Last updated on January 21st, 2026 at 12:00 am
Spaceward Ho! – Strategy Game Review
Spaceward Ho! is a Strategy/Simulation game from Christopher Cotton, first launched in 29th March 2012.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 95+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Spaceward Ho! Stand Out
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.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Spaceward Ho! is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 31st August 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
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
Download & Availability
Spaceward Ho! is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Spaceward Ho! on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This app hasnt 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 hasnt been usable in decades) with a more flexible layout designed for a bigger screen. The game plays exactly like we loved it back in the 90s, feels completely natural on a touchscreenprobably better than with a mouse!and even includes the Easter eggs like special hats that appear on holidays. The only bugs Ive ever encountered are very rare and only annoyancesinability to tap on thingsand 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. Itd be nice to have it continue to zoom out instead. The one thing we miss is save-scumming; if youre doing a massive galaxy a game can take many hours to complete, and there are two issues: One, if we make a stupid UI mistake like forget to set a colony ship to delayed arrival, it can literally end a tight game Im 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 we get an interesting situation but make some bad decision early on that ends up with a loss, and Im always REALLY curious if the game was winnable had we taken a different strategy, but theres now no way to find out. We really miss that.
Ive played this game since the 80s, and hope to play it in our 80s.
Really enjoy the game. The original game designers should know that their efforts have brought fun and relaxation into likely thousands of peoples lives. Well done and thank you.
Have played this since the early 90s and its still fantastic.
Leaderboard and achievements havent moved in months.
This game is an uncomplicated explore and conquer game with a sense of humor. There's enough variety to keep us coming back. We 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 we play it regularly. Now thanks to the M1 we can play it on our Mac again. Thanks, Ariton, for keeping it alive and coming full circle.
Now finally working in the latest iOS.
We first started playing this game on our Macintosh SE/LC II back in the early 90s and its still enjoyable. A classic! Now if we could only find Sky Shadow for iOS Id be all set.
We played this in the mid 90s and for years after. We were sad when it was no longer playable on newer versions of windows. But then we happened to find it here and now its our go to game. Thank you for bringing back a classic.
Im the only person as far as we know who bought this game on three platforms: original MacOS, OSX universal binary, and now, iOS. Worth every penny. And the iOS version is a spectacular port. Mind you, we play on an iPhone se, and we have believe even without the benefit of experience that the iPad experience is exponentially better still. An App Store review may not be the best forum for questions, but we do have three of them. 1) just out of curiosity did you guys port version 4 or 5? 2) how do we set up an internet or WiFi multiplayer without going through Game Center? 3) is there a way to set up a game with AIs of multiple different skill levels or starting world qualities.
We've been playing this game since the original Mac version. It's still tough to beat. It's got decades of gameplay, literally.
Great game and no extra fees to play.
We cant stop playing this game. And we need metal.
Excellent game!!!! And now updated for iOS 11.
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.
We 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. We know there hasnt 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.
This is most of what we loved from the Delta Tao game we had back in the 1990s. Ive had a blast playing it on our 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. We are sad to see this end, and Id love to see it updated again, but Im not holding out much hope.
Would like to see some new content tho.
Loved playing this in college and now our kids are hooked too. Would love to play others with Multiplayer but we cant figure out how to add Friends since the Game Center was discontinued. Do we need an update to reenable Multiplayer.
Multiplayer turn based, login with accounts to play, connect galaxies to fight vs other galaxies via wormholes meaning you build up your galaxy after conquering it. Do what No Mans Sky failed at. Who cares about pink octopus-velociraptor-buffaloes? No cheesy graphics, no difficult economics, no buying your way to infinite strength. Keep it simple and lean, but fun. Been playing since 1994. By some glitch several thousand decoys can take out dreadnoughts. Hyaaaah.
Love this game. An absolute classic, and so glad it was created as a iPhone app. The recent update has some issues. Biggest is that you can't double tap to get a recap of the most recent battle on a planet. HUGE mistake taking that out, makes it very difficult to remember where and when battles have happened.
