Retrospecs vs fastbackward
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.
fastbackward
Relive past memories with your photos. This app resurfaces pictures taken on this day in previous years, helping you recall significant life events and see your personal growth. It also displays photos on a map using EXIF data and can show random memories if no photos exist for the date.
- Resurfaces photos from previous years
- Displays photos on a map using EXIF data
- Excludes screenshots from memories
- On-device processing for privacy
- Shows random memories if no photos for the date
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Have you ever wondered what you were doing on this day last year? Or the year before? What about the year before that? With fastbackward you'll not only know, but have your photos to remind you, too. Taking photos is great, but looking at those photos is where the real fun begins. Your iPhone takes stunning photos but it needs fastbackward to surface the most important photos at the right time. Your iPhone is full of photos but they're a jumbled mess in the Photos app. What makes fastbackward so valuable is the way it surfaces photos you took today, but in years past. You'll see your kids growing up as well as any big life events that happened on this day, too. Didn't take a photo on this day? Fastbackward can show you a random memory instead. As well as showing you your photos and jogging your memory, fastbackward will also use your photos' EXIF data to plot where you took them on a map. You'll never wonder where you took your favourite landscape photo ever again. Features include: - The ability to exclude screenshots from your memories. - Privacy. Because your photos are hugely personal, fastbackward doesn't upload any of them to the internet. All of the processing is carried out on your device, right where it should be. - EXIF data used to display a map of where you took your photos.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Retrospecs at 364 against fastbackward's 1. Retrospecs also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 18.6). fastbackward's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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. Retrospecs sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and fastbackward sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
fastbackward holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Retrospecs has 364 ratings behind it against 1, 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 100% of fastbackward's.
Retrospecs ships an update every 2 months, fastbackward every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Retrospecs | fastbackward |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (364 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 94.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 364 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 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 — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Parker | Maximilian Krauss |
Customer experience
Retrospecs
fastbackward
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
fastbackward
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
fastbackward
- fastbackward Pro$1.99









