Gamers who miss the good old days of sprite-based 2D gaming may be pleased to learn about the recent release of a game creator, developed by Sawblade Software, that caters to such needs. Titled The Green Machine, this program, which is built for OS X and takes its inspiration from the Neo Geo, allows gamers to create 2D side-scrolling action games.

Here's a clip from the recent press release detailing some of the features of The Green Machine:

The Green Machine proves that there's still a place for 2D action games in this modern age of gigahertz and gigabytes. Featuring non-tiled, non-repeating backgrounds and super accurate physics, The Green Machine provides you with the freedom to create games with huge, colorful sprites, multiple layers of parallax scrolling, animated cut screens, panning stereo sounds, and crazy particle effects. The game engine also includes support for such niceties as conversations with non-player characters, automatic resolution switching, gamma fading, and saved games.

To help give gamers an idea of its capabilities, The Green Machine comes with Greenland Invasion, where players control an Eskimo who must defend Greenland against an evil occupation force.

Those interested in more information, screenshots, and purchasing information can find all of these at Sawblade's website. The Green Machine currently runs for $15, and lists a G4, OS 10.1, and 256 MB RAM among its requirements.

Sawblade Software

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.