# Spaceward Ho!

> Strategic space exploration, colonization, and conquest game with empire management and combat. (iPhone/iPad app by Ariton.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spaceward-ho/id510527152 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Ariton](https://appshunter.io/developer/493802606)
- Category: Games, Simulation, Strategy
- Price: $4.99
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 95 App Store ratings · 130 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 8.0 · 25 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), Turkish
- Released: 2012-03-29
- Data updated: 2026-09-01
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spaceward-ho/id510527152/reviews.md

## What is Spaceward Ho!?

Spaceward Ho! is a strategic game of awesome scope. You control the entire military and economy of a spacefaring race. Your goal: explore and colonize the galaxy. 

Unfortunately, you are not alone. Alien enemies bent on galactic conquest will oppose your expansion. You fight them by developing new technologies and expanding your empire, or you can ally with them to turn enemies into friends. 

Terraform newly discovered worlds or mine their natural resources. Maneuver your starship fleets, both in defense of your own systems and in offensive strikes against the evil aliens. Your strategic decisions will determine the fate of the galaxy.

Based on the original Mac/PC/Palm game and updated for iOS.

For new players, read the Help file and also watch the tutorial video online. Please contact us on Twitter @SpacewardHo or Our Website, or send us email.

## Key features

- Galaxy exploration and colonization
- Empire and economy management
- Technology development
- Starship fleet combat
- Diplomacy with alien races
- Resource mining and terraforming

## What do users think of Spaceward Ho!?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- ⏰ Timeless gameplay still engaging after 30+ years
- 📱 Works well on modern iOS devices despite age
- 🎮 Faithful port of classic Mac game
- 🎯 Simple yet deep strategy mechanics
- 😄 Includes original sound effects and Easter eggs
- 🧠 Challenging AI opponents at various difficulty levels
- ⚡ Smooth touchscreen controls feel natural
- 🎨 Retro graphics maintain nostalgic charm
- 🔄 Highly replayable with configurable galaxy options
- 💰 No pay-to-win mechanics or hidden fees

**Cons**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 📐 UI feels clunky and dated
- 🔍 Small icons and buttons difficult to tap accurately
- 📊 Missing comparison graphs from original version
- 🎯 Planet icons remain too large when zoomed out
- 🖱️ Slider controls imprecise and hard to adjust
- 📱 Poor experience on iPhone due to screen size
- 🔊 Cannot mute splash screen audio
- ⚠️ Lacks comprehensive tutorial for new players
- 🎮 Battle scenes display issues and off-screen ships

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Game crashes when ending turn while winning
- Crashes on iOS 14+ due to security checks
- Audio issues on Mac with Apple Silicon
- Dreadnoughts disappear when mixed with tankers in delayed fleets
- Some planets get stuck and won't terraform or mine
- Double-tap battle recap feature removed in update
- Leaderboard and achievements not updating
- Game runs slowly on older devices
- Planets get stuck unable to move ships
- Interface elements scale incorrectly when zoomed out
- Text overlays prevent clicking through to planets

**Most requested features**

- Multiplayer support (most frequently requested)
- WiFi/Bluetooth multiplayer with friends
- Game Center integration for multiplayer
- Save/load game functionality for save-scumming
- Ability to rename planets and ships
- Improved UI with modern design
- Mac desktop version with flexible layout
- Better fleet management interface
- Leaderboard and achievement updates
- Ability to measure distance between planets
- Individual ship naming for fleets
- Adjustable mining vs terraforming levels
- Pop-up magnifier for precise slider control
- Comparison graphs for player statistics
- Tap-and-hold menu controls instead of button clicks

## Recent user reviews (10 of 130)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spaceward-ho/id510527152/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Fond Memories

*2026-03-02, version 1.2.9*

I remember playing this on my Mac Classic back in the 90s, and was thrilled to see it rebooted for iOS. Clever, minimalist graphics, and a subtle sense of humor make this a charming strategy game.
Unfortunately, AI wasn’t really a thing in the 90s, and it still isn’t with this app: As with many games of the era, such as Civilization II, the challenge doesn’t come from facing an clever opponent, but rather one who controls the board. Beyond a skill level of 53 or so, the game just plain cheats: It knows exactly how many ships you have, where they are, and what strength. By fiddling with a tool that allows one to save and replay a game (something not actually allowed for in the game), I was able to determine that it will actually shift defenses from one planet to another AFTER the battle has started. So it’s basically impossible to beat beyond level ~53. 
Still, three stars for clever visuals and some nice nostalgia. It would be interesting to see what competent programmers could do with this code base, and add in true AI tools instead of being lazy and cheating. Maybe someday.