We've literally been playing this little game since it came out for Windows 3.1. We've paid for it more times, in more versions and formats than we can count. We really expected to lose it for the final time when iOS 11 comes out. We're grateful for this update. But! But!!! Could you please correct the spacing and sizing of the Planets and Skills area. It was perfect before the update.
Devs promise multiplayer… No multiplayer Devs haven't updated app… Getting warnings from app that the game will slow done our phone when we run it. What the hell devs. Come back to your abandoned game. Otherwise the game is as advertised. Spaceward ho with better graphics. Update: Hoorah! The devs are back! Still waiting for multiplayer though. M U L T we P L A Y E R.
We loved this game when we were 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 couldve been done much better. We expected MUCH more for the money.
Every few games when we start winning the game, the "end turn" button makes the game crash. When it happens on four new games in a row it makes us suspect more to it than a mere bug.
Loved this game on Mac and PalmOS but this version has such clunky controls that its no fun to play. Why cant we just drag ships around directly? It could be so much better than it is.
Ive been playing this game since we had our old Mac Plus. Now theres fuel? We cant play this. Wasted money.
We've played this game for years, starting on the Mac and now we play daily on our iPad. It's the best strategy game that we can crunch thru and conquer an entire universe in an hour or so. Or longer if we make the universe bigger. You can't beat the scalability of this game. :).
We've been hooked on this game since it first came out for our Macintosh. However, we are getting "nag notes" when we launch it saying that the program will not be supported in the next version of iOS. We assume that's a problem due to it being a 32-bit program, which we understand is not supported in iOS 11. Any chance we will be seeing a 64-bit version in time for the new iOS version.
We don't miss those long dark years, after the PowerPC of Spaceward Ho! Was deprecated and the delightful arrival of Ho! To iOS…. Is it going to happen again?? Please say it ain't so, and leave us without Spaceward Ho! Again– will there be a 64bit version for the new iOS? Will gladly pay again for it if that helps. Terrific game.
Any chance we could get a recompile for new iOS and 64-bit devices.
As good as ever. Slight learning curve but well worth the money.
Turn based strategy games still have their place – and while we like chess, this is our favorite. Once upon a time we played this multiplayer on Mac computers (dating ourselves we know). Our cousin is in the Army and it would be great to play this with him wherever he is – please bring back multiplayer. If that comes back we'd rate the game 6 stars.
We know this game supports pinch to zoom but one of the reasons we purchased our iPad Pro was so we could have the most screen we could get for this game! Please port to desktop.
Seriously, this is one of our favorite computer games of all time. We've been so anxious for it to come out on IOS that we were thinking about offering to help with the project. We have spent many hours on this game and loved it! We love the graphics and original sounds. We can't wait for the multiplayer version! It's been so long since the last update, we wonder if development has ceased. Please support multiplayer. We're a developer. Do you want help.
If you enjoyed playing Spaceward Ho! Back in the day, this is a must have.
We have played Ho! Since Mac OS 6.0. It's great to have it back.
We were so excited when we found this game in the App Store! It's our favorite old school Mac game back from the dead! This a simple and addictive conquer the Galaxy game that will give you endless hours of entertainment.
Im excited that we keep releasing new version with more bugs fixed. Yes, Im a developer of Spaceward Ho! And Im glad to keep working on it. And yes, multiplayer is coming.
Previously had an issue when last upgraded. Downloading update again seemed to solve problem. One of favorite games from back in the day. Can we add the stats back (ships built/destroyed, people dead)! It's nice to know how thoroughly we are beating our opponents.
There were some nice improvements in 1.2.5. An improved message window. Fixed a few crashing issues. Multiplayer is not supported yet, but coming.
One of our favorite games for ipad, shocking it was also on of our favorite games 15 years ago, has truly stood the test of time and the port to ipad ios is more then solid! Well worth the money.
