Spaceward Ho! started life as a Macintosh-only strategy game set in space. Its last major revision finally saw Windows compatibility, as well. Spaceward Ho!’s basic gameplay is familiar ground to many strategy game fans: take over the galaxy against other human or computer-controlled players.
The turn-based strategy game follows a fairly straightforward model: You control your civilization’s economic and military resources, allocating funding for the development of new ships, terraforming, and mining operations. Your fleets can be comprised of colony vessels, combat vessels, long-range explorers, and other units. And unlike many games in this genre, Spaceward Ho! doesn’t take itself too seriously. The game is chock full of cartoonish graphics and comical sound effects.
Williams is actively soliciting feedback in a thread on the comp.sys.mac.games.strategic newsgroup entitled “Spaceward Ho! 5.” If you don’t have access to Usenet newsgroups, Williams’ e-mail address is joe@deltatao.com.
At this point, Williams is still actively collecting suggestions from gamers, but already a few things have come to light. Williams said the new version will be Carbonized, enabling it to run on Mac OS X. He also said that the company is planning on revamping network support in the new version, and is considering adding support for GameRanger, Scott Kevill’s Mac-only online gaming service.
Delta Tao is a long-time maker of games and utilities for the Macintosh. Their other products include Clan Lord, an online persistent role-playing game; Eric’s Ultimate Solitaire, a collection of almost two dozen solitaire card games; Color Dark Castle, an updated version of a classic Mac action game; and Strategic Conquest, a military strategy game.
For more details about the current version of Spaceward Ho! or to download a playable demo version, please visit the Web site.