An educational game? That must be boring.
An educational game? That must be boring.
Wrong.
Somewhere in the world an artefact has been stolen. You, as member of a detective agency, must go there and interview witnesses. There are three in every town, and each will give you a clue where the suspect went and some detail about him or her.
Travel to the next city, which you should have guessed from the clues: He changed his money to francs? He bought a French dictionary? Sounds like Paris, doesn't it?
And don't forget to enter the personal details into your computer (yes, you have a computer in this game). By the time you track the suspect down, you should have an arrest warrant, else it was all in vain. Every few arrests you will be promoted, and deadlines will become shorter.
Before you are promoted, you have to answer a question, and that can be tricky, for these questions were supposed to be answered with the help of a book that accompanied the game and which, as far as I know, never was scanned in. If the question is of geographical nature, it will not be that difficult, but that is not necessarily the case. "A baby pigeon is also known as a ________". No idea. Guess I'll be stuck as a Private Eye forever.
This simple yet entertaining concept was good for no less than six games, not counting the many spin-offs and variants:
| Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? | 85 |
| Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? | 86 |
| Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego? | 88 |
| Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? | 89 |
| Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego? | 91 |
| Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego? | 93 |
At least for Where in the World and Where in Space, there were deluxe editions. I have played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe Edition, unlike the enhanced (VGA) version, it is really a new game, with different interface, more locations, and more villains.
Most or maybe all of these games exist in an SVGA Windows/Mac version from 1996 on CD, a version that has none of the charm of the older ones. There were Mac versions of the older games, too. I played Where in the World on a black & white Mac, but was disappointed.
I have played both Where in the World games. The enhanced version from 1991 (VGA and sound card support) is nicer of course, but the old CGA version has its charm, too, especially if you can get it to run in a window (no idea how I did it, it worked only once).
Yes, the CGA version runs very well on a modern computer.
