Mad Dog McCree

Arcades in the early ‘90s were filled with pixelated action games, but Mad Dog McCree took a different approach. It introduced live-action video sequences, making players feel like they were inside a Western film. This unique style set it apart from traditional shooters and helped it become one of the most memorable arcade experiences of its time.

A Game That Brought Hollywood to Arcades

Released in 1990 by American Laser Games, Mad Dog McCree was one of the first full-motion video (FMV) light-gun shooters. Instead of animated characters, the game featured real actors, filmed on location to create an interactive Western adventure.

Players took on the role of a silent gunslinger, tasked with rescuing the town’s mayor and his daughter from the notorious outlaw, Mad Dog McCree. Along the way, they had to fight bandits, free the sheriff, and uncover the location of Mad Dog’s hideout.

The game’s cinematic presentation was groundbreaking at the time. It felt more like an interactive movie than a traditional arcade shooter, making it a standout experience.

Closest Modern Adaptation: The Last Bounty Hunter

While FMV shooters are rare today, The Last Bounty Hunter is one of the closest modern adaptations. Developed by American Laser Games, it follows a similar live-action format, placing players in the role of a bounty hunter tracking down criminals.

Unlike Mad Dog McCree, it features multiple story paths, allowing players to choose which outlaws to pursue first.

Mad Dog McCree was more than just a shooter—it was a cinematic arcade experience that introduced live-action storytelling to gaming. Its interactive movie format set the stage for future FMV titles, proving that games could blend film and gameplay in a compelling way.

Even decades later, it remains a classic example of innovative arcade design, showing how creativity can redefine a genre.

The player assumes the first-person role of "the stranger", a nameless individual who rides into a small, peaceful, unnamed town and finds that the mayor's daughter has been kidnapped by a gang of outlaws working for a villain named Mad Dog McCree. He is given a short introduction to the aforementioned girl by an old prospector, and the possibility to go through target practice involving bottles on a fence, and some being tossed in the air and shot by the player; after this, the Prospector fills him in on the situation. The stranger is told that "Mad Dog McCree and his gang have taken over the town" and that both the mayor and his daughter are imprisoned in the gunfighter's hideout, while the sheriff has been locked up in his own jail by the gang. It is at this point that the first enemy appears and attempts to shoot the prospector; like all others, the gang member must be shot to avoid losing a life, one of three.

Mad Dog McCree set the trend for most future American Laser Games releases, driving the action forward by having the player shoot villains, with few other decision-making situations. The action takes the stranger through several locations, including a saloon, where a man named One-Eyed Jack holds the keys to the prison cell holding the sheriff, a bank in the middle of a robbery, a corral and a jail. One must also find a map, hidden inside a mine, to Mad Dog's hideout, reach the hideout by correctly following road signs, free the mayor and his daughter, and confront Mad Dog in a final showdown, all the time eliminating members of the man's posse.

The game is the first of several to use the same simple engine, in which almost all possible actions are performed using the player's six-shooter, controlled by a mouse or light gun in the PC version. The gun is useful for eliminating villains, choosing paths, selecting locations, reloading and shooting cow skulls and spittoons, which temporarily gives the player additional ammunition. Three difficulty levels are available from the beginning.

The main portion of the game is interspersed with several different types of showdowns with random villains, in which the stranger begins with no ammunition and must quickly reload and shoot at the right time, in order to shoot the enemy first. In parts of the game which are not showdowns, reloading can be done an unlimited amount of times and at any time during gameplay. Shooting a bystander or getting hit by a gunfighter results in the loss of one life out of three and is followed by a clip showing an old undertaker commenting on the player's actions.