So glad to have this classic back, but there are some really annoying bugs: – Mute setting, please! The sound on the splash/start screen can't seem to be turned off. You can only turn off sound in-game. Really bad if you're in public or sneaking a game in at work/school. This is really the worst. – Slider UI could be better. Might be better to just go with bigger arrow buttons. – we remember the classic game having two sets of sliders for economy. One was for research, savings, and overall planet spending. The second was for spending on the individual planets. – May be better to have build/send/manage fleet buttons along bottom of screen when a planet is selected. To easy to fat-finger it in the current locations on map. – Arrows (much like Mac classic UI) for transferring ships one-by-one between fleets. Either way, a nearly perfect port! Thank you.
Spaceward Ho! Is a masterful turn based conquer the galaxy game. Elegant in its initial simplicity. Marvelous in its growing complexity. Terribly addicting, be prepared to find yourself and your iPad (best platform – a bit small on iPhone) playing at every opportunity. You have two resources to manage and six technologies to invest in. Build fleets and explore the myriad of galaxy shapes, densities, and sizes. The sounds are hilarious, fitting well with the game. Graphics are clear and explanatory. Replay ability is remarkable, no one time through game here. Of course what is a great game if it doesn't have an Easter Egg or two to find. Get this game. You absolutely won't regret buying it.
We withhold the 5th star only for multi-player. Have been playing this since the mid-90s (is that possible or am we exaggerating?) and we LOVE itbut we also live overseas and would love to play against our old buddies. Thanks.
We've been a huge fan of Ho! For a very long time. We still have the retail box for 4.0. It's good to see Ho! Is back. BUT we need multiplayer. Badly.
We bought our first copy of Spaceward Ho! Back in 1992 for our then-brand-new Mac LC II. We have probably wasted more of our life on this game than on any other activity. So we were thrilled when we saw Spaceward Ho! Finally appear on the App Store for our iPhone. While the gameplay is still great, the port feels clunky. The original game for the Mac was very polished. This one not so much. We understand that the iPhone's makes Spaceward Ho!'s interface a challenge, but there are a few things that need improvement. For starters, battle scenes look terrible. Oftentimes, the battle screen is empty, or we're fighting against ships that appear off-screen somewhere; the original version dealt with this problem by grouping ships together. Also, the damage indicator also looks terrible. We're not a huge fan of the +, ->, etc buttons above planets. Our issue is that, when you zoom out, the buttons also scale, making them impossible to press without zooming back in. When an event happens elsewhere in the galaxy (e.g., an impending supernova), we have to open the systems window, find our star system, and then touch it to get back to where we were. In the original game, the planets window was always open, so this was less of a hassle. It would be nice if the iPhone UI had a simple way to "go back" to the last thing you were looking at. The manage ships screen was baffling when we first tried to use it, despite the fact that we knew what all the buttons did. The reason is that you need to hit the button below before you select the ships. We were doing it the other way around. But there are no helpful UI cues, just a mysterious rectangle that appears around the ships you selected. Lastly, and these are aesthetic things: many of the graphics are jarringly rough-looking compared to other graphics. For example, the planets still look great, and we think the addition of the little satellite orbit circles is a nice touch. But we find the expanding-contracting circle to be irritating. Also, some of the ships, like the scouts you start with, look strange next to the other ships, since the original game's ships are flat and side-on. Anyway, if you love the original game, you'll probably still enjoy this one, despite its flaws. But we think a newcomer would be baffled at this game's UI. It seems like it needs an overhaul for the iPhone/iPad. We hope the developers don't think our review was too harsh, and we look forward to improvements in the game. We are glad that somebody finally brought this game to a modern platform.
We're a long time turn based gamer who sharpened his teeth on the likes of MOO and MOO2 in the PC. In comparison to the MOO series, this game is simplistic and unexciting with a lacking UI. Definitely not a $5 game, but perhaps worth a buck. We wish we had alternative suggestions for a worthy alternative but have yet to find one.
Wish we would have known before we bought it. Waste of money without multiplayer.
This was a great game on the Mac from long ago. It is really nice to see it on the IPad. Hours of time will be "wasted".
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.9
- Size: 24.70 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, TR
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Christopher Cotton
Last updated: 31st August 2017 | Genre: Strategy, Simulation | Developer: Christopher Cotton