The market is full of educational games, but few stand the test of time. Anyone can think of a title like The Oregon Trail, which dates back to 1971 in its original version. However, today we have a truly international example that transcends languages, borders, time, and space. I'm talking about Carmen Sandiego, a franchise that debuted thanks to Brøderbund in April 1985 and remains fresh thanks to a fascinating villainess/heroine.
Educational games have often been accused of being rigid and boring. While some titles made the mistake of cramming too much information onto players, others achieved the perfect balance: The idea is to learn something new and want to come back for more. Personally, I believe the best example of that balance is the Carmen Sandiego series. Originally created by Brøderbund in 1985, the brilliant and cunning thief made us chase her and her henchmen around the world, through time, and even across the Solar System, absorbing details about geography, history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, language, and mathematics.
With nearly four decades under her belt, Carmen Sandiego has spawned dozens of video games, books, comics, board games, celebrated TV projects (including a very colorful Spanish edition), and even an animated series developed by Netflix. In our humble corner of Retrosoftware, today we're going to review three of her most important games.
Carmen Sandiego: An Adventure Through the World, Time, and Space
The first game was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, released on April 23, 1985. The player takes on the role of a novice officer at the ACME detective agency, with the sole objective of pursuing the criminals of VILE and capturing their mastermind, the mysterious Carmen. Each mission begins with a high-profile heist that reveals Brøderbund's rather curious sense of humor, combining wordplay and other absurd situations (for example, someone stole all the sushi from Japan).
With a total of 30 cities to explore, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a race against time and mistakes, which usually cost dearly (essentially, the criminal's escape). Paying attention to witness reports and details in the dossiers is vital for obtaining the correct arrest warrant, receiving promotions, and finally facing Carmen. The success of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was total and justified the release of the Enhanced (1988) and Deluxe (1992) editions, the latter featuring digitized photos and dialogue.
Carmen's crime wave continued across the United States, Europe, and even North Dakota (special edition for the North Dakota Database Committee), but with geographical targets exhausted, in August 1989 came Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?. Here, the player must transform into ACME's Temporal Cadet and become a relentless traveler, chasing Carmen's henchmen who steal monuments and other historical landmarks. The graphics and sound are a step above their predecessors, and the sci-fi element of time travel adds extra flavor.
The public turned Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? into the best-selling title of the 1989 holiday season. Including an encyclopedia with the game (which also served as copy protection) forced Brøderbund to print an emergency edition of 35,000 copies to meet demand. Even so, the reception was a bit cooler (undeservedly, in my opinion), citing the grind as the main negative factor. To locate Carmen in the final mission, you'll need to catch her colleagues 79 times.
After traveling to Japan and the Past of America with two extra editions, Carmen put on her astronaut bubble helmet to extend her criminal influence across the entire Solar System. Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? hit shelves in 1993, still under Brøderbund but with the participation of Electronic Arts.
More complex from every point of view, the game demands deep attention to detail, combining the strange characteristics of the alien villains accompanying Carmen (once again, to generate the appropriate arrest warrant), local testimonies, technical information about planets and moons, and extensive use of the Database, basically a digital encyclopedia integrated into the game.
Needless to say, Brøderbund's classic humor didn't go anywhere, with a direct reference to HAL 9000 in the form of our assistant VAL 9000, and other details in the dialogue that the trained eye will recognize immediately. Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? is considered one of the most fun titles in the franchise (not to say the most fun), and also the most difficult, to such a degree that it's not entirely appropriate for the demographic it targets.
“What If I Want It on Windows?”
Unfortunately, the availability of the classic Carmen Sandiego games is quite poor. Steam only offers one of the remakes, and GOG's wishlist has several entries, but nothing more. Your best option (before resorting to a patch on the eye) is to take advantage of the emulation resources on the Internet Archive and enjoy the copies there. It's not the most convenient thing in the world, but it works.
