EV was (and, really, is) very much a mac game. Mac Versions for old macs here! Unfortunately on new macs, you'll need to use WineNova
The genius of Escape Velocity was its mod potential. In addition to the TCs linked on the home page, there are numerous smaller mods ("plugins") which change improve or bypass gameplay. There was the official add-ons page, now replaced by a remade version
/u/nill0bject managed to convert the EV Override models (the 3d meshes used to create the game's sprites) into Blender files.
If you still need that top down space travel fix, there are some currently supported options:
FlashTrek and sequels