### 5/5 — Still kicking after all these years

*2025-11-02*

This app hasn’t been updated in nearly a decade, but it still runs nearly perfectly on a modern iPad, and even on a Mac. It handles being resized just fine, although in a perfect world it would return to the Mac (the proper Mac version is PPC only so hasn’t been usable in decades) with a more flexible layout designed for a bigger screen.

The game plays exactly like I loved it back in the 90s, feels completely natural on a touchscreen—probably better than with a mouse!—and even includes the Easter eggs like special hats that appear on holidays.  The only bugs I’ve ever encountered are very rare and only annoyances—inability to tap on things—and quickly solved by restarting the app.

For old-schools have noticed only two differences, one good and two negative but cosmetic. The good is that if you set a fleet to scrap at the same time as evacuating a planet, it no longer dumps the metal on the abandoned planet, which never made sense. The bad is that aging ships no longer start to look rusty and old.

The other negative one is more a UI change than problem; zooming in and out are super fluid and natural, but while the old desktop version. Would eventually shrink the planet icons down to mini sizes at distant zoom, the min icon size here is relatively large so with big galaxies the “big picture” view looks cluttered and confusing instead of expansive. It’d be nice to have it continue to zoom out instead.

The one thing I miss is save-scumming; if you’re doing a massive galaxy a game can take many hours to complete, and there are two issues: 

One, if I make a stupid UI mistake like forget to set a colony ship to delayed arrival, it can literally end a tight game I’m 3 hours into, with absolutely no takebacks. That is, frankly, not fun, especially since the delayed arrival controls are a bit finicky.

And two, sometimes I get an interesting situation but make some bad decision early on that ends up with a loss, and I’m always REALLY curious if the game was winnable had I taken a different strategy, but there’s now no way to find out. I really miss that.

### 2/5 — Bad ui

*2025-04-26, version 1.2.9*

Hard use with small icons. Would not recommend

### 5/5 — Timeless

*2025-01-16*

I’ve played this game since the 80s, and hope to play it in my 80s.

### 5/5 — Still crazy after all these years

*2025-01-09*

I first played this game in the early 1990’s with friends on an AppleTalk network with a collection of early Mac Plus and SE computers. We played marathon sessions over weekends and never tired of the game. I still have the early floppy disk the game came on!!

Nowadays I have this app on my travel iPad and still enjoy the game just as much over 30+ years later. Such a great game.

### 5/5 — Fantastic game! Have played it nearly daily since 1998.

*2025-01-04*

Really enjoy the game. The original game designers should know that their efforts have brought fun and relaxation into likely thousands of people’s lives.  Well done and thank you!

### 5/5 — Old School 4x fun

*2024-09-11, version 1.2.9*

I played this on my brother’s apple Mac 35-40 years ago and I still enjoy the game.

### 4/5 — Great game but if on Mac w/ Apple Silicon audio problem

*2024-08-05*

This is an amazing classic game. thankfully brough back to life some years ago.  now, needs and update to properly work on macs.

thanks for keeping this game alive. cheers.

### 5/5 — Still a classic

*2023-09-24*

Have played this since the early 90’s and it’s still fantastic.

### 5/5 — Yes

*2023-02-25, version 1.2.9*

This game is proof that the world was once a good place.

## Frequently asked questions about Spaceward Ho!

### What is Spaceward Ho!?

Spaceward Ho! is a strategic game where you control the military and economy of a spacefaring race. Your objective is to explore and colonize the galaxy, facing opposition from alien enemies.

