Slightly out of order once again but hey, it’s written so it’s posted! Alright now on to that for which you’re here.
As I sit and watch this play through (I wouldn’t call this one a long play) of the USA version of the game I am trying to recall the periods in which I played it. I remember playing it with my older Brother and also my neighbors from down the street (with whom I played several of the games on this list). It isn’t a game that I was terribly good at what with me being quite young. There are few enough choices that a fair chunk of the time you can make it through the manhunt even if you are terrible at geography. The cut scenes and hi resolution graphics made it quite appealing to us youngsters.
The game starts with a rousing theme and a quite comical police chase. (I still hum that theme from time to time to this very day, I had lost track of that from which it came.) After which the teletype machine asks your name… (which isn’t odd at all) and if it recalls who you are you may get to start at a higher rank than Gumshoe. Though why would anyone want to be anything other than a Gumshoe? Coolest title ever. Well, short of “… the Destroyer”. Anything is made better when you add “… the Destroyer”. Example, “Sparkles the cat… the Destroyer”. See? Awesome.
Anywho, so you’re given your case and you land in the city where the perp was last spotted. The menu based navigation is pretty easy to grasp even as a youngling. You investigate a handful of local places and collect clues as to the identity and whereabouts of the nefarious villain.
If you collect personal details such as interest or hair color you plunk them into the “Crime Computer” and once “Compute(d)!” it will narrow down the name of the miscreant. I assume that in Carmen Sandiego’s world there are only a handful of law breakers and we know everything about all of them. Maybe there is a criminal dating site that is really a government spy organization… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Once you’ve been able to narrow down the name of the outlaw you are issued a warrant to arrest them. This is a key point because if you don’t complete this step prior to catching up with the offender you will not be able to arrest them. Which, makes sense, I reckon.
So, the basic flow of the game is Visit town, investigate, be smart enough to pick up on where to go next, go to next town and repeat. It made a fun group game because we would all be so excited if we wound up traveling to the appropriate town and caught a flash of the ruffian. Eventually you’ll get a shot at Carmen Sandiego herself, though the game is probably decently repayable until you’ve visited all of the locales and solved each of the clues.
Playing through a bit of the PC version over at archive.org I realize that I’ve finally collected enough information about the good ol’ US of A to progress through this game swiftly. whew I was worried early on that it may never happen. These games were arguably some of the best educational games available at the time and spawned a PBS (IIRC) game-show with one of the greatest game-show intros of all time. Seriously this theme totally still holds up!
The game-show was one of the handful of educational and science fiction shows that my sister, mom and I all enjoyed watching together. Mom was great at it and we were always excited to watch the map phase where the contestant placed the funky light up pillars on the giant world map. A good time was had by all. Other shows we enjoyed watching together were Wishbone, Ghostwriter, Shining Time Station, Lamb Chop’s Play along and etc. At least in this time period.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for this. Ooh, hey here is an episode of the show too!
You take care of yourself!
-NG
