Fond Memories
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.
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.
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Still kicking after all these years
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.
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.
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Bad ui
Hard use with small icons. Would not recommend
Timeless
I’ve played this game since the 80s, and hope to play it in my 80s.
Still crazy after all these years
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.
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.
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Fantastic game! Have played it nearly daily since 1998.
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!
Old School 4x fun
I played this on my brother’s apple Mac 35-40 years ago and I still enjoy the game.
Great game but if on Mac w/ Apple Silicon audio problem
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.
thanks for keeping this game alive. cheers.
Still a classic
Have played this since the early 90’s and it’s still fantastic.
Yes
This game is proof that the world was once a good place.
love this game
i’ve been playing this game for 30 years. it still manages to be an excellent game every time.
bugué et mal adapté
tout est dans le titre, et pas mis à jour depuis 5 ans
interesting game, mediocre implementation
Many very visible bugs, no update since 5 years, don't spend your money here...
So Much Fun, But Multiplayer?
I would rate this 5 stars for the sheer enjoyment of the strategy against various AI levels and endless galaxy combinations, but one of the joys of Spaceward Ho! from the 90s was the ability to play against friends. I know there hasn’t been a development update in years, but allowing us to play against friends - even if it was through Bluetooth only would be a huge plus (preferable would be through WiFi). It would definitely earn 5 stars with that feature update.
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So, I guess you aren’t keeping stats anymore?
Leaderboard and achievements haven’t moved in months!
Spaceward Ho! Back on the Mac.
This game is an uncomplicated explore and conquer game with a sense of humor. There's enough variety to keep me coming back.
I first played Spaceward Ho on the Mac (multi-player, even) in the early 1990s, then later the excellent PalmOS port. This version continued that tradition faithfully on iOS, where I play it regularly. Now thanks to the M1 I can play it on my Mac again. Thanks, Ariton, for keeping it alive and coming full circle.
I first played Spaceward Ho on the Mac (multi-player, even) in the early 1990s, then later the excellent PalmOS port. This version continued that tradition faithfully on iOS, where I play it regularly. Now thanks to the M1 I can play it on my Mac again. Thanks, Ariton, for keeping it alive and coming full circle.
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Great strategy game...
Now finally working in the latest iOS.
Abandoned!
This is most of what I loved from the Delta Tao game we had back in the 1990s. I’ve had a blast playing it on my iPad hundreds of times.
Alas, it appears to be abandoned. The game crashes outright on iOS 14 due to new security checks, and the listed support page for Ariton Software is gone. I am sad to see this end, and I’d love to see it updated again, but I’m not holding out much hope.
Alas, it appears to be abandoned. The game crashes outright on iOS 14 due to new security checks, and the listed support page for Ariton Software is gone. I am sad to see this end, and I’d love to see it updated again, but I’m not holding out much hope.
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Still fun after 30 years!
I first started playing this game on my Macintosh SE/LC II back in the early 90’s and it’s still enjoyable. A classic! Now if I could only find Sky Shadow for iOS I’d be all set.
Not great on iPhone
I loved this game when I was younger but the experience and playability on iPhone is only a few notches above terrible. Granted the UI is limited by the amount of screen space, but this could’ve been done much better. I expected MUCH more for the money.