### What are the main gameplay mechanics?

The game involves developing new technologies, expanding your empire, terraforming worlds, mining resources, and maneuvering starship fleets for both defense and offense against alien forces.

### Is Spaceward Ho! free to play?

Based on the provided information, Spaceward Ho! is a paid application. It does not mention in-app purchases or advertisements, indicating a one-time purchase model.

### What platforms is Spaceward Ho! available on?

The description states that the game is based on original Mac/PC/Palm versions and has been updated for iOS. Therefore, it is available on iOS devices.

### How can new players learn to play Spaceward Ho!?

For new players, it is recommended to read the in-game Help file and watch the tutorial video available online. The developers also provide contact information via Twitter and email for further assistance.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.2.9 — 2017-08-31

This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included.

64 bit compatible! Rejoice! Plus, some other bug fixes. And fixing the accidental deletion of games after Aug 8th.

Thanks to our beta testers who helped out:
Benoit Nadeau, Bill Maguire, Cameron Hills, Dan Danis, David Williams, Derik Hertel, Doug Weathers, Elio Varela, Fred Bockmann, George Fievet, Joe Casadonte, Josh Botts, Kevin Shiner, Matt Short, Owen Fitzpatrick, Richard Connamacher, Richard Goldsmith, Sascha W., Terry Dunnigan, Tim Steffens

### 1.2.8 — 2017-08-30

64 bit compatible! Rejoice! Plus, some other bug fixes.

Thanks to our beta testers who helped out:
Benoit Nadeau, Bill Maguire, Cameron Hills, Dan Danis, David Williams, Derik Hertel, Doug Weathers, Elio Varela, Fred Bockmann, George Fievet, Joe Casadonte, Josh Botts, Kevin Shiner, Matt Short, Owen Fitzpatrick, Richard Connamacher, Richard Goldsmith, Sascha W., Terry Dunnigan, Tim Steffens

### 1.2.5 — 2013-12-05

- Fixed Crash with large galaxies
- Fixed Crash with Multitouch after initial transition
- changed style of the message window
- No more toggle text on players sidebar when they are eliminated
- Display warning when building more than 10 scouts or tankers.
- Play "tick" sound when you drag to a planet
- Scroll the sidebar when you select a planet
- Disable auto play when showing a battle (should prevent some crashes)
- Fix Problem where menu couldn't be selected

### 1.2.4 — 2013-10-31

- Tap and Hold to Scrap a satellite
- Fuel Status for the fleets
- Fixed pathing bug where a ship could not be directed towards a planet, even though it could reach a colony and refuel for that planet. (Thanks to TimWB)
- Fixed to work on iOS 4.3.x devices again (Thanks to Nacole)
- Better text wrapping for messages
- Double Tap on a Fleet will now bring up Organize Dialog
- Added Facebook and Twitter
- Updating iOS7 bugs

### 1.2.3 — 2013-09-11

Nice version number! Please be sure to rate and review.

- Finally show damage to ships in Battles
- Adjusting spacing of the planets and names on the iPad (Thanks Tim)
- Fix the crash when scrapping a fleet by touching the fleet and then scrap (Thanks Andrew Diseker)
- Fixing bad display of SparksMcGee (random characters and missing planet names) (Lots of people!)
- In Build Screen, making the "Income" be "Savings" (Thanks @reppep)

## Apps similar to Spaceward Ho!

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Uciana](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/uciana/id1659168505) | 4.7 (42) | $0.99 | Games |
| [Starbase Orion](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/starbase-orion/id438375580) | 4.7 (329) | $7.99 | Games |
| [AD3000: Space Odyssey](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ad3000-space-odyssey/id1594792820) | 4.4 (40) | Free | Games |
| [Dune: Imperium](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dune-imperium/id1575414319) | 4.9 (4,697) | $10.99 | Games |
| [2112TD: Tower Defense Survival](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/2112td-tower-defense-survival/id1514617649) | 4.8 (1,379) | $1.99 | Games |
| [Star Command](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/star-command/id632079234) | 4.0 (905) | $2.99 | Games |

## Related topics

[spaceward ho](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/spaceward-ho)

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*