Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego?

Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego?
Developer(s)	Broderbund
Series	Carmen Sandiego
Platform(s)	Apple II
Release date(s)	1989/1990
Genre(s)	Edutainment

Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? (nicknamed WINDICS) is a 1989/1990 state-specific Carmen Sandiego spin-off game that only reached the prototype stage, and is arguably the least-known title in the franchise. The game, which is played in first person, is for the Apple II platform.^[1] It is also the "only Carmen Sandiego game where she's hiding in a specific state".^[2] According to the in-game copyright date, the game was released in 1989, marking the 100th anniversary of the state (1889-1989).^[3]

Development

The North Dakota Database Committee

Over 20 states in the US have "asked Brøderbund to make state-level [Carmen Sandiego games]", one of which was North Dakota.^[4] This North Dakota-specific game was developed by a small team of educators led by Janese Swanson (along with 12 other members of North Dakota Database Committee^[5] of the Minot Public Schools^[6]) in 1989^[7][8] or 1990^[4] for the state's Department of Education. It is the only licensed state-based game in the franchise, and in fact "this prototype product was the only one Broderbund attempted".^[1] Jimmy Maher of The Digital Antiquarian suggests the game was a "prototype for a proposed series of state-level games that never got any further".^[9]

The package

Players were given a binder which had a copy of the manual, a North Dakota state almanac, and the game on a double-side floppy disk tucked in the front plastic sleeve. Inside the binder were miscellaneous bits of information such as headshots of Carmen's henchmen, a map of North Dakota, and a page that asks the player to describe the final scene of the game and mail it (to receive a prize). Further pages have a paper version of the almanac, and information about the individual cities included in the game. A teacher's guide is tucked into the back plastic sleeve. A second binder contains activities that correlate to 18 database disks that were included in the package. A North Dakota centennial blue book, and a booklet entitled Governors and First Ladies of North Dakota were included later in this binder.

Gameplay

This is the opening screen of the game.

The game interface is practically identical to the all other Carmen Sandiego games released in the first era of the franchise (approximately 1985-1991). It starts by asking your name, then proceeds to inform you of the next case. Players get promoted through ranks as they catch crooks until they have a chance at catching Carmen herself.

Response

The game, described by The Digital Antiquarian as "strangely specific",^[9] ended up selling approximately 5,000 copies; mostly to North Dakotan schools and was very popular in that state.^[1][4] The game intended to teach North Dakotans about their state's history and geography;^[5] though it was "played in North Dakota school classrooms in the '90s...surviving copies are apparently hard to come by."^[10] One of the reasons is because as North Dakotan schools started updating their computers, floppy disks (like the ones this game was distributed on) became obsolete. This, coupled with the small number of units produced, led to the title being very rare today. 96.5TheFox notes "Unfortunately, ‘Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego?’ hasn’t quite made it to the Internet Archive’s Internet Arcade yet, so you may never again have the chance to relive your 90′s dreams of catching the culprit."^[11] The Gamecola podcast described Where in North Dakota? as a "weird old PC game" that could be dug up for family game night.^[12]

Rediscovery

Despite sinking off into obscurity, the game was never forgotten and was referred to at various times on web forums and discussions. In 2006, anecdotal evidence suggested a women who works for an edutainment company "still ha[s] a bunch of ol' boxed copies of it for the Apple II".^[13] North Dakotan educator Craig Nansen said in 2008: "Broderbund turned over an unprotected version to us when the sales died off. I have that copy, and we have digitized it for emulators.”^[14] In 2015, a review and let's play both were released on YouTube; this along with a Wikipedia article^[12] created a renewed interest in the 25 year old game. According to the review, "The game has been imaged and is available now through the Asimov Apple II FTP site";^[15] Destructoid added "Recently Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego was located and preserved on Asimov's Apple II FTP along with many other obscure edutainment titles."^[16] Players either have to use an Apple II emulator, or write onto old floppy disks and play on an Apple II console.^[17]

References

External links

• Youtube review
• Let's Play
• Game can be played via this link
• Game link on Asimov site