Escape Velocity
An awesome space RPG series from the 90s and early 00s. Top down Asteroids style action with spaceship customization. Older games (EV and EVO) can be played on emulators or on Nova's engine (which you can run under WINE). The registration server is long gone, so these downloads include a cracked Nova binary.
To run Mods and TCs, first install and run Community Edition (Windows) or WineNova (Mac), download the desired TC, and run the .nplay file. See the documentation for installation instructions. Don't hesitate to reach out to the community in the troubleshooters channel for help!
Escape Velocity Nova
A classic in its own right, EVN is the gold standard for EV games with tons of glowing prose and graphics that still hold up. Six storylines (though with a few shared elements between them) and many new additions to the engine such as inertialess ships.
Enthusiasts have been tweaking nova to try and keep it compatible with modern systems. We're all very appreciative of their hard work.
Escape Velocity Nova: Community Edition (with modern windows goodies)
WineNova (for macs)
Escape Velocity
Matt C Burch's original from 1996. Launched the series and a vibrant online community. Partially inspired by (believe it or not) the manual to Elite. Ships as a TC mod for Nova.
Escape Velocity (Nova Port)
See Also: Escape Velocity for classic mac os (Macintosh Garden)
Escape Velocity Override
Peter Cartwright's larger sequel (which, like Nova, started as a TC mod) featuring numerous factions. Ships as a TC mod for Nova
EV: Override (Mod for EV Nova)
EV: Override (For classic mac os) (Macintosh Garden)
Big mods and TCs
In addition to the official games, I've taken the liberty of packaging up a few of the biggest fan-made mods which weren't picked up for official distributions.
White Dwarf
A new TC for 2023: a fan sequel to Nova
White Dwarf
EV Polycon
Perhaps the most successful TC effort, Polycon is a rich, detailed, and alien universe presented as a Nova plugin. Further details in the archive.
EV Polycon Stand Alone
ARPIA II
One of the more celebrated big plugins for Nova, ARPIA II has graphics from members of the original ATMOS team, and ended up with a spinoff novel.
Brave New Void
A total revamp of nova including rebalanced combat, new missions, and Sharky's Supernova Shipyard.
Brave New Void (Requires Nova, see installation instructions)
Realm Of Prey
Originally a TC for Classic, ported to Nova. Makes good use of Grand Novice and (I think?) Canarveron Sation graphics.
Starfleet Adventures
Star Fleet Adventures is a Star Trek TOS-themed TC. It's got its own TvTropes page. It's got klingons.
Star Fleet Adventures Standalone
Colosseum
A combat focused TC pretty well documented at the evn wiki
Acheron
A focused TC that goes for depth over breadth.
Ashen Galaxy
A TC that doubles down on the "fighting a race of aliens" trope, and makes good use of Meowx's graphics.
Brotherhood of the Kestrel
A consolidation of some of the 'Empire' series of Plugins for Classic.
The Frozen Heart
A well regarded plugin for Override which includes a novel on which it is based.
Much of the original leg work done by: This reddit poster. Now officially mirroring Geek's Curated Plugin Collection. Bonus shout out to this poster who recovered Frozen Heart.Note that this page originally used to host bundles that included Nova in each download to simplify installation. Please instead download both Nova and the desired mod and follow the instructions in the documentation to install it.