The game gained considerable attention for its live-action video style, bearing similarities to contemporary Hollywood Western films.

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 the town doctor commenting on the player's actions.

He tells the stranger that the mayor and his daughter have been kidnapped by a gang of outlaws led by the notorious "Mad Dog" McCree (Rusty Dillon), and when the sheriff tried to stop them, they locked him up in the jail.

With his dying breaths, he tells the stranger that the map to Mad Dog's hideout is hidden in the local mine, and that he should consult the prospector before going there.

Mad Dog McCree was the first title released by American Laser Games, a company which was born out of the founders' previous venture of producing police training simulators.

[8] Local rancher Russ Dillen played various outlaws in the game including the titular Mad Dog, for which he had to dye his natural blonde hair black.

[4] Ben Zeller, who plays the prospector, went on to have major roles in two further American Laser Games productions, Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold and Space Pirates.

The arcade edition of the game has been released with four different hardware setups, using a laserdisc player as well as a Commodore Amiga 500 motherboard with special interfaces for controls and booting, and a genlock.

[40][41][42] In Japan, Game Machine listed Mad Dog McCree on their August 15, 1992 as being the third most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month.

[29] Reviews of the 3DO panned long delays between shots and outcome video that affected gameplay experience,[27][29] and having to use the gamepad as a control for the gun cursor, especially when the 3DO Gamegun was yet to be released.

[44] Reviewing the Sega CD version, GamePro noted that the video is so grainy that the manual diagrams one of the levels because the important items in it are indiscernible.

"[46] In April 1994 Computer Gaming World said that the DOS version "brings exciting action to PC compatibles ... there's plenty for the sheriff to do".