Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?

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This article is about computer games with this title. For the PBS game show, see Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego (game show).

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? is the title of two edutainment computer games in the Carmen Sandiego series that teach history.

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[edit] Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (1989)

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?
Developer(s) Brøderbund Software
Publisher(s) Brøderbund Software
Release date(s) 1989
Genre(s) Educational/strategy
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Everyone (E)
Platform(s) PC (Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, Sega Master System, NES, SNES)

This version is a multiplaform video game where players have to travel through time to collect the clue and the warrant necessary to capture Carmen Sandiego or one of her henchmen. Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego, a game show which was formerly broadcast on PBS, was loosely based on this game.

The goal of this game is track Carmen's villains through history and arrest them and ultimately arrest Carmen herself. In order to make an arrest the user must find three ripped pieces of a riddle that told the villain where to hide. Then the user has to figure out the riddle and use the time cuffs on the item they're hiding in.

In 1991, Konami released a port of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, for the Nintendo Entertainment System game console. Hi Tech Expressions would later do a port for the Super NES. Electronic Arts would also do a port for the Sega Genesis game console.

[edit] External links

[edit] Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?/Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time (1997)

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?/Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time
Developer(s) Brøderbund Software
Publisher(s) Brøderbund Software (1997 - 1998)
The Learning Company (1998 - present)
Release date(s) 1997
Genre(s) Educational/adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Everyone (E)
Platform(s) PC (Windows, Macintosh)

In 1997, a new version, heavily influenced by the game show, was released by Brøderbund as simply Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?. In 1999, the game was retitled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time under The Learning Company.

The gamer plays as a "time sleuth" for the ACME detective agency. The objective of the game is to track down Carmen Sandiego and her henchman by jumping through "time tunnels". "Time tunnels" are tears in the time-space continuum that are left whenever the Chronoskimmer (a time travel device owned by the ACME agency) jumps through time. Being an educational title, the player ends up in many famous historical situations, meeting William the Conqueror and Johann Gutenberg, among others. On each mission the player is accompanied by a helper from the agency, all of which have humorous names, such as Rock Solid (a very large, musclebound man), Ivan Idea (creator of the Chronoskimmer), Polly Tix (play on the word politics), Renee Santz (play on the word Renaissance) and Ann Tickwitti (a play on the word antiquity).

This version of the game features Lynne Thigpen, Sir Vile, Dr. Belljar, Mediva, Buggs Zapper and Jacqueline Hyde from the television show Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? The goal is to solve 18 mysteries and to catch all nine of Carmen's villains and ultimately arrest Carmen herself. In each case the player has to fix a problem with history created by Carmen's villains and arrest the thief.

The game is included on two CD-ROM's, the first one having the first eight cases and the second one having the remaining eleven. At the start of the second CD-ROM, Carmen bursts all her thieves out of jail so they can return to stealing, but "laser bars" are added after this to prevent another jailbreak from happening. Curiously, one of the thieves, Dee Cryption, was not shown getting captured on the first disc, yet she still appears being busted out of jail with the other crooks at the start of the second disc.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Case 1

[edit] Case 2

[edit] Case 3

  • Location(s): Vinland
  • Year: 1002
  • Historical figures encountered: Leif Ericson
  • Theft: Ericson's longship
  • Resulting complications: Unless his ship is taken back, Ericson and his crew will be marooned in Vinland
  • Perpetrator: Baron Grinnit

[edit] Case 4

  • Location(s): Japan
  • Year: 1015
  • Historical figures encountered: Murasaki Shikibu
  • Theft: The first chapter of The Tale of Genji
  • Resulting complications: Murasaki Shikibu is too disheartened to write the rest of her novel
  • Perpetrator: Medeva

[edit] Case 5

  • Location(s): England
  • Year: 1086
  • Historical figures encountered: William the Conqueror
  • Theft: The Domesday Book
  • Resulting complications: The Saxons, seeing the theft as a sign of weakness, have decided to rebel against King William
  • Perpetrator: General Mayhem

[edit] Case 6

  • Location(s): China
  • Year: 1271
  • Historical figures encountered: Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, Nicolo Polo (no dialogue), Maffeo Polo (no dialogue)
  • Theft: The Polos' gifts of precious oils for the Khan
  • Resulting complications: The Polos have decided to head back to Italy
  • Perpetrator: Jacqueline Hyde

[edit] Case 7

  • Location(s): Mali Empire
  • Year: 1324
  • Historical figures encountered: Mansa Musa
  • Theft: The only block of salt from Mansa Musa's caravan
  • Resulting complications: Mansa Musa can't depart on his pilgrimage for Mecca without a block of salt
  • Perpetrator: Buggs Zapper

[edit] Case 8

  • Location(s): Mainz, Germany
  • Year: 1454
  • Historical figures encountered: Johann Gutenberg
  • Theft: The Gutenberg Bible
  • Resulting complications: Gutenberg's print shop was messed up and he is concerned about the thief being on the loose
  • Perpetrator: Jane Reaction

[edit] Case 9

  • Location(s): Inca Empire
  • Year: 1466
  • Historical figures encountered: Pachacuti
  • Theft: The quipus which keep track of the empire
  • Resulting complications: Food distribution in the empire can't be run properly
  • Perpetrator: Jane Reaction

[edit] Case 10

[edit] Case 11

  • Location(s): Florence, Italy
  • Year: 1505
  • Historical figures encountered: Leonardo da Vinci
  • Theft: Da Vinci's notebook
  • Resulting complications: The model posing for the Mona Lisa is distraught due to the theft and refuses to smile
  • Perpetrator: Sir Vile

[edit] Case 12

[edit] Case 13

[edit] Case 14

[edit] Case 15

[edit] Case 16

[edit] Case 17

[edit] Case 18

[edit] Case 19

  • Location(s): ACME Headquarters in San Francisco, California
  • Year: Present Day
  • Historical figures encountered: None (several previously encountered figures are seen again in their own time periods)
  • Theft: Carmen's own ACME dossier (attempted)
  • Resulting complications: None
  • Perpetrator: Carmen Sandiego
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