Spaceward Ho!
Step into the gaming world with Spaceward Ho!, one of the top $4.99 games in the App Store! Crafted with creativity and innovation by Christopher Cotton, this captivating Strategy game is bound to grab your attention. With its content rating of 9+, it caters to a wide audience. Ever since its release on 29th March 2012, it has been constantly updated, with the latest version rolled out on 31st August 2017.
Whether you have a liking for Strategy, Simulation, games, Spaceward Ho! is sure to keep you hooked!
User Ratings
Join the crowd of 81 gamers who have given their verdict on Spaceward Ho!.
Ready to take on the adventure? Get Spaceward Ho! now from the APP STORE.
Dive into 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.
What’s Fresh in the Latest Update?
Discover what’s new in the recent update of Spaceward Ho! on 31st August 2017:
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
Hear from the Players – Spaceward Ho! Reviews
Find out what gamers are saying about Spaceward Ho!:
Great game and no extra fees to play.
We’ve been playing this game since the original Mac version. It’s still tough to beat. It’s got decades of gameplay, literally.
Excellent game!!!! And now updated for iOS 11!!!
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.
We cant stop playing this game. And we need metal.
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.
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.
Leaderboard and achievements havent moved in months!
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?
Now finally working in the latest iOS.
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!
Would like to see some new content tho.
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. We’ve 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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
We’ve 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. :)
Any chance we could get a recompile for new iOS and 64-bit devices?
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!
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!
As good as ever. Slight learning curve but well worth the money.
We have played Ho! Since Mac OS 6.0. It’s great to have it back.
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 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!
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!!
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.
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!
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 myself 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 I’d rate the game 6 stars.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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".
This is a must have for strategy gamers. Let the fun begin !!
This is one of our all-time favorite games. We waited years for this game to come to iOS and it was worth the wait. Kudos to the developer for the frequent improvements and updates.
Really great game, true to form. Needs an update to stop crashing with iOS 7. Please? :)