The best tool for playing obscure old PC games now supports the sublime FMV cheese of Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars and a Lovecraftian adventure one YouTuber scored a ‘terribly low 2/10’

One might wonder, given the endless selection of good videogames out there: Why play a bad one?

But let me turn that idea around on you. Given the endless selection of good videogames out there, what’s more enticing than one you’ve never heard of? Maybe it’s bad, but has one fascinating idea. Maybe it has zero fascinating ideas but is so stupid it makes you laugh nonstop. Maybe it’s completely irredeemable and just makes your next Slay the Spire 2 run seem that much better in contrast.

These are the sorts of games that ScummVM, a tool that makes old games play nice on modern machines, excels at supporting. Once primarily focused on adventure games, ScummVM has broadened its remit over the years to make all sorts of old PC games playable on all sorts of platforms, from modern Windows to Macs to the Nintendo Wii.

Some of the classic games preserved on GOG even run on ScummVM, and I always look forward to new ScummVM releases introducing compatibility for old game engines and their respective games I’ve never heard of. On March 28, the addition of two new (old) engines to ScummVM’s innards brought support for eight games, at least one of which you’ve likely heard of: Mad Dog McCree. PC Gamer scored the western-set arcade shooter a generous 4%.

Now wouldn’t you like to play Mad Dog McCree’s less famous cousin? Then I give you Crime Patrol and Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars. Both are ’90s FMV shooters that will make you desperately wonder how many of the amateur actors on screen are actually on cocaine despite the drug bustin’ theme.

The real treat is perhaps adventure game Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness, which you can buy on GOG and study to understand why point-and-click adventure games were not doing so hot around the year 2000. YouTuber Ermacgerd Longplays finished it in two hours, then gave it a “terribly low 2/10.”

“I really despised it and thought it awful, I’d give it a Certified Crap title and what not,” they wrote in the description. Sounds pretty entertaining to me! Without bad adventure games, we’d never get great adventure game Let’s Plays like Nextlander’s Full Motion Vinny.

ScummVM helpfully maintains a wiki page listing where most of the games it supports can be bought or otherwise found, and quite a detailed FAQ about how everything works. Use it to play an old Discworld adventure game, or Mad Dog 2: The Lost Gold. It’s the weekend!