# ASCII Gunship — Retro terminal bullet hell

> Retro terminal bullet hell (iPhone/iPad app by Justin Frix.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ascii-gunship/id6786530509 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Justin Frix](https://appshunter.io/developer/6783188455)
- Category: Games, Action, Casual
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 6 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-07-20
- Data updated: 2026-07-22
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ascii-gunship/id6786530509/reviews.md

## What is ASCII Gunship?

Your gunship is made of characters. So is everything trying to kill it.

ASCII GUNSHIP is an arcade vertical shoot-em-up rendered entirely as a live terminal character grid — every ship, bullet, boss, and explosion is a glyph in a bright ANSI palette, wrapped in optional CRT scanlines.

Drag to fly. Your cannons never stop. Tap the bomb when the screen fills with fire.

Clear a wave, pick 1 of 3 upgrade cards — fire rate, orbiting drones, chain lightning levels, tail guns — and build a different gunship every run. Every fifth wave a multi-part ASCII boss fills the top of the terminal: shoot off its turrets, survive three escalating gun phases, salvage the credits.

Spend salvage in the hangar on 8 gunships, each with its own passive and starting weapon — from the reliable RAPTOR to the drone-carrying PALADIN. Fight through 5 sectors with distinct procedural backdrops and enemy rosters, then loop them at MK-2 ferocity.

FEATURES
- Everything is text: a real-time character-grid renderer, zero sprite art
- 8 weapons: VULCAN, SPREAD, LASER, HOMING MSL, WAVE CANNON, RIPPLE, TESLA ARC, PLASMA SNAKE
- 18 upgrade cards, pick 1 of 3 between waves
- 5 multi-part bosses with destructible parts and 3-phase patterns
- 8 buyable glyph gunships with real passives
- 5 sectors + endless MK tiers, chain multiplier up to x9
- CADET / VETERAN / ACE difficulty, CRT scanline toggle
- Offline, private, no accounts, no tracking
- No ads, no paywalls — every ship earnable in-game (optional tip jar)

Fly. Fire. Pick a card. Beat your best.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unlock All Ships | $4.99 | one-time |
| Big Tip | $4.99 | one-time |
| Small Tip | $0.99 | one-time |



## Version history (last 1 release)

### 1.0 — 2026-07-20

No release notes.

## More apps by Justin Frix

- [Bit Night Runner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bit-night-runner/id6786451201)

All apps by Justin Frix: https://appshunter.io/developer/6783188455

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-22.*