MVP Backgammon is a Windows version of the classic board game. Players take turns rolling two dice, and moving their pieces around the board in a race to the finish. Pieces must move exactly the number of points that appear on each die. For example, if a player rolls 2 and 4, he can move one piece 2 places and another 4, or he can move the same piece 2 places and then 4 places, or 4 places and then 2 places. Pieces can only land on a position that is empty, or that has only one opposing piece on it. Landing on an enemy piece is called a "hit", which causes it to be removed from the board, and the player must return it to the board before he can make any other move, which is accomplished by rolling the dice and placing the piece back in his home area at the beginning of the board at the position number specified by one of the dice.

A player wins by a "gammon", worth double the stakes, if he bears off all of his pieces before his opponent bears off any of his own pieces. A player wins by a "backgammon", worth triple the stakes, if he bears off all of his pieces while his opponent still has pieces within his own house, or waiting to be re-entered following a hit.

Backgammon is a game of deep strategy and tactics. A good player must decide whether to immediately advance his back pieces, known as "runners", in an attempt to bear off first (known as "the forward game"), or he may attempt to create an impassable barrier on six consecutive points, to trap his opponent's runners (known as "the backward game"). The other critical area of strategy is the doubling cube. If a player believes he is going to win, but by no more than a gammon, he can offer to double the stakes of the game, and the opponent loses instantly if he refuses. If accepted, the doubling cube is passed to the player who accepted the offer, and now only this player can offer to redouble the stakes.

The graphics and gameplay are quite nice, though it would be nice if the points were numbered to make the math a bit easier when analyzing legal moves. There are three difficulty levels in the registered version. MVP Bridge for Windows switched to Win9x as of v2.0.1.

Graphics

Downloads

MVP Backgammon v2.0.5 Shareware (21,010,310 bytes)	7 July 2009	Win9x
MVP Backgammon v2.0.4 Shareware (21,010,030 bytes)	6 February 2008	Win9x
MVP Backgammon v2.0.3 Shareware (21,009,975 bytes)	8 November 2007	Win9x
MVP Backgammon v2.0.1 Shareware (15,530,180 bytes)	5 August 2006	Win9x
MVP Backgammon v1.3 Shareware (1,266,153 bytes)	3 February 1997	Win16
MVP Backgammon v1.2 Shareware (1,131,270 bytes)	30 April 1996	Win16
MVP Backgammon v1.1 Shareware (1,539,237 bytes)	30 December 1995	Win16

Help running Win16 games  Help running Win9x games

Availability

MVP Software still sells this game for $29.99 by CD-ROM or download.