bars". I think it's great to have other quality products that force us to try to develop a quality product also.

 

[MacToddB]

I apologize if my post was out of line. There hadn't been any posts here since August 2008, so I'm assuming that it was mine that triggered the one 7 minutes after it?

Nothing out of line at all. Yes, your activity raised this thread to the top and that's why it caught my attention. I honestly was playing iDice for the first time last night, so I was interested in the topic.

As I mentioned, I am a newbie to Yahtzee. I was curious about your bonus comment. Does your app give you hints as to what moves you should make? That would be a nice feature, while I'm learning the rules/odds (I'm a decent Poker player, just new to this).

Thanks and feel free to PM me.

 

[Jeremy1026]

I honestly was playing iDice for the first time last night, so I was interested in the topic.

And just because I can...this is for the "post pictures or it didn't happen people." Here is a screen shot from my database of scores

 

[MacToddB]

And just because I can...this is for the "post pictures or it didn't happen people." Here is a screen shot from my database of scores

Sneaky!!! So, for a newbie, how'd I do? I'm still learning the ropes!

 

[Jeremy1026]

Sneaky!!! So, for a newbie, how'd I do? I'm still learning the ropes!

Your 330 is pretty good. The median score (of the over 3000 scores submitted) is in 267.

 

[MacToddB]

Your 330 is pretty good. The median score (of the over 3000 scores submitted) is in 267.

Okay... NOW I know which scores to submit, and which to keep to myself

Stay tuned...

 

[SFC Archer]

Yahtzee Adventures is not in your poll. It plays adventure challenges and the normal everyday Yahtzee with Bonus. I had to mark other for your poll.

Graphics and sound are great and with the story line adventure is a step away from the norm when adventure is desired.

 

[ghoztman]

Yahtzee Adventures is not in your poll. It plays adventure challenges and the normal everyday Yahtzee with Bonus. I had to mark other for your poll.

Graphics and sound are great and with the story line adventure is a step away from the norm when adventure is desired.

I second Yahtzee Adventures - it rocks!

 

[Galley]

Another vote for Yahtzee Adventures.

 

[spvoyek]

I was curious about your bonus comment. Does your app give you hints as to what moves you should make?

Sorry... with all the posts about your submitted scores, I completely missed the fact that you asked me a question!

No, iYacht's bonus tracking doesn't give hints. It's a pretty simple feature that I actually came up with 10 or so years ago when I developed a similar app for the Royal daVinci (it was a PDA and they had a free SDK with a desktop simulation). Anyways, here's how bonus tracking works:

To get the 35 point bonus, you need to score 63 or more points for the Aces through Sixes scoring categories. 63 points is the total you would get by scoring 3 dice for each of those categories, 3 Aces, 3 Twos, 3 Threes etc. But, you'll get the bonus regardless of how you score the 63 points. So, next to each of those scoring categories, I show you a "bonus tracker" which represents how much of an impact selecting it would have on you getting the bonus.

If you go to my webpage at www.iquickiegames.com, we can use that screenshot as an example. In the Twos scoring category, there's a yellow "-4", that's a bonus tracker. It's -4 because there's only 1 two in the current dice. So, if you were to select the Twos scoring category, you would be 4 points short of what you should be for that scoring category. If you look at the Threes and Fours, you'll see the same situation. The Aces, Fives and Sixes don't have a bonus tracker because they've already been selected and their bonus trackers were all added to the Total bonus tracker, which is "6". Looking at the Aces, Fives and Sixes, you'll see that we had an extra Ace and an extra Five. So, that 6 for the Total bonus tracker tells you that, if you were to get 3 of each of the scoring categories remaining you would be 6 over what you needed to get the bonus. Or, another way to look at it, you don't need to get any Twos if you get 3 Threes and 3 Fours. Basically, with very little math you can quickly decide when it might not hurt your chances to get the bonus if you select a lower score in these scoring categories. Or, if your Total bonus tracker is negative, you can quickly determine where you need to make up the points.

 

[MacToddB]

No, the bonus tracking doesn't give hints. It's a pretty simple feature that I actually came up with 10 or so years ago when I developed a similar app for the Royal daVinci (it was a PDA and they had a free SDK with a desktop simulation). Anyways, here's how bonus tracking works:

Cool, I'll give it a try.

As a newbie, it might be nice to have a 'learning mode' option that could show the points you would receive next to each category, if you were to choose that category. Or a 'hint' option to ask what move is recommended.

 

[spvoyek]

As a newbie, it might be nice to have a 'learning mode' option that could show the points you would receive next to each category, if you were to choose that category.

iYacht has that... I never thought to call it a learning mode though, that's a great idea! I call it a "Smart Scoresheet" and it's something that's always on. Basically, the "Smart Scoresheet" is always updated to "show the points you would recieve next to each category, if you were to choose that category". In fact, it's even updated while your shaking the dice. Which isn't necessary, but I thought it was kind of cool.

If you look at the screenshot again, you can see this. A quick note on how to interpret the coloring - the scoring categories all start out green and when you select them they change to white. If you look at the Small Straight scoring category, you'll see a "30" next to it, meaning that the current dice would score 30 points in that category... or 2 for Twos, 3 for Threes, 4 for Fours and 0 for everything else.

If you do give it a try, let me know what you think and/or if you have any suggestions. I'm actually in the code right now adding multi-player capability. Thanks!

 

[MacToddB]

iYacht has that... I never thought to call it a learning mode though, that's a great idea! I call it a "Smart Scoresheet" and it's something that's always on. Basically, the "Smart Scoresheet" is always updated to "show the points you would recieve next to each category, if you were to choose that category". In fact, it's even updated while your shaking the dice. Which isn't necessary, but I thought it was kind of cool.

If you look at the screenshot again, you can see this. A quick note on how to interpret the coloring - the scoring categories all start out green and when you select them they change to white. If you look at the Small Straight scoring category, you'll see a "30" next to it, meaning that the current dice would score 30 points in that category... or 2 for Twos, 3 for Threes, 4 for Fours and 0 for everything else.

If you do give it a try, let me know what you think and/or if you have any suggestions. I'm actually in the code right now adding multi-player capability. Thanks!

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

 

[marlosb]

IDice Second Yahtzee

For those who posted negative comments or mentioned a need for improvement, please let me know this things, I have no problem working on improving my applications.

Hi Jeremy, I bought yours IDice from Apple Store and on the instructions it says that a second Yahtzee gives you an extra 100 points bonus - I've scored twice a second Yahtzee but, when it happens, you have to click over an empty score place to proceed, losing then the five equal numbers as normal combination (3 of a Kind, 4 of a Kind, etc...)

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug that will be fixed soon?

I'd be very grateful if you could answer me,

Thanks...

 

[Jeremy1026]

Hi Jeremy, I bought yours IDice from Apple Store and on the instructions it says that a second Yahtzee gives you an extra 100 points bonus - I've scored twice a second Yahtzee but, when it happens, you have to click over an empty score place to proceed, losing then the five equal numbers as normal combination (3 of a Kind, 4 of a Kind, etc...)

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug that will be fixed soon?

I'd be very grateful if you could answer me,

Thanks...

Hey. That is the correct scoring method. The 100 point bonus goes in addition to category chosen for that particular turn. The 100 point bonus doesn't count as your turn. Did I explain that ok?

 

[artem.bliednov]

Play Yahtzee in real.

I really think that the best game is a real game with real friends. You just need 5 dice and Yahtzility app for filling up scoresheets.