Pulsar Chess Engine vs BanksiaGUI
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pulsar Chess Engine
Play chess and six popular variants with adjustable AI difficulty levels. Review logged games, access master game collections, and utilize Crafty engine analysis for standard chess and Chess960. Offers accessibility features for blind users.
- Plays 7 chess variants
- Adjustable AI difficulty levels
- Game logging and review
- Master game collections
- Crafty engine analysis
- VoiceOver accessibility
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The Pulsar Chess Engine plays Chess and six variants all with multiple levels. The variants are Chess960, Crazyhouse, Loser's, Atomic, Three Checks and Giveaway. Rules included in-app. In addition, there is also a review mode to look at the user's log file with analysis available for non variants. 10 game collections of classic and modern master games are included to look at including Kasparov, Fischer, Carlsen, Capablanca and Morphy 1858 collections. These collections and the log file are searchable. Pulsar values mobility and active positions. In app there is an article with more on its playing style and how to train against it. With the variants, each has its own style. Chess960, Three Checks and Crazyhouse are the more chess like variants and adoptable to learn to play for anyone with interest. The rules of all games are in app. Pulsar has levels of play from beginner too advanced. Games with a time control are the hardest though Pulsar doesn't call the player's time. The time is more to handicap Pulsar's strength, but users will have a clock and can see if it's gone negative if they want to play the time control. The game button - configure game menu item, lets the user control the variant and difficulty. It defaults to Chess at Easy(lowest level) but remembers the current settings when the App restarts. There are choices of pieces and board color schemes. The Pulsar program was originally developed by me for computers starting in 1998 and came to mobile for the first time in 2014. Pulsar's board is accessible to the blind using Voice Over, a screen reader. Tap on a square and it will say whats on it and double tap to move or choose from three move methods. A screen reader can normally read anything with text like a button, but a board is a collection of images. To make it accessible, text must be returned to Voice Over when a tap is in the area of a square. Pulsar began as a chess program and later learned variants. It ran extensively on two servers for many years both at chess and variants. The ratings on the board reflect strength I saw in rated play on handicapped bots. They are not 100% exact but generalizations I made from the various bots I ran at different settings. If in the new game selector, Play vs. Computer is unchecked the user can move for both sides. This is to allow two people at same location to use the App as a board for a game and have the app enforce move legality and results for whatever variant is selected.
BanksiaGUI
This app provides a robust chess experience, allowing users to play against multiple powerful engines, analyze games in real-time, and customize their visual interface. It supports various game modes and offers features like voice moves and an internal opening book.
- Play against multiple strong chess engines
- Real-time game analysis
- Customizable appearance modes
- Voice and sound move notifications
- Internal opening book
- Edit board positions
- Autosave/load game functionality
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Engines: - Stockfish, version: 13Dev, author: Stockfish team - LeelaChessZero, version: 0.26.3, author: LeelaChessZero team - Ethereal, version: 12.50, author: Andrew Grant - Xiphos, version: 0.5, author: Milos Tatarevic - Defenchess, version: 2.2, author: Can Cetin, Dogac Eldenk - RubiChess, version: 1.8, author: Andreas Matthies - Laser, version: 1.6, author: Jeffrey An, Michael An - Igel, version: 2.6, author: Medvedev, Shcherbyna Features: - Play vs very strong Chinese chess engine - Setup time controller - Setup Skill level (to adjust playing strength) - Can take back - Support Analysing on fly mode - Display all computing info, show analysing arrow - Voice moves as well as simple sounds - Has an internal Opening book - Can run the benchmark - Custom chess pieces, board materials - Support both Light and Dark Appearance modes - Edit position - Autosave/load playing game - Paste FEN, PGN - Copy, email FEN, PGN, image - On, off or hybrid NNUE mode - Release with source-code (GPL license) thus anyone can check, verify and/or contribute
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: BanksiaGUI at Free against Pulsar Chess Engine's $1.99. Pulsar Chess Engine's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.4) and ads (none vs shown). On ratings volume, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
BanksiaGUI is free to download; Pulsar Chess Engine costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pulsar Chess Engine holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Pulsar Chess Engine's written reviews are positive against 54% of BanksiaGUI's.
| Parameter | Pulsar Chess Engine | BanksiaGUI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (12 ratings) — better | 3.4 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews — better | 53.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Adams | Nguyen Pham |
Customer experience
Pulsar Chess Engine
BanksiaGUI
In-app purchases
Pulsar Chess Engine
No in-app purchases
BanksiaGUI
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pulsar Chess Engine free?
Is BanksiaGUI free?
Which has better reviews, Pulsar Chess Engine or BanksiaGUI?
Do Pulsar Chess Engine or BanksiaGUI have ads?
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