App for Dark Tower vs Visual Pinball
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
App for Dark Tower
Experience a classic board game anytime, anywhere with this digital adaptation. It recreates the original game's sounds and graphics, allowing you to play the entire game on your device, even without the physical board. An iPad version includes an on-screen scorecard.
- Play classic board game digitally
- Original sounds and graphics
- Replace physical game tower
- On-screen scorecard (iPad)
- Play anytime, anywhere
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Do you have the Dark Tower board game but a broken tower or do you just want to play this classic anytime, anywhere? Well, now you can! With the sounds and graphics of the original, you can get back into the game. You can play the entire game on your device without needing the actual game or use it to replace your tower. The iPad version features an on-screen score card. If you run across any problems please provide feedback at http://maccrafters.com/darktower or use the in-app feedback feature instead of leaving comments here.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Visual Pinball at none against App for Dark Tower's 2. App for Dark Tower's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 12 months) and rating (4.7 vs 4.3). 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. App for Dark Tower sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Visual Pinball asks for nothing beyond the download.
App for Dark Tower holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 108 and 73 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of App for Dark Tower's written reviews are positive against 79% of Visual Pinball's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
App for Dark Tower ships an update fortnightly, Visual Pinball every 12 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | App for Dark Tower | Visual Pinball |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (108 ratings) — better | 4.3 (73 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.3% of reviews | 78.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 108 — better | 73 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 12 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 26.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 109 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Floyd Resler | Jason Millard |
Customer experience
App for Dark Tower
Visual Pinball
User reviews
App for Dark Tower
From 108 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎮 Faithful recreation of original 1980s board game
- 🔊 Authentic sound effects and music from original
- 📱 Allows play without broken physical tower
- 🎨 Preserves original artwork and visual design
- ⏱️ Quick games playable in 15-20 minutes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- ⚠️ Network error popups blocking gameplay
- 🎮 Game balance issues (winning too easily)
- 💰 Excessive gold rewards compared to original
- 🎯 Combat mechanics feel unbalanced
Visual Pinball
From 73 App Store ratingsWhat 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
App for Dark Tower
Reported bugs
18 issues- App crashes on startup or during gameplay
- Crashes when rotating device orientation
- Crashes when clicking move button
- Crashes when restoring saved games
- Network error popup appears constantly
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- Sound mute settings don't work
- Virtual board not displaying correctly
- Game forgets warrior count mid-battle
- Cannot retreat from locked battles
- Sword weapon effects not applying in combat
- Elf position display shows wrong space types
- Only 2 characters show in 4-player selection
- iPad Pro 2020 won't open app
- Missing keys preventing gameplay
- Move points display incorrect
- Cannot leave territory
- Victory jingle plays incorrectly
- Player 2 starts with unbalanced warrior count
Requested features
12 requests- Score tracking based on move count
- Online multiplayer with friends
- Persistent save feature across app closures
- Infinity Game Table version
- Virtual scorecards for physical board play
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- Better add-on documentation and descriptions
- Improved event randomization
- Citadel warrior doubling mechanic
- More frequent move key events
- Proper cursor/elf display in adjacent spaces
- Full screen mode option
- Landscape mode support for add-ons
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
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- iPad version with more screen space
In-app purchases
App for Dark Tower
- Enemies & Helpers$1.99
- Magic Pack$1.99
Visual Pinball
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is App for Dark Tower free?
Is Visual Pinball free?
Which has better reviews, App for Dark Tower or Visual Pinball?
Do App for Dark Tower or Visual Pinball have ads?
Which is updated more often, App for Dark Tower or Visual Pinball?
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