Farkle Dice Upgrade for Windows Mobile – Same Game, but New Experience!

Many of you own the very cool Windows Mobile Treo 700w, 700wx, or 750 and have asked us to make Farkle Dice available for it. We have! Plus we've added several great new features for all Windows Mobile devices running 2003 or greater.

The FREE upgrade includes:

- Treo line support

- Two more computer players to match wits with

- Improved volume control

- Customized gameplay - you control the dice speed

- Improved phone control (game mutes on incoming calls)

- Updated compatibility and stability for OS 5 (yet still fully compatible with Windows Mobile 2003)

Click Here to Read More, Upgrade, or Download the Trial

Review: Bubble Girl Pops WordPop and Farkle Dice

WORDPOP

Word Pop is a delightful twist on the popular game, Boggle. Your goal is to make words of 2 or more letters from adjacent letters still, but as you make them, the tiles disappear. The goal of each level is to remove all the letters, leaving a clear board for the next round. If you get stuck with letters unable to be made into words, it's game over. Valid words cannot be abbreviations, hyphened words, acronyms, contractions or pronouns. Acceptable words will change to bold text in the entry bar. At the same time, green tick will become highlighted and the chime sound as you select tiles will raise in pitch. Click the green tick to enter the word you've made and remove the tiles involved.

...however, that isn't all there is to it. They have added another twist of bonus tiles. Large word scores and game difficulty level will determine how many you earn. Each tile is scored similar to Scrabble, each adding up into a score. If the score is high enough (40+ points in easy mode, 50+ in Medium, or 60+ in hard) you will receive a bonus tile, which could be another letter or a wildcard tile. If you have more than three, a letter tile will be changed to a wildcard. If you have tiles left, they will carry over to the next level.

What if you're still stuck? Rotate it! The board will rotate, allowing you more options with your tiles. Press the round arrow button and watch your letters change places.

What I love most about this game is the separate scoreboard for highest ever word scores. You still have an Easy, Medium and Hard scoreboard, but you can also keep your best word creations in check too.

This has become my new word game obsession!

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FARKLE

Do you feel lucky?

Farkle is a developed style of Yahtzee, based more on luck and choice. 2-6 players (computer or human) roll six dice in the hope of rolling certain number combinations. However, in this game, you are aiming to earn the most points.

Possible point-scoring combinations are:

1 x 5s = 50

1 x 6s = 100
3x2s=200

3x3s=300

3x4s=400

3x5s=500

3x6s=600

3x1s=1000
3 pairs = 500

Straight (all 6 dice) = 100

Farkle earns a new category of its own, as you can choose to keep the score you have and pass, or continue rolling. Once all 6 dice are used, you can choose to try your luck again and roll your six dice again. The trick is to stop before you roll without earning points. Failing to score means your turn is over and any score you have banked up disappears -- called getting Farkle. As the entire object of the game is to earn 10,000 points before the other players, you want to play on as much as possible, but you do not want to Farkle either. If you get 3 Farkles in consecutive shots, you lose 1,000 points. Strategy is very much part of this game, also. Consider using just a 5 or 1 in a roll to leave better odds for the next.

Once a player has reached over 10,000 (or 5,000 depending on game selections) they have finished the game. Other players now have one chance to score higher. If they do, they win the game.

Farkle has been kept simple in graphics and sounds, but to great benefit. The game remains the focus, allowing players to concentrate on the action and strategies.

The board is well set out, with a large scoreboard to place score and Farkle count in a well-spotted position. (The cute xylophone riff as music really endeared me, too.)

The controls are as thought out. Players can do all that's required with one tap on the correct dice or button. No fussing with dragging or double tapping.

Great for PDA beginners.

Try these games at Smart Box Design

Read more reviews by Bubble Girl at http://www.bubblegirl.net/pda.php

Strategies: Farkle Dice - Learn from your Opponents

Remember that when you’re playing against a computer, you are actually playing a program. While they do get lucky sometimes, they do not cheat. For this reason, you can learn from them. The reason that certain opponents do well is not because they really get that lucky, but because they know when to take risks and when to play conservatively.

If you’re way ahead, it pays to consistently receive points and maintain your lead, so you don’t want to roll if you've only got a dice or two left. However, if you’re behind, or somebody is nearly 10,000 points, what have you to lose? Roll again! It’s mastering these situational choices that will help you peel the “lucky” label off of yourself and reveal the veteran underneath!

Click Here to Read More and Download the Free Trial

Contest: Win a Palm or Pocket PC Game - Yahtzee vs. Farkle Dice Contest

All great ideas come from the same wellspring, the human brain, and some are often quite similar. Many of you have compared our game Farkle Dice to Yahtzee. And yet, they certainly aren't the same game! So what do you as players think about this? Is Yahtzee the original and the best, or does Farkle Dice more or less represent the bettering of the best? We’d like to set 1956 up against 2007.

