Alright, I give up. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of this game.

The game ran on a Mac, I played it somewhere in 2003-2006ish. I believe I downloaded it from a virtual shop (although I could be mistaken on that point).

It was a spaceship shooter. You know, fly forward, side to side, backwards, but only those directions. It was exceedingly colourful. Unlike most, you only flew over terrain (not in space). So lots of flying over brightly coloured landscapes. You could only have one weapon at a time (I think), you changed your weapons by picking up a new power up that the enemies dropped (things like one type shot very quickly, while another shot in multiple directions, standard stuff). However, it benefited you to only pick up a specific type since they got more powerful, the more of one type in a row you got. The sounds were really cool. There were a lot of levels, I never did finish it. Lots of tower turrets you had to defeat, as well as swarms of enemy fliers, and a few forts? stationary motherships? you had to blow up for boss battles (I think they became mobile later in the game). I believe the plot was humans attacking aliens, and I thought it was set on Earth, but honestly that's all a bit fuzzy.

It's a shot in the dark, but anybody have any ideas?

Well that describe just about every vertical shooter out there. Maybe Raiden?

I know! That's why it's driving me nuts trying to find it. I just remembered it handled really well, and the thing was stupidly brightly coloured. And everything was very... curved? cartoonish but not cartoony? Kind of like the feel you get when playing TF2 or SuperMario. That and the fact that it was all flying over landscapes. Argh.

Nope, not Raiden.

I just Googled "Vertical Shooters" and got a shit load of good pictures. If you can pick it out of a lineup that would be my recommendation.

Here
[url=https://www.google.com/search?q=vertical+shooters&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=IrF&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RXhRU_2ZLOfO8wHPsIHYDg&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=878]https://www.google.com/search?q=vertical+shooters&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=IrF&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RXhRU_2ZLOfO8wHPsIHYDg&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=878[/url]

It shouldn't be TOO hard though. Not that many shoot'em ups on macintosh.

Have you tried google image with "vertical" "shoot em up" "macintosh" ?

Alright, back to trawling the image search. And yes, I did try looking through them before (repeatedly), but maybe this time it will be different. The problem with Mac stuff from that time, means it was probably for Powerpcs and won't run on an Intel Mac, which means the game won't even get a mention on most sites. I just want to remember what the hell it was called even if I can't play it anymore.

Perhaps you can find the game your looking for at Shmups. Your description is very general and can pertain to just about any game in the genre.

http://www.shmups.com/

Any additional info you can add would make the search easier. This could include weapon attack patterns, power-up colors, etc.

!!!! That! That was it! Holy crap I love you forever and ever! This has been bugging me for years! Thank you!

Well, Deimos seems like a cool game. Glad you it, OP!

My advice : if you ever search for an old mac game : go check the website of Ambrosia software. Back in the 90's they delivered Ares, Cythera, Escape Veocity ...... and so much great games. The Mecca of mac gamers ;)

Glad I could help.