Excellent game, just a few gripes. First, you should be able to travel on the top and bottom of the cube, but thats just my preference. However, it does lose points for spawning numbers under the snake.
Much better, now that the food depends on actual population...but theres still a huge shortage of energy. 6 power plants should be more than enough to run 8 turrets, but its not even close...and thats only the 1st and 2nd level laser turrets.
You tried to improve on a good game...but its just not there. Ship is too slow to make it exciting, having to travel every inch of the field to pick up pips, at that speed, is just annoying. Also, while the enemies don't spawn directly on top of you, the spawn so close that they might as well.
Good game, but needs to be a little more difficult. Even on hard, you can coast through most of the game. Some warning before 28 would be useful though...this level requires a big change in strategy.