We've opened a forum on this subject, and would like to reward the first posting with a free copy of WordPop, Word Monaco Solitaire, Farkle Dice, Word Watch or Triples. In addition to that, we'll randomly select 2 more postings to receive a free game as well. Contest closes 3/25/07. Winners will be notified by e-mail and / or in the next newsletter.

Post your comments at our forum by selecting this link. Click Here to Go to the Forum

St. Patrick Day's Sale - Now through 3/20/07

Today is your lucky day. See more green by saving 25% off Farkle Dice for Windows, Palm, or Treos. Use the coupon FARKLE25 when checking out.


Read more or order this lucky dice game.

Our Games at Northwest Public Radio Online Auction

I listen to NPR on a regular basis, especially when I am making the drive from Bellingham, WA to Seattle, WA. Every few months NPR will have a fundraiser (OK, not ever few months but it sure feels like it). This year the local station in the Pacific Northwest is having an online fundraiser. I see this as a great opportunity to give back to NPR so I have donated all five games that Smart Box Design has developed. They are WordPop, Word Monaco Solitaire, Word Watch, Triples, and Farkle Dice. Bidding on the games is from February 16 - 22, 2007. You can go here to get involved and donate or make a bid.

PalmAddicts Reviews Farkle Dice

Farkle from SmartboxDesign is a new dice based strategy game made by Astraware for Palm devices. I’ve been playing the game for a few hours now, and as Sammy mentioned in today’s video cast he’s never heard me swear so much in such a short period of time, and we’ve worked together for a while now so that’s quite surprising! Though it might sound like a strange thing to say, I have been swearing a lot because Farkle is so addictive, so competitive and so challenging!!

The basis of Farkle is fairly simple. It is essentially very similar in its goals to the ever popular dice based game Yahtzee. To win at Farkle you must be the player with the highest score above 10,000 points on the final round of play. Each player takes turns rolling the dice. On your turn you roll all six dice, and you must select at least one scoring dice. The scoring combinations are as follows:

* A one or a five
* Three of a kind
* Three pairs
* A six dice straight

And the scoring system is as follow: (my apologies if this seems a little tedious, but for all you card and dice buffs out there like myself it is important and you have to know these things!) But the best way is to play. Anyway here we go:

* A one = 100 points
* A five = 50 points* Three ones = 1000 points
* Three of any other kind = the number of points multiplied by 100 e.g. three six’s = 600
* Three pairs = 500
* Six dice straight = 1000
* Three Farkles = -1000 (more on that later)
The best way rather than simply telling you the rules is to take an example. Let’s say you’ve rolled your six dice, and they have produced a combination of
* 1 – 4 – 3 – 6 – 6 – 2

As the rules of the game state you have to select a minimum of one scoring dice, and as you’re only scoring one is a one you can select that. Then you have a choice (which if often a very tough decision based on your situation) to make. You either “pass” and bank the points scored by your selected nice, or you “roll” and roll the remaining five.

Let’s take the following situation. You roll the five and you get three of a kind. The score of that is then added onto your 100 from the previous round, and you have the pass or roll choice again. You can either gamble and hope you get a scoring result from your two dice or pass and bank the points.Scoring is based on selected dice and you cannot earn points from combining dice from different rolls. However if you are unlucky and none of your rolled dice in earn any points, you get a Farkle; whereby you do not receive ANY points from that round. Your go is then over. The danger is if you get three Farkles in a row you lose 1000 points.

The game has another twist, as the final round begins as soon as any one player reaches 10,000 points. This player's score is then frozen, and the two opposition players are given one final chance to get a maximum score. This is a particularly good feature if the game is close, and despite one player getting to 10,000 first, anybody can win!

Once you’ve got the hang of it Farkle is an excellent and incredibly addictive game. The graphics are nice and clear, and the user interface of the game is simple and easy to use. It can be played between CPU players or human players; complete customisation of the game is available, such as increasing or decreasing the cut off point of 10,000 points. However a nice touch is the names of your possible CPU competitors. And I took great pleasure earlier in beating Steady Stan, Average Ann, Smart Alec, Nervous Nell, Jammin’ Jen and Bonzai Bob!

This game is based on your own judgement, which only you are in control of, and is the reason the game is so compelling! The combination of skill, luck, and judgement are all required to succeed at this challenging and incredibly addictive game. Which is great to play against the CPU players or even better against friends.

Farkle is available for $14.95 from SmartboxDesign.