After customizing the scope of your game, you begin with a single planet that is very close to being completely terraformed and profitable. Your home planet is just one planet in the galaxy. Within the first few turns, I suggest you send out some Scout ships to explore your neighboring planets. Some planets will be worth colonizing, some won't.

In general, the planets you will explore in Spaceward Ho! will fall into one or more of the following categories:

If a planet matches just one of these categories, it's reason enough to want it. However, if it matches two or three of these categories, you better grab it fast. Once you decide you want a planet, I suggest putting a couple fighters in orbit to protect it from your opponents. Then colonize it quickly with one of your Colony Ships.

Keep in mind that the key to success in Spaceward Ho! is metal and money. The more of each, the better.

METAL - Regardless of the terraformability of a planet, it will probably have a quantity of metal on it. To win this game, you are going to need several spaceship armadas to colonize the galaxy and destroy your opponents. But before you can build these ships, you need metal.

MONEY - Most of the planets you explore in the galaxy are either too hot or too cold to sustain life. You must invest time and resources into these planets so they can be terraformed. Once completely terraformed, your citizens can inhabit these planets in droves and make them profitable. You can then use these profits to build more ships and invest in technology research (better weapons, shields, etc.).

While you are trying to to mine metal and terraform planets, you must also fend off other aliens trying to do the same thing. This is a difficult balance to maintain. If you over expand your empire, you will not be able to properly defend your planets. However, if you don't expand quickly enough, your opponents will have access to more resources (metal and money) and easy overrun your territory. Your ability to expand your empire while protecting it is the key to victory in this game.

I'm a longtime fan of Spaceward Ho! and I absolutely love this game. The first time I played Spaceward Ho! was on an old Macintosh in the early 1990s. The only real quips I have with the Palm version of Spaceward Ho! is the interface. There's a lot happening all at once in this game and it's difficult to keep track of everything on a tiny Palm Pilot screen. Depending on how many planets are in the galaxy, just seeing them all at once is difficult. I suggest playing several small galaxy games with just one or two opponents until you get the hang of things.

Overall, Spaceward Ho! on the Palm is a very enjoyable experience. It's fun, engaging and well programmed. I recently flew to California with my Palm Pilot and played Spaceward Ho! so much during the flight that I got carpel tunnel in my wrist. This is a must have game for every Palm Pilot owner.

If you are a fan of games like Age of Empires or WarCraft, then you will definitely enjoy Spaceward Ho! whether it's played on your desktop or handheld.

Spaceward Ho! is published by Mobilefreon and owned by Delta Tao. It is available for Mac, PC and Palm.