Pulsar vs About by PCalc
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pulsar
A minimalist arcade game where players must orbit a planet without crashing. Each completed orbit spawns a faster moon, increasing the challenge. Test your reflexes and timing in this gravity-based challenge.
- Orbit planets
- Avoid collisions
- Increasing moon speed
- Gravity mechanics
- Minimalist design
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Pulsar (or PSR B1257+12) is a tiny game where you play as a lone moon orbiting one of three available planets. Try to rotate around the planet as many times as you can without crashing into it or leaving the orbit. Every time you complete a turn around the orbit, the planet creates a new moon that will follow the same path as the one you took. Each consecutive moon will be faster. The planet has its own gravity, so you move faster as you get closer to the planet - the same goes for other moons. Created in 48h for Slavic Game Jam 2018 which took place on July 20-22nd 2018 in Warsaw, Poland. Made by: Luke Spierewka (@Spierek), Weronika Grabowska (wrrnk @ FB), Kamila Rusiecka, Elie Abraham (@ElieAbraham64) and Paweł Laskowski (@AlterKot). Fonts used: Potra, Nasalization Special thanks: Katarzyna Kruszyńska
About by PCalc
Explore a whimsical 3D city filled with interactive elements and hidden surprises. This app began as a fun 'About' screen for a calculator and evolved into a playful exploration toy with driving and collectible elements.
- Interactive 3D city exploration
- Playable 3D icon
- Drive a car around the city
- Discover hidden areas like The Castle of the Panda King
- Supports gamepads and keyboards
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About by PCalc is the former About screen of our scientific calculator app PCalc. It was partially an excuse to learn how to program 3D graphics, but mainly I wanted to make the most fun About screen ever. It started just as a 3D icon that you could play with and throw bananas at, then there was a little car you could drive around, and soon there was a whole city to explore. It's kind of a toy, kind of a game, and kind of a window into my subconscious. Anyway, it got a little on the big side, so I decided to spin it out into its own app. Just explore and see what you can find, and be sure to visit The Castle of the Panda King! You can play using the on-screen joysticks, but it also supports gamepads and keyboards.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pulsar at 4.9 against About by PCalc's 4.7. Pulsar also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). About by PCalc's advantage is device support (5 vs 3). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pulsar holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 23 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 83% of Pulsar's written reviews are positive against 88% of About by PCalc's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
| Parameter | Pulsar | About by PCalc |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (11 ratings) — better | 4.7 (23 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | 88.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 11 | 23 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 101 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Afterburn Lukasz Spierewka | TLA Systems Ltd. |
Customer experience
Pulsar
About by PCalc
In-app purchases
Pulsar
No in-app purchases
About by PCalc
No in-app purchases
