Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

aka: Wo in aller Welt ist Carmen Sandiego?
Moby ID: 163
DOS Specs
See Also

Description official descriptions

Carmen Sandiego is a master thief who leads the criminal organization V.I.L.E. This organization specializes in stealing the world's treasures without a trace. Alarmed by this, the A.C.M.E. Detective Agency makes it their personal mission to foil Carmen Sandiego's plans.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is a game that tests the player's knowledge about geography and general knowledge about different countries. Missions will begin with a treasure being stolen and the player flying to that location. A time limit counts down while they must search the area and interview witnesses to find enough clues to figure out what country the thief flew to next. The player always has a limited selection (usually three or four) of flights available in any given country. This process is repeated until either the villain is found or time expires and they are able to get away.

Along with finding out where the thief has headed, the player must discover who the thief is, by best matching personal characteristics (gender, hair color, eye color, hobbies, notable features) to dossiers on Carmen's gang. There must be enough characteristics matched in order to obtain a warrant, which is essential to legally arrest the suspect once they have been found. Progress in arresting VILE members will expose other members, eventually leading up to Carmen Sandiego herself.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

9 People (7 developers, 2 thanks)

By
Version for IBM PC by
Contributing Author
Product Manager
Manual by
Special Thanks to
  • Brøderbund Software Testing Department
With thanks to

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 5 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 40 ratings with 2 reviews)

The best use for a World Almanac yet...

The Good
I grew up playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?". Adventuring around trying capture criminals using clues abuot geography is cool.

The graphics were par-for-the-course considering the time of the game, but then again, the graphics weren't all that important. The fact that it made kids (and adults) use their brains to figure out clues was the developers wanted in the first place.

I spent a few months trying to capture Carmen. And I'll tell you one thing... When you are 12 years old, and you finally capture the Sly Girl herself, there is a great sense of accomplishment to that one deed. And you learn geography too. What a sneaky way to educate a kid, huh?

And the replay value was huge. After you capture Carmen, you retire and start again.. trying to capture her. And since each time you go after a criminal the sites change, it's never the same game twice.

The Bad
Nothing... At the time, it was a ground breaking "edutainment" game. And it still is.

The Bottom Line
A classic game. If you (or your kids) have never played it, you are missing out on a ground-breaking "edutainment" game. A great way to have fun and learn at the same time.

DOS · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

Great idea, great first few plays, then very repetitive

The Good
Geography is one of my childhood hobbies (was always travelling with my finger over map). So, finding this game made a smile on my face. Geography quiz made into the game? Anytime!

In the game, you play a detective chasing a ring of robbers around the world. In every town, you can ask for indices, where robbers left, what can be their next stop. From indices you have to find out the correct city to go as next. After several successful travels from city to city, you'll catch a robber. After several successful catches, you're promoted and continue with more chases, until you catch a leader of the gang.

As game is educational, in every city you have some typical picture of the city and some basic facts about it so you also learn something new along the way, which is also nice and appreciated.

The Bad
Despite of very attractive basic idea of the game, there are also some negatives.

Number one for me is repetitiveness. I know it's geography quiz so hard to invent something new, but first chase, being identical to last chase, it's really a bit of overstretch. On every chase, it's just randomized stuff, like who is robber, initial city, following cities, indices, etc.. But there's absolutely nothing new on later chases. It's just randomize new chase, same the first one as the last one. That's it.

Another small negative point is graphics. Being it 1985 release, I was little disappointed, that game has only CGA graphics. As game consists mostly from static screens, I didn't mind even CGA composite mode (which I don't like very much), but still 16-color Tandy and EGA were widely available in that year, so graphics is far from top of what was available in those times.

The Bottom Line
Certainly worth a try and play at least few chases. Basic idea is refreshing. If you decide to beat the game, you'll meet lot of repetitiveness, but in the end, beating the game takes just few hours, so it's manageable.

DOS · by Vladimir Dienes · 2023

Trivia

This game was made into two different television game shows on both PBS and Fox.

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (Enhanced)
Released 1990 on DOS, 1992 on Genesis, SNES...
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? 3
Released 2008 on Nintendo DS, Windows
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (CD-ROM)
Released 1995 on Windows 3.x, 1995 on Macintosh, 2000 on Windows
Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego?
Released 1986 on DOS, 1987 on Commodore 64, Amiga...
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?: Junior Detective Edition
Released 1994 on Windows 3.x, 1994 on Macintosh, 1995 on Windows
Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums
Released 2004 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube
Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego?
Released 1988 on DOS, Commodore 64, Amiga...
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
Released 1989 on DOS, 1992 on SNES, Genesis...

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 163
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Olivier Masse.

TRS-80 CoCo added by Kabushi. Dedicated handheld added by Lampbane. Apple II added by Terok Nor. Commodore 64 added by Katakis | カタキス.

Additional contributors: Andrew Grasmeder, Katakis | カタキス, Shoddyan.

Game added July 7, 1999. Last modified January 22, 2024.