is a turn-based science fiction computer strategy game that was written by Peter Commons, designed by Joe Williams and published by Delta Tao Software.

It has received wide recognition in the Macintosh community, for example being inducted into the Macworld Game Hall of Fame.

can be categorized in the 4X game genre (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) with a theme of galactic conquest.

It took many elements of its design from the earlier Reach for the Stars, but expanded on many of that game's basic themes while taking advantage of the larger memory and better graphics available on the Mac platform.

focuses on efficiently extracting the resources of conquered worlds while correctly anticipating and countering opponents' actions.

Its small but dedicated fanbase considers the simplicity to be elegance, and its designers boast that it has gotten faster and more intuitive to play with each new version.

There are several different kinds of ships, including the basic Fighter, a Scout with longer range but weaker weapons, a Colony Ship used to found new colonies, Satellites which are cheap but cannot move from the world at which they are built, and in recent versions a few others as well, such as the Tanker and Dreadnought.

There is no ground combat; ships that face an undefended enemy colony simply bombard it from orbit until they or the entire planet population is dead.

[6] A February 1994 survey of space war games gave it a grade of A, stating that Spaceward Ho!

v. 3.0 for the Macintosh was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #196 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column.

[9] Next Generation reviewed the Macintosh version of Spaceward Ho 4.0, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "If you already own a copy, now is definitely time to step up to a new level of play.

as number 52 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing its "deceptive level of depth", high replay value, and eight-player mode.