The ScummVM team has announced on their website that new support for several classic American Laser Games titles has been added in the latest daily builds of the emulator. The update introduces compatibility for the DOS versions of the following games:
- Crime Patrol
- Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars
- The Last Bounty Hunter
- Mad Dog McCree
- Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
- Space Pirates
- Who Shot Johnny Rock?
If you who own the original PC CD-ROM releases in one way or the other you can now test these games through ScummVM’s development builds. The team encourages users to try them out, capture screenshots, and report any issues through the project’s bug tracker. For those without the full releases, several demo versions are also available for testing.
You might remember American Laser Games as they emerged in the early 1990s during the brief revival of laserdisc arcade machines. Instead of sprites or polygon graphics, their games used filmed live-action footage. Players aimed a light gun at the screen and reacted to enemies appearing in pre-recorded scenes.
The most famous example is Mad Dog McCree (1990), the infamous Wild West shooter. It became one of the most recognizable FMV arcade games of its era and was later ported to several home systems, including DOS PCs and CD-based consoles.
The studio followed up with titles such as Crime Patrol, a police-themed shooter, Space Pirates, which moved the formula to a sci-fi setting, and Who Shot Johnny Rock?, a gangster-era adventure. Their games were never subtle, but the combination of live actors, cheesy dialogue, and quick-draw gameplay made them memorable curiosities of early-1990s arcade culture.
Mad Dog McCree in particular benefited from the boom of affordable CD-ROM drives entering the PC market in the mid 1990s. While never critically acclaimed, the game was among the early CD-ROM-only releases and became a showcase title for the format, alongside games such as Star Wars Rebel Assault, Myst, The 7th Guest, and Wing Commander III.
ScummVM
Although ScummVM began as a tool for running LucasArts adventure games such as Monkey Island, the project has gradually evolved into a broader preservation platform for classic PC titles. Over the years it has added engines for dozens of studios and genres, from adventure games to RPGs and interactive movies.
Support for the American Laser Games catalogue continues that expansion. These titles rely on unusual video playback and timing systems, which makes them difficult to preserve on modern operating systems. Integrating them into ScummVM helps ensure they remain playable without relying on outdated hardware or fragile legacy software.
At the moment, the new support is limited to the DOS CD-ROM versions of the games and is available through ScummVM daily builds, meaning it is still considered experimental.
Testing and community feedback
The ScummVM team is inviting the community to help test the newly supported games. Using the development builds you can report bugs, provide screenshots, and follow the project’s testing guidelines.
And if those outlaw gunslingers keep drawing faster than you do, the developers jokingly suggest consulting the project’s wiki page (or finding the cheat codes) before calling the sheriff.
