Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is the title of several edutainment computer games in the Carmen Sandiego series that teach geography. The World games, often marketed as the flagship products of the Carmen series, were created by Brøderbund Software from 1985 to 1996 with another version released by The Learning Company in 2001.
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[edit] Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (1985)
| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? | |
|---|---|
 The player gets a clue from a tennis pro in Peru |
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| Developer(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Genre(s) | Educational/strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, SNES) |
This is the earliest version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? as well as the first product in the entire Carmen Sandiego series. The goal of the game is to track Carmen's villains around the world, arrest them and ultimately arrest Carmen herself. The player begins the game by first going to the country where the crime took place and then obtaining hints from various sources on where the thief went next, leading to a chase around the world to find the thief before they "get away."
Each case begins with the user being alerted that a ridiculously spectacular theft has been committed. Starting by first traveling to the scene of the crime, the player is given several opportunities to collect clues about the suspect's next location, which come in the form of puns and word play about the target place. The player will also occasionally be given information on the suspect, which is used to obtain a warrant on them so as to narrow down the suspect to one of the V.I.L.E. members in the database.
If the player travels to an incorrect location, they receive nonsensical clues and will have to backtrack to the previous location to try again. If the player travels to the correct location, a simple animation of an obvious but otherwise harmless V.I.L.E. henchman lurking across the screen is played. The gameplay continues to repeat in this manner as the player travels from location to location several times before catching up to the criminal.
Once the player reaches the final location, the animation of the nearby V.I.L.E. henchman becomes more aggressive and implies imminent danger and any clues the player receive simply suggest that they should watch their back. Investigating further clues lead to a chase scene and the apprehending of the suspect, which is always automatically successful. However, the mission is only successful if the appropriate warrant was issued. Having an incorrect warrant or no warrant at all causes the criminal to be found innocent in court, therefore causing the whole mission to have been wasted. Each successful mission is noted in the player's record and they will occasionally go up in rank. Each rank gives harder assignments with more locations to travel to before arriving at the final one. In the final case, the culprit is Carmen Sandiego herself and apprehending her lands the player in the hall of fame.
[edit] Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe (1990)
| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe | |
|---|---|
 A scene in Sri Lanka |
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| Developer(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Release date(s) | 1990 |
| Genre(s) | Educational/strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | PC (DOS, Windows, Macintosh) |
The second version of this game, fully titled Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe, was released in 1990 and featured additional animation and a reworked interface. CD-ROM versions for DOS and Macintosh were released in 1992, and a Windows version was released in 1994. The Windows version was later re-released as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Classic Edition. This game was the first version to feature dialogue spoken aloud, although most information still appeared in written form and the dialogue of bystanders was not spoken but contained in speech balloons.
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[edit] Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition (1995)
| Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition | |
|---|---|
 Zack shows a clue to the Chief in Morocco |
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| Developer(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Release date(s) | 1995 |
| Genre(s) | Educational |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows, Macintosh) |
Although not a version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? by name, this game is essentially a simplified version of it for pre-readers.
The lead characters of the FOX animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? are included in the game. Although Zack, Ivy, the Chief and Carmen Sandiego seem to have the same voice actors as in Earth, Carmen's appearance is different than in the show. Aside from including these characters and the fact that the user is addressed as "Player," the game has little to do with the Earth show. Carmen Sandiego's pet cat Carmine is introduced in this game.
The game is played on a device called the GizmoTapper which includes DeeJay, an artificial intelligence who guides the user through the game. Each country visited consists of a stock photograph inserted in the GizmoTapper's monitor. The user moves the cursor over the monitor, where it turns into a magnifying glass and glows to indicate the user has found a clue. Presented to the user by Zack, Ivy or DeeJay, each clue is a simple icon. The user must match the icon to the icons on a map to determine where the crook went. As the game progresses, more and more icons are needed to determine the target location.
A simplified version of the "warrant" function is also included. At each location, a bumbling photographer attempts to take a picture of the crook, but only gets a portion of the criminal's portrait. One or two pieces of the crook's picture are captured in each destination. The user must place these pieces, which just happen to form a perfect profile shot of the culprit, together in a wanted poster located in the bottom left corner of the GizmoTapper. Failure to do this will result in the culprit escaping at the end of the case.
[edit] Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (1996)
| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? | |
|---|---|
 A bystander provides a clue in the Philippines |
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| Developer(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software (1996 - 1998) The Learning Company (1998 - 2001) |
| Release date(s) | 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Educational/strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows, Macintosh) |
The third version of the game was released simply as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? in 1996. Released on the heels of the end of the PBS game show, this game included QuickTime videos of Lynne Thigpen playing the Chief. This was the last version of the game to follow the "classic" formula of the series. A new version of Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego, released the same year, was very similar.
