Mad Dog McCree
Encyclopedia
Mad Dog McCree is the first live-action laserdisc video game
released by American Laser Games
. It originally appeared as an arcade
shooting game in 1990
.
It gained a lot of attention for its real-video style, bearing similarities to recent Hollywood westerns
. It featured on the 1992 series of GamesMaster
as the last challenge of the very first show, and then later in the 1992/1993 series as a celebrity challenge with Josie Lawrence
playing. Both contestants were successful in their challenges.
's daughter has been kidnapped by a gang of outlaw
s 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.
, 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 spittoon
s, 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.
The arcade edition of the game has been released with four different hardware setups, using a laserdisc player
, a 3DO
, and a PC
-based system. Home versions were released for the Sega CD, PC
, CD-i
, Mac
CD-ROM and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
. Mad Dog McCree was the first in a series of American Laser Games releases to be reissued by Digital Leisure
with updated video and sound quality in 2002 for DVD
, playable with a standard DVD remote. In the DOS
version, two-player support is available. There is also a single save/load slot, which can be used to save and restore the action at any time.
In 2009 the game was ported to the Nintendo Wii as Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack. Included in this collection are its sequel Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
and The Last Bounty Hunter
.
In some builds of the arcade game, the laserdisc player was replaced with a customised 3DO, which allowed for more video. However, these new units proved unreliable, as the seek motors in the CD-ROM drive burned out rapidly.
Also, the arcade version has an exploit. If the player holds the light gun upside down, the ammunition will automatically refill every time a round is fired. (The intended way of reloading is to tilt the gun down to the ground.)
Laserdisc video game
A laserdisc video game is an arcade game that uses pre-recorded video played from a laserdisc, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.-History:...
released by American Laser Games
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of light gun laserdisc video games. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created the system to train police officers under the company name ICAT , and adapted the...
. It originally appeared as an arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
shooting game in 1990
1990 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
.
It gained a lot of attention for its real-video style, bearing similarities to recent Hollywood westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
. It featured on the 1992 series of GamesMaster
GamesMaster
GamesMaster was a British television show, screened on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998, and was the first ever UK television show dedicated to computer and video games.-Origins:...
as the last challenge of the very first show, and then later in the 1992/1993 series as a celebrity challenge with Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence is a British comedienne and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders....
playing. Both contestants were successful in their challenges.
Storyline
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 mayorMayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
's daughter has been kidnapped by a gang of outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
s working for a villain named Mad Dog McCree. He is given a short introduction to the aforementioned girl by an old prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
, 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
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
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
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, where a man named One-Eyed Jack holds the keys to the prison cell holding the sheriff, a bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
in the middle of a robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
, 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.
Gameplay
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-shooterRevolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
, controlled by a mouse
Mouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
or light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
in the PC version. The gun is useful for eliminating villains, choosing paths, selecting locations, reloading and shooting cow skulls and spittoon
Spittoon
A spittoon is a receptacle made for spitting into, especially by users of chewing and dipping tobacco. It is also known as a cuspidor , although that term is also used for a type of spitting sink used in dentistry."Spittoon" can also be slang American English...
s, which temporarily gives the player additional ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
. 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.
The arcade edition of the game has been released with four different hardware setups, using a laserdisc player
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, a 3DO
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by...
, and a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
-based system. Home versions were released for the Sega CD, PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, CD-i
CD-i
CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony...
, Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
CD-ROM and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by...
. Mad Dog McCree was the first in a series of American Laser Games releases to be reissued by Digital Leisure
Digital Leisure
Digital Leisure, Inc. is a Canadian publisher of software. The company formed in 1997 with the vision to acquire, remaster, and publish numerous classic video-based arcade games such as Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp and Space Ace. These three games were among the first to use...
with updated video and sound quality in 2002 for DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, playable with a standard DVD remote. In the DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
version, two-player support is available. There is also a single save/load slot, which can be used to save and restore the action at any time.
In 2009 the game was ported to the Nintendo Wii as Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack. Included in this collection are its sequel Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold is a live-action laserdisc video game produced by American Laser Games, released for the arcade, Sega CD, 3DO, CD-i and PC , the first release being in 1992; the quality of the video is the lowest on Sega CD...
and The Last Bounty Hunter
The Last Bounty Hunter
The Last Bounty Hunter is a live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games in 1994. Like almost all of the games produced by the now-defunct company, it was a rail shooter and, like the two installments in the Mad Dog McCree series before it, was set in the Old West...
.
Glitches
In the 3DO edition of the game, when an enemy shoots the player character, the player can pause the game, select "Continue", and the game will jump back to before the enemy arrived. This allows the player a second chance, with the advantage of knowing where the enemy will appear.In some builds of the arcade game, the laserdisc player was replaced with a customised 3DO, which allowed for more video. However, these new units proved unreliable, as the seek motors in the CD-ROM drive burned out rapidly.
Also, the arcade version has an exploit. If the player holds the light gun upside down, the ammunition will automatically refill every time a round is fired. (The intended way of reloading is to tilt the gun down to the ground.)