EV Nova, rebuilt from the ground up.

A reverse-engineered engine for the 2002 classic, native on Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. Bring your own copy.

Join the beta Read the source
The NOVA Swift wordmark in fire-lit gunmetal beside a blue-green planet, with a bright nova and ships inbound.

Checked against the original code.

The original Windows executable was taken apart, function by function, and every gameplay system was rebuilt to match it: flight, combat, the NPC AI, the economy, missions and the star map.

Original behaviour is the default. Anything that changes the rules is an optional Enhancement, off until you turn it on.

Progress by functionReverse-engineering notes

Chart of how much of each part of the original game's code has been compared with NovaSwift, from flight and combat to missions and saving.
Each block is about 5% of one part of the original code. This tracks what has been checked, not a finished game. NovaSwift is in beta.

A plug-in editor that runs the game.

Built into the Mac app. Edit any resource, draw the galaxy, then fly your plug-in without leaving the editor.

The Plug-in Editor's galaxy map: 545 systems coloured by government, hyperlinks, nebulae and a government legend, with the editing tools on the left.
The galaxy map editor, with one-way hyperlinks flagged in red.
The Fed Destroyer open in the editor: a spinning sprite preview with its layers, and flight, shield, armour and cargo stats.
Ships show their sprite, layers and the stats the engine will actually use.
The Sol system in the editor: planets and stations laid out on a grid above a live game preview, with the system's traffic table on the right.
Lay out a system and watch it run in the live preview below.

Fly it before you ship it.

Test Run starts a real game session on your plug-in. Spawn fleets as friends or enemies, grant outfits, set control bits, start missions and jump anywhere, with god mode on while you look around.

  • Every resource typeForms for 23 types, checked byte-for-byte against the stock data, with a hex view for the rest.
  • Galaxy mapDrag systems, draw and erase hyperlinks, and set government colours and nebulae.
  • Star systemsPlace planets and stations with their real sprites, beside a live game preview.
  • Test runStart a game on your plug-in with a debug panel: spawn fleets, grant outfits, set bits, start missions.
  • Story toolsA control-bit index and a mission flow graph, so you can follow a storyline end to end.
  • Graphics and soundImport PNG and WAV, edit ship hardpoints, attach HD art, and save as .rez or classic files.

Plug-ins, one tap away.

Browse the community catalog and install in one tap, or import your own files, old Mac .sit and .hqx archives included. Turn any of them off again with a switch.

Add your plug-in to the catalog

The Plug-ins screen listing an installed total conversion and a gameplay tweak, with reorder handles and on/off switches.

Fly the same galaxy as your friends.

Co-op over local Wi-Fi or Game Center. Friends join the host's galaxy, and there's no server to run. The host decides the rules.

The Host Lobby with a Co-op or Full Stakes switch and options for PvP, real damage, friendly fire, permadeath and trading.
  • PvP
  • Real damage
  • Friendly fire
  • Permadeath
  • Player trading
The Story Guide: campaigns with progress bars beside a step timeline, showing locked steps and the mission that unlocks each one.

Never lose the thread of a storyline.

The Story Guide shows each campaign as a series of steps: what you've done, what's locked, and which mission opens the next one. It reads plug-in storylines too.

Classic, or a little more modern.

Play with the original interface, or switch to the Enhanced or Nova Swift look. Then turn individual pieces, like the map, menus or HUD, on or off.

The Interface settings with Classic, Enhanced, Nova Swift and Custom presets above toggles for the map, menus, dialogs and HUD.

A debug suite, built in.

Live logs you can search and filter, frame time per subsystem, an inspector for any ship or planet, and a command console. Bug reports attach your logs for you.

The debug console: a filtered live log, a command prompt, an entity inspector and a frame-time breakdown by subsystem.

Your pilots come with you.

Import your old Windows pilots straight into the game, with classic Mac pilots in testing. Pilots save to iCloud, so you can pick up on your iPad or iPhone where you left off on your Mac. Your imported game data syncs to every device, Apple TV included.

HD art and 3D models.

Plug-ins can bring high-resolution art and 3D ship and planet models. Models draw into the classic frames, or live in 3D, turning and banking with the ship. Hit boxes and gameplay stay the same either way.

Made for touch, too.

EV Nova never ran on a phone. These are captures from an iPhone.

Flight view with touch controls for turning, thrust and fire, beside the classic status bar.
Touch controls and the classic status bar.
The galaxy map centred on Sol, with planets, their services and hypergate routes.
The galaxy map.
The multiplayer screen with Local and Online tabs and a Host a Lobby button.
Local and online lobbies.
The plug-in store listing community total conversions, each with a Get button.
The plug-in store.

Play the beta, or build it.

The TestFlight beta runs on Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. Building it yourself needs a Mac with Xcode. Linux and Windows are in progress.

Join the beta Adding your data 
# clone and fetch dependencies
git clone https://github.com/SirStig/NovaSwift.git
cd NovaSwift && scripts/setup.sh

# put your own EV Nova data in data/base/

# open in Xcode, pick a target, Run
open app/NovaSwift.xcodeproj

You bring the game.

EV Nova's content belongs to its owners. NOVA Swift ships no game data and never will. It reads a copy you own, the same way OpenMW and OpenRA work.