Unlike in the previous games, the image of the locations took up most the screen, with the game options only taking up the bottom third of the screen. Each location had an elaborately painted backdrop that could be scrolled around a full three hundred and sixty degrees. The formula of the series was simplified, with clues being provided exclusively from bystanders and from scraps of paper lying on the ground. Although speech balloons were still used on them, bystanders spoke their dialogue aloud as well, unlike in Deluxe were the bystanders' dialogue only appeared in written form.
Another added addition were the ACME Good Guides, a group of colorful characters who, if called upon, provide information about the current country and the direct surroundings. If the user calls an ACME Good Guide during a case, that guide will call back later to inform the user whether or not their warrant has any errors. One of the Good Guides also apprehends the crook at the end of each case. If the user wishes to take tours with the Good Guides and travel to countries without the inconvenience of having to track a crook, "explorer mode" is available.
Another change is that the user is not given dossiers describing the members of V.I.L.E. and that all the clues given about the suspect are physical traits, enabling the user to identify the crook on sight. In the final destination, the crook is seen walking around the location with several innocent bystanders, meaning the user will have to use the warrant to identify which person is the criminal. The crook's name is only given after the arrest, in which a newspaper appears with a headline declaring the criminal has been captured. If the person arrested does not match the warrant, they will be found innocent and released just as they would if the warrant were inaccurate or not issued.
The animation in the game closely imitated the look of traditional animated cartoons. The animations that alert the user that the correct distination has been reached featured either Carmine from Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition or a pair of bumbling janitors named Rick and Nick ICK according to the game manual. These animations, as well as the animations that depicted the arrest of the crooks, featured much use of cartoon physics. For example, Renee Santz (one of the Good Guides) would paint ropes onto crooks to capture them.
[edit] Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge (2001)
| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge | |
|---|---|
 Jules Argent and Shadow Hawkins search for clues in Florence |
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| Developer(s) | The Learning Company |
| Publisher(s) | The Learning Company |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Educational/adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows, Macintosh) |
Despite the title, this game seems to have little do with the previous Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? titles, even abandoning the long-standing formula of the series. Instead, the game seems to be based on the structure of the newest version of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which The Learning Company retitled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time.
The protagonists of the game are Carmen's former partner Jules Argent, an experienced ACME detective, and new recruit Shadow Hawkins, who is gadget-happy and rather arrogant. Jules and Shadow's personalities frequently bounce off each over the course of the game. The Chief explains that she has paired them together because she believes their personalities complement each other and indeed by the end of the game they appear to have gained some respect for each other's methods (or have at least agreed to disagree.)
At the start of the game, Carmen steals a rare Franco-Italian edition of The Travels of Marco Polo (which conveniently has the title written on the cover in English) and, as the game progresses, she goes on to steal a Māori wood carving, Incan Quipus and other seemingly random items. The goal of each of the first seven missions is to recover one item, which Carmen has hidden in a puzzle somewhere in the world. The user can only unlock this puzzle by collecting items or clues from other countries, often having to solve other puzzles first. At the end of each case, the item is found and it is announced that Carmen has stolen something else.
As the game continues, Jules and Shadow find that each object Carmen has stolen seems to be tied to a mysterious Portuguese explorer, a lost city with a great treasure and a strange "wheel" design. On the eighth and final case, Jules and Shadow track down the lost city itself. Once inside the city, however, they find Carmen sitting inside a chamber filled with priceless treasures. Carmen suggests that she may be planning to lock Jules and Shadow away in the city, but Jules insists that Carmen wouldn't do such a thing. Shadow captures Carmen by grabbing her wrist with a grapple launcher, but she inexplicably escapes. Jules suggests that Carmen wanted them to find the treasure all along so that it could be put in a museum, but Shadow remains convinced that Carmen is simply a bad person. Whatever Carmen's true motivations were is left to the user's imagination.
Treasures of Knowledge plays its storyline more seriously than previous games, eliminating such series staples as pun-filled word play, funny names and humorously impossible thefts. However, humor is still included in much of Jules and Shadow's dialogue. Though V.I.L.E. agents are often mentioned, only a few anonymous henchmen appear in the game. Although the animation is also more realistic, the game liberally uses limited animation techniques. Shadow's database is the same database as the one in the 1996 version of the game and location music from the 1996 version is briefly played whenever the user arrives in a new country although it quickly fads away. Jordan, which was not included in the 1996 game, is an exception to this.
