Pachinko vs BigPEmu
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pachinko
Experience a classic arcade game that simulates traditional Japanese Pachinko machines. Aim to launch balls with skill and luck to hit jackpots and win more balls. Features include adjustable game modes and high score tracking.
- Classic mechanical Pachinko emulation
- Adjustable game modes (starting balls, jackpots)
- High score tracking in unlimited mode
- Skill-based ball launching
- Jackpot mechanics with ball awards
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Pachinko is a game that is somewhat similar to pinball machines in the United States. In Japan, Pachinko machines are used as gaming devices in Pachinko parlors, where people play to win prizes or money. We are THRILLED and honored that in Japan Pachinko had reached the #1 position in Top Games and #5 in Top Applications! The original machines were totally mechanical. Our game emulates the early mechanical models. A bit of skill is involved to launch the ball to certain areas of the machine, but it also takes some luck to get the ball in a “wing” or “drop bucket” to receive a jackpot of balls from the bank. For more information check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko On-Core Pachinko Features - Classic Pachinko emulates the original mechanical Japanese machines from the 70’s and on. - There are modes that control the starting number of balls, jackpots, and number of balls required to win the game. - High Scores when playing in unlimited mode (Limited Balls = NO). How to Play To play, move the lever downwards by swiping your finger over the lower section of the game from top to bottom and then lifting your finger to release the lever. How far down you pull the lever will determine how much force is used to launch the ball. The balls are launched up through the chute on the left and fall down from the top. You hit a jackpot when your ball falls into a “wing”, “drop bucket” or the center section of the game. The bank pays you with additional balls. When a ball enters a wing or the center section of the game, one or more wings will open. Wide open wings provide a much greater chance of a ball getting in to hit a jackpot. When you get a ball in the center where the surfer is, not only will you earn more balls, one, two or all four of the wings will open depending upon where the ball hits the wave. Experiment with pulling the lever down different distances to learn how you can control the area into which the balls drop. Some users have reported that initially found the game a bit hard. We suggest that you go into the Settings and raise the "Balls to Start" and "Ball Per Award" to higher numbers.
BigPEmu
This application emulates the Atari Jaguar console, offering high accuracy and performance for its entire retail game library. It provides advanced features like saved states, movie recording, and customizable controller support, enhancing the classic gaming experience.
- Full retail library compatibility
- High performance emulation
- Accurate emulation
- Saved states and movie recording
- Jaguar CD support
- Customizable controller overlays
- Fast forward and rewind
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BigPEmu is the first Atari Jaguar emulator to feature compatibility with the entire retail library, along with excellent performance and a wide variety of unique features: • Fast. The emulator runs the entire Jaguar retail library (with default settings) at full speed on most devices. • Accurate. It's the most accurate Jaguar emulator to-date, although it's still being improved all the time. • Better than hardware. Although the emulator defaults to settings which are catered toward compatibility and accuracy, it's capable of far more. BigPEmu enables you to play lots of Jaguar games at a full 60 frames per second for the first time ever! • Saved states and movies. Everything is completely deterministic, just like real life. That's right, I went there. This means that all "randomness" is also controlled by a preserved seed. BigPEmu can record movies from nothing but controller inputs, and play them back with perfect accuracy. You can even interrupt a movie's playback and start playing yourself at any point. • Jaguar CD support. In addition to supporting the entire retail disc library (along with Memory Track), complete hardware emulation means that the Virtual Light Machine is fully functional. Also featured is a virtual disc system with an audio loopback option, allowing the VLM to be used as a native audio/music visualizer. • Excessive presentation detail. There's native support for the Jaguar Game Drive's MRQ format in the software browser (as well as box art sourced from PNG files), support for global and per-game backgrounds, and even support for controller overlays! Everything about the touch overlay for the iOS port is fully customizable, from appearance to collision boxes. • Extra device support. Featuring emulated device support for analog controllers (both via external bank switching and the ADC), driving controllers, rotary controllers, and Team Tap. For native input devices, the iOS port supports any MFi "Extended Gamepad" type device as well as keyboards through Apple's Game Controller API. • Glorious shaders. The emulator comes equipped with a powerful, fully customizable postprocessing system. The system supports any type of effect you can imagine, from applying smoothing filters to simulating CRT displays. • Per-game profiles. Mapping the Atari Jaguar controller to anything other than a telephone with wings can get a little complicated, so you might want to switch your controller mapping up for different games. You can do that! With per-game profiles, you can automatically load up a new input scheme (or any other emulator setting) each time you load a game. • Time travel. Native fast forwarding and rewinding capability means you can speed forward through time or go back in time whenever you please. • Flexible scripting. BigPEmu features a powerful scripting system. The emulator comes with a variety of scripts to enhance popular Jaguar games in amazing ways, from analog controller support to native-resolution and stereoscopic rendering! • The usual. Enjoy all of the emulator niceties you've come to expect in modern times. Automatic preservation of EEPROM, PAL support, custom boot ROM images, native support for multiple display aspect ratios, resolution scaling, custom display cropping, extremely customizable input, and a whole lot more. BigPEmu and Swinecrafters LLC are in no way affiliated with Atari. The name "Atari" and all associated game console names are the property of their respective owners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Pachinko at $0.99 against BigPEmu's $9.99. Pachinko also leads on chart position (#24 vs unranked) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). BigPEmu's advantage is review sentiment (94% vs 79%) and ratings volume (27 vs 9). On rating, 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
Pachinko costs $0.99 and BigPEmu $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Pachinko against 5.0 for BigPEmu. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 27 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Pachinko's written reviews are positive against 94% of BigPEmu's.
Pachinko ships an update every 2 months, BigPEmu every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pachinko | BigPEmu |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.9 (9 ratings) | 5.0 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews | 94.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 27 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #24 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 6.1 — better | 15 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +9 |
| Developer | On-Core Software LLC | Swinecrafters LLC |
Customer experience
Pachinko
BigPEmu
Bugs and requests
Pachinko
Reported bugs
7 issues- Settings screen becomes unusable after pushing abort button
- Top scores do not work
- High scores table not recording any scores
- Ball return issue on launch rail
- Inconsistent performance on iPhone 3GS with iOS 5.0.1
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- Slowness and jerky movement after updates
- Double ball entry in tulips not closing
Requested features
22 requests- Update for iOS 11
- Update high scores table to count balls started
- Lefty mode
- In-app purchases for diverse machines
- More game variety/different boards
Show 17 moreShow fewer
- Stats and high scores table
- Ability to select high score scenarios to beat
- Network capability
- Different skins/animations for ball loading
- Full HD on iPad
- More machines/board types
- Option to adjust lever sensitivity/play
- Fix ball return to prevent interruption
- Improve ball physics for small screen
- Add statistics on overall play
- Create and share boards
- Add prizes for unlocking boards/items
- Magnifying glass for detail
- Add a light for winning balls
- Show balls in a hopper
- Fix double ball entry in tulips
- Add new types of machines (e.g., Invader, Hane)
BigPEmu
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pachinko
No in-app purchases
BigPEmu
No in-app purchases









