Comparison

Pine Tar Poker vs Visual Pinball

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pine Tar Poker

Experience a unique card game with a touch of the supernatural. Gather your deck and paper to learn a new way to play, where a little bit of magic might just tip the scales in your favor and bring a smile to your face.

Highlights
  • Unique card game mechanics
  • Supernatural elements
  • Learn to play easily
  • Focus on entertainment
  • Potential for magical advantages
Features
Read full description

Welcome partner. We don't have much around here, but we still like a lil entertainment every now and then.  Grab that deck a cards and the paper there, let me teach ya a game. Now this here game ain't gonna get ya in touch with the rhythm of the universe, but it might just put a smile on yer face. If ya think magick might help ya win... well partner, ya just might be right...

About

Visual Pinball

Enjoy a realistic pinball simulation with hundreds of community-created tables. Experience immersive haptic feedback and customize your gameplay with intuitive settings and controller support. Advanced options are available for power users.

Highlights
  • Hundreds of community-developed tables
  • Haptic feedback for immersive gameplay
  • Customizable settings and POV adjustments
  • Game controller support
  • External DMD and AltColor/AltSound support
  • Touch overlay and instructions
Features
Read full description

The official Visual Pinball app. Built by volunteers since 2000 and open source since 2010, Visual Pinball is the simulator the virtual pinball community has been playing for over two decades. More than 70 people have contributed to it, and this app runs the same engine as the desktop version, so every table plays with the physics, lighting and sound its creator intended. No ads. No in-app purchases. No tracking. Made by volunteers. Two years of work from the Visual Pinball volunteers, in one update. Thank you for your patience, and for playing! A FRESH NEW LOOK • Redesigned for iOS 26 with Liquid Glass • Favorites and recently played tables at the top of your list • Search, sorting and three tile sizes • Light, Dark or System appearance • New loading screen that shows progress THE FULL DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The complete Visual Pinball in-game menu for graphics, sound, controls and table options • Remap every button on keyboards and game controllers • Save settings for every table, or just the one you're playing MORE TABLES, LOOKING BETTER • Show the backglass and score display (DMD, alphanumeric or reels) on screen, right where you want them • Support for PUP packs, FlexDMD, B2S backglasses, video playback and VNI colorizations • All the latest physics and rendering improvements from the desktop version • Much lower memory use: textures are compressed on first load, then cached EASIER TABLE MANAGEMENT • Import .zip files, along with .vpx and .vpxz • Share any table as a single .vpxz file • The web file manager can now upload whole folders, extract archives, edit scripts and settings, and show the log live AND MORE • Many stability and memory fixes This version requires iOS 26.6 or later.

Screenshots

Pine Tar Poker4 screens
Visual Pinball3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Visual Pinball at Free against Pine Tar Poker's $3.99. Pine Tar Poker's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.3) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 12 months). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Visual Pinball is free to download; Pine Tar Poker costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pine Tar Poker holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 141 and 74 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of Pine Tar Poker's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pine Tar Poker ships an update every 3 days, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Pine Tar Poker versus Visual Pinball: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPine Tar PokerVisual Pinball
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (141 ratings) — better4.3 (74 ratings)
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews — better78.6% of reviews
Number of ratings141 — better74
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 12 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#35 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better26.6
Further details — not scored
Size250 MB120 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperBird Cartel LLCJason Millard

Customer experience

Pine Tar Poker

All ratings140 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.7%
Negative0.7%
Written reviews33 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral3.0%
Negative6.1%

Visual Pinball

All ratings73 ratings
Positive80.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.9%

User reviews

Pine Tar Poker

From 141 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Addictive gameplay loop
  • 💡 Unique poker/Yahtzee mechanics
  • ✨ Engaging story and atmosphere
  • 🎨 Charming art style
  • 🎮 High replay value

Room to improve

  • ⏳ Story is too short
  • 🎶 Music can be repetitive
  • ❓ Some mechanics unclear
  • 📱 No cloud save feature
  • 🔥 Device runs hot

Visual Pinball

From 74 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Awesome way to play virtual pinball on the go
  • 👍 Super easy to set up with minimal file prep time
  • 👍 Insane that I can play favorite pins on just my phone
  • 👍 Fantastic portable implementation of VPX
  • 👍 Fun and exciting to archive the history of pinball

Room to improve

  • 🔧 More ability to adjust table settings needed
  • 🔧 Struggling to manage camera angle
  • 🔧 No fullscreen on iPad, plunger and outlanes cropped
  • 🔧 Some tables don't work or have issues

Bugs and requests

Pine Tar Poker

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • Device overheating on iPad Pro 12.9

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more content (scratch offs, dice, roulette)
  • More explanation for items/mechanics
  • Option to turn off upgrades/powers
  • Cloud save feature
  • More story content
Show 1 more
  • Hint for broken rune stone activation

Visual Pinball

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Tables don't load for some users
  • Certain complex/intensive tables error out or run at low FPS

Requested features

6 requests
  • List of most played tables
  • Ability to reposition DMD
  • Option to skip startup checks for some tables
  • Ability to edit table scripts on the app
  • Direct link to table depository
Show 1 more
  • iPad version with more screen space

In-app purchases

None

Pine Tar Poker

No in-app purchases

None

Visual Pinball

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pine Tar Poker free?
Pine Tar Poker costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual Pinball free?
Visual Pinball is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pine Tar Poker or Visual Pinball?
Pine Tar Poker is rated higher. Pine Tar Poker averages 4.9 out of 5 from 141 ratings, while Visual Pinball averages 4.3 from 74 ratings.
Do Pine Tar Poker or Visual Pinball have ads?
Neither Pine Tar Poker nor Visual Pinball shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pine Tar Poker or Visual Pinball?
Pine Tar Poker ships an update every 3 days, and Visual Pinball every 12 months. Most recently, Pine Tar Poker was updated on October 24, 2026 and Visual Pinball on October 22, 2026.

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