Retrospecs vs Asciilizer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Retrospecs
Transform your photos and videos into retro pixel art. Emulate the look of classic computers and consoles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Customize your output with various graphics engines, color palettes, and fonts.
- Pixelate images and video clips
- Emulate 40+ classic computer/console systems
- Create custom graphics modes
- Variety of color palettes and fonts
- Supports Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and more
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A retro computing / pixel art camera app. Retrospecs lets you convert images and video clips so they appear as they would on a wide variety of home computers and consoles from the 70's, 80's and 90's. Simply take a picture (or select one from your photo library) and you can display it as it would appear on over forty systems including the Commodore 64, IBM PC (DOS, CGA, EGA and VGA), Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo Game Boy and even the original 1984 model Apple Macintosh. If that's not enough you can also create your own custom modes based around four different graphics engines and a wide variety of color palettes and character fonts. (The free version only contains a limited number of systems/dither modes and the custom editors, video clip processing and animation options aren't available.) All trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.
Asciilizer
Transform your photos into unique text-based art. Choose from various detail levels to create custom ASCII images from your camera or existing pictures. Save and share your creations easily.
- Generate ASCII art from photos
- Six fineness modes
- Save art as image
- Clip art as text
- Share to social media
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Asciilizer is an ascii art generator which makes your photo into text. ◇ Generate Ascii Arts - Take a camera or load a photo, then the photo will be an amazing ascii art. - Select the fineness of ascii art from 6 modes, light, lighter, normal, detailed, complicated and super. ◇ Save & Clip Ascii Arts - Save generated ascii arts into the camera roll as image. - Clip the ascii arts as text ◇ Share Ascii Arts - Share the asciilized image with your friends. - Support Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LINE and Weibo.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Retrospecs at 4.8 against Asciilizer's 3.0. Retrospecs also leads on ratings volume (364 vs 4) and review sentiment (94% vs 73%). Asciilizer's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 14.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Retrospecs sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Asciilizer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Retrospecs holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retrospecs has 364 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Retrospecs's written reviews are positive against 73% of Asciilizer's.
Retrospecs ships an update every 2 months, Asciilizer every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 26, 2026 and July 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Retrospecs | Asciilizer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (364 ratings) — better | 3.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.3% of reviews — better | 73.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 364 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | John Parker | Nooon LLC |
Customer experience
Retrospecs
Asciilizer
Bugs and requests
Retrospecs
Reported bugs
3 issues- Animation option not working properly
- Video import and saving issues
- Occasional image loading failures
Requested features
5 requests- Add more retro systems (e.g. NES, TI-99/4A)
- Improve video encoding capabilities
- Allow adjusting dithering levels
- Add support for transparent PNGs
- Implement batch processing and export options
Asciilizer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Retrospecs
- Small tip$0.99
- Medium tip$1.99
- Unlock everything$1.99
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- Big tip$4.99
- The king of tips$9.99
Asciilizer
- Super Mode$1.99
