[typing]
Time to end this Edutainment Month
how we ended the previous Edutainment Month:
with one of the best-selling edutainment games in history,
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
This one needs no introduction.
So allow me to provide an introduction.
This is the first of a billion or so Carmen Sandiego games
first released by Brøderbund for the Apple II in 1985.
Of course, it was also released for the usual gaggle of glorious '80s computers.
Like the Amstrad CPC,
the Commodore 64,
Apple Macintosh,
and IBM PC.
But I'll be looking at the Apple II version in this review because...
tiny clothes pins, that's why.
The idea for the game originally came from Brøderbund Software co-founder Gary Carlston,
and was proposed to programmer Dane Bigham in 1983.
The plot originally centered around chasing Henry VII around London,
getting kids interested in geography by taking them on an adventure
past various landmarks.
Also an inspiration was the game Colossal Cave Adventure,
where a player would search for various treasures
in different cavernous rooms.
The rooms soon became countries,
and the clues became based on the culture and geography of said countries.
There were several villains in the game,
one of whom was Carmen Sandiego,
who eventually became the game's namesake
and was inspired by 1940s singer and actress Carmen Miranda.
The game's final script and graphics were created by Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott,
who added tie-ins to The World Almanac,
as well as giving the game more humor and personality.
Although the team originally considered the name to be too long to fit on the box,
they eventually went ahead and called it Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego,
which was released to critical acclaim and success and blah blah blah.
Good things happened. Everybody was happy!
It was so successful, it spawned a media empire,
part of which included a frickin' TV series
...of TV shows...
the most famous of which used one of the most addicting theme songs ever.
["Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego Theme" by Rockapella]
This is an original Apple II release,
generously donated to me by Robert,
whom I must thank for being totally awesome.
The box itself displays a picture
of various traveling and detectivey things,
including a snapshot of the elusive Carmen Sandiego herself,
sans the red apparel she became known for later on.
"The Crimes of the Century!"
Things happen! Occasions occur!
Children stare at something glowing while holding an almanac.
All this and more in Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
And yes, inside the box, you get a World Almanac.
The whole thing.
Appropriate for whatever version of the game you have.
This is absolutely essential to playing the game–
at least in a pre-Internet world–
as many of the clues found in the game require knowledge of geographic and cultural facts.
You also get the game itself
on a sexy 5¼-inch floppy disk,
as well as a manual,
which has all the information on anything you need to know about everything ever.
As long as you need to know about this specific game, that is.
Not gonna find any 42 in here.
It's also where a fair amount of the humor in the game is found,
like with these Interpol files
on the silly criminals you'll be chasing.
Even the photographs are fantastic!
I mean, check out Scar Graynolt.
You wouldn't want to mess with this guy!
He will play a song for you and you will *not* like it.
Carmen Sandiego begins with a fancy animated sequence–
well, fancy for the Apple II–
showing a stereotypical thief running away from some stereotypical policemen,
followed by a shot of a stereotypical detective agency window,
ending with the most jumbo- sized jumbo jet I have ever seen
flying over the smallest planet Earth
I have ever seen.
You then enter your name, and if you've got a saved game on the disk,
you can continue from whatever rank you left off at.
The menu then flashes you
in a completely safe for work manner,
telling you that something somewhere has been stolen.
This is not a good thing.
These can range from paintings to books,
to friggin' national monuments,
but it doesn't really matter because the game plays out the same way each round.
You're given some vague information on a suspect
and where they were last seen,
and a time limit in which you will have to arrest them.
There are three parts to each round of Carmen Sandiego:
the chase, the warrant, and the arrest.
First is the chase,
in which you'll visit various cities around the world,
and investigate the area for clues.
There are three locations in each city to investigate,
each with the potential to give you a clue as to who the suspect is,
and where they'll be going next.
Maybe they have red hair,
or drive a motorcyle,
or enjoy croquet.
Maybe all three.
That's quite a combo.
Each time you gather a new clue, you'll want to check with Interpol
and input that new clue into the computer,
using the process of elimination to dwindle down the list
of known suspects.
This is also where that World Almanac will come in handy,
as some of the clues will be location-related,
and you'll need to figure these out in order to know what city to visit next.
For instance, maybe the criminal was checking out books on Plato,
or wondering about olive prices,
or looking for Cretan artifacts.
Looking through the almanac, or just using your own knowledge,
you'll find that each of these points you to somewhere in Greece.
So you just look at the connections to your current location
and take a plane to the Greek city;
in this case, Athens.
Naturally, you'll have to keep in mind
that geographical facts change over the years.
And being that this was made in the mid-'80s,
there are some pretty big changes to keep track of,
which make the use of a period-accurate almanac
even more important than you might think.
If you've chosen the correct city,
you'll see a short animation of a vile henchman–
one of Carmen Sandiego's lackeys–
which lets you know you're on the right track.
If so, then continue with your investigation.
Follow the trail to more cities
and eventually you'll have enough information
for the next part of the round:
the warrant.
As soon as you've run enough information through Interpol
to narrow down the list of suspects down to one person,
you'll be issued a warrant for their arrest.
If you don't issue a warrant before you catch up to 'em,
the police will have no choice but to let them go,
since they can't legally arrest them.
Ah, where's Jack Bauer when you need him?
I'm sure this game would be a lot quicker just going on gut instinct and bullets.
However, if you *do* have a warrant,
you'll reach the arrest portion of the round.
The cops will catch the thief,
they're thrown in jail,
and you'll be promoted to the next detective rank.
However, it's quite possible you'll run out of time,
especially if you've made the mistake of taking a right turn at Albuquerque or something.
If you do, the thief gets away,
and you'll have to start all over again.
Of course, even if you catch them, you'll have to start all over again
because there's always another thief to catch.
Each one is tougher to find with each round,
with more and more ambiguous clues being given
at less frequent intervals.
The overall goal of the game is to catch Carmen Sandiego,
who of course is the toughest to catch of them all.
But basically, all it comes down to is you reading the almanac correctly.
Since each move you make in the game
passes time in-game by several hours,
you can't afford to make any mistakes later on.
So as long as your skills at geography and reading comprehension are decent enough,
the game is pretty much a breeze to play through.
And, really, that's perfectly fine,
because what Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego lacks in difficulty,
it makes up for in solid, simple gameplay.
It's educational, it's entertaining,
it's effective in teaching geographical facts of the time period,
and the only punishment is when you yourself make a factual mistake.
There is no chance of screwing up the game
due to some sort of arcade-like dexterity challenge,
like in Math Blaster, for instance.
So you don't feel like you're losing because you suck at games,
you lose because you suck at fact checking.
And that's a great thing to feel a sense of suckage over
because you know for sure that you can get it right next time.
As long as you're paying attention.
I think Carmen Sandiego is an awesome game,
and besides the outdated countries and flags and stuff,
it still holds up incredibly well today.
Frick, there's even a rather successful version of it on Facebook now,
so if you're into that kind of thing, then why not give it a try?
Or just check out the Apple II version online,
as there are several sites that will let you play it in your browser.
Carmen Sandiego is one of the best- selling edutainment games of all time,
and I'd say it's pretty obvious why.
It's approachable, it's awesome,
it's never the same game twice, and it's fun!
In other words, it isn't crap.
And what more can you really ask for?