How Many Spots? (Dominoes)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Dominoes
Date:	19/04/06 (1673 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun game that encourages tactical play and counting

Disadvantages: Getting called an old fuddy duddy.

I love dominoes - there you are I've admitted it!!! And I'm only 35!!!

Now I started playing dominoes with my mum and dad - you know in the good old days when families sat round a table and played Monopoly and Cluedo if you had loads of time or a game of cards or dominoes if you couldn't afford fancy board games. This is a tradition which seems to have been lost somewhere down the line of computer games except at times such as Christmas. I feel this is a great shame but with people working different hours and days and pressures of other commitments I realise it's sometimes unavoidably difficult to get the whole family together at once the way we used to.

I remember not only having fun with Dominoes but with Tri-ominoes too which were 3 sided and you had to make hexagons to get extra points. These were the next generation as far as I was concerned and we spent a lot of winter nights playing these as well as other board games such as Game of Life which is still going strong now.

Now dominoes is a game that has not only been around for decades but centuries and it appears from records that a similar type of game to the one we recognise today was originally played in China with a set dating back to the year 1120. The name appears to be derived from the French language where Domino is a word for a priest's hood black outside and white on the inner.

There are many different variations of dominoes and although I love the playing the picture variety with my son, it doesn't give me enough of a challenge, so when I found a version of this game on AOL games I was delighted - although a little bit embarrassed by going online and playing what is often known as an old person's game down the pub playing for matchsticks or pennies. I know this is review is under board games but as there are many board games online now I thought it quite appropriate to include in this section.

The AOL dominoes site has 6 games rooms:-

Bad to the Bone
Bone Heads
Bone Yard
Break Time
Connect The Dots
Domino Effect

Each room has a capacity of 90 and Bad to the Bone is the main room where there are a lot of serious players as well as those who just want to have fun. If you want to meet up with someone in particular you might find it easier to arrange to go to a different room as this one is always difficult to get into in the evenings.

Once you have entered your room of choice you will see the list of tables with whoever is playing on them. You can choose to view the tables by availability or by table number which is especially handy if you are trying to find someone who is on a particular table. Tables available will show up in dark green if no one is playing on them, light green if one player is waiting for another to come, yellow if a table is being used and grey if the table has been marked closed. This means that no one can watch the game being played as with the other games where this facility is available. There is also a panel with all the players in the room and the table number they are at along with their rating which we will get to later on. Alongside this is a chat facility for those of you among us who like a bit of banter.

The rules are very simple - you have to get rid of all your dominoes before your opponent but along the way you try to pick up scores by making the ends add up to a denomination of 5. You score whatever it adds up to so if you have a 6 on one end and a 4 on the other you would score 10. Now this sounds easy but this game is played on the maltese cross variety which involves the first double played being placed as the centre piece and you can add on not only to each side but to top and bottom as well so you could have to add up to 4 sides at once and if you have doubles on the ends it can get quite confusing at times for anyone who can't count up easily athough the counting tiles show up as a darker colour so it does make it slightly easier. Any spots you are left with goes on your opponents score and the first person to reach a pre-arranged score of either 100 or 250 is the winner.

If you want to join a table you simply click on the play button and you can check the I button at the top right of the table to find out what options has been chosen for this game. A star tells you that it is a rated game and players are started off with a rating of 1500 when you join. This then goes up or down depending whether you win or lose and so gives other players an idea of your ability. If you are playing a player of a higher rating and win you will get more points on your rating than if you are playing a lesser rated player. Bear in mind though if you are playing a lesser rated player and you lose then your rating will go down quite considerably. You can tell a player's level by the colour of dot and this goes as follows:-

Beginner is a white dot with a blue line surrounding it
Intermediate has a slightly thicker green edge with a white centre
Advanced is a thicker still orange edge with white centre
Expert is mainly purple with a tiny white spot in the centre
Master is a full red dot

Your level will go up when you reach various points levels.

When you start your own table you have the option board appear before you and once you get the set of options you like you can use these each time by checking the box at the bottom of the option page. The first set of customisation is for the domino game itself.

Firstly you have to decide whether you want to end the game at 100 or 250. This will be a matter of choice but I prefer the faster game ending at 100 and most players choose this option. Then you can decide whether you want to just use the count up at the end to score or whether to add in the 5's option - again most players prefer to add up in the 5's games as this makes it more exciting and you really have to think about which tile you are playing. You can then choose whether you want the score counts to be shown, whether to use plain or coloured dots for your 'bones' as the tiles are known and whether to use a timer. This can be useful if you come across a slow player or one who disappears in the middle of the game without telling you as you can then choose to cancel the game, without losing rating points, or re-set the timer depending on the circumstances of the delay. There is also an option in this section which allows you to choose to keep drawing tiles until you can play if you are blocked and cannot play. The alternative is to only draw one tile and miss a turn if you still can't play. I prefer to keep drawing as although you can end up with loads of tiles this can also give you more options for scoring with the 5's game.

The table is the next thing you can customise and this starts with the decision of whether to allow another player to join in if your original opponent leaves mid game and is replaced by the computer. I usually let people join in. You can then limit the type of players being allowed to join your game. For instance if you are an expert you may not want to play beginners. You can then decide whether or not to let players watch your game and decide whether you want them to see the players hands and if they can join in the chat between players. You can then decide if you want to participate in the rated games or just have a fun round or 2 which doesn't affect rating points.

The final part is whether to make the table private and this is good if you have a select few friends who you play as it requires a password to get into that table. This stops any other players joining in.

The options may sound confusing but they are really easy to set up. Once you have the options screen out of the way you can get on with enjoying your game and when a player sits at your table you can choose whether to accept them or not. I will play against anyone really unless they have been rude in the past and there is an ignore facility available to use.

The first round of the session is always started with whoever has the highest double between the 2 players. Subsequent rounds always give the loser of the previous round a chance to start first. There are various tactics you can use in the game of dominoes which include blocking them and making sure they can't score by looking at what you have in your own hand. This can be a bit complicated to start with but there are certain moves which become apparent the more you play. For example if the domino placed at one end is double 6 try not to leave a 4 at the other end unless the double 4 is already out or in your possession as this would count 20 against you if your opponent plays this tile. Always try to get rid of 5s at the ends too unless you have lots of them yourself or blanks which would also enable you to score.

This can be a fun way of relaxing as well as keeping the brain cells ticking over and can get very addictive especially if you come up against a player who gives you an excitingly close game. There are also a lot of nice people who play and if you want you can often have a good old chat at the same time although this can put you off your counting too.

I hope this review has given you a different perspective on this game. Have fun and if you decide to have a look keep an eye out for me as Belfin1970.

Summary: Good variation of the tile game