Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

n/a

Mega Drive
Master System

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System

Publisher:

Parker Brothers

Electronic Arts

Developer:

Venture Technologies

Electronic Arts Canada

Distributor: Tec Toy (BR)

Licensor: Brøderbund Software

Developer(s) of original games: Brøderbund Software

Genre: Educational

Number of players: 1

Official in-game languages:

English

Português

English

Français

Deutsch

Italiano

Español

Português

Release	Date	RRP	Code
US	1988-12^[1]	$39.9539.95^[2]	4350
BR	1994		023450
US	1992-09^[3]	$59.9559.95^[3]	716101
US ▼ (Sega Channel)	199x	SUBsub
EU	1992		E035SMXI
UK	1992-11-05^[4]	£39.9939.99^[5]	E035SMXI
AU	199x
BR	199x		046690

Non-Sega versions

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Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1985 computer educational game by Broderbund ported to the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Master System in 1992 and 1988, respectively. The success of the original computer game led to a number of remakes and sequels, including Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, also ported to the Mega Drive.

Players take control of an Interpol investigator and attempt to track down a group of criminals called VILE, led by infamous thief Carmen Sandiego.

Gameplay

Master System

Players can walk around the city with the D-Pad. Button 1 is the action button: it is used to select options in the screen or enter selected building. Button 2 is the "speeding up" button. It speed ups players movements speed, dialogues and etc.

Players can move up or down in the cities with the D-Pad. Pressing up while on the upper side of the screen makes players jump, while pressing down while on the bottom side of the screen ducks.

The game is more or less a trivia game with very limited action sequences. Every case begins with a case file which explains the location of the theft and the name of the stolen precious object. Player is then transported to the location of the crime.

Players must visit various buildings in the city and interview people to gather clues about the criminal and his/her next location. Clues about the next location varies from the monerary unit to some famous landmark or the colors of the nation's flag. By using these clues, players must return to airport (rightmost part of the screen) and select the next location. If wrong location is selected, people in the city will give non-sensical answers or deny knowledge about the case. If this happens, players must return to the original city and select another location. This will cost the player valuable time.

Player must also gather clues about the criminal's identity. Criminal's gender is usually given at the beginning of the case. Remaining clues, such as hair color, hobby, distinguishing feature or preferred vehicle are randomly received by interviewing people in a city. Once players have sufficient information about the suspect, they can use the phone booth (leftmost part of the city) and call the Interpol crime computer. By entering the clues, players can issue an arrest warrant. Generally entering three to four clues is enough to get an accurate warrant.

If players are on the right track, they might be occasionally attacked by a VILE henchman who will attempt to incapacitate the player by throwing a knife. Players can evade by using above controls.

Once the city in which the criminal is hiding with the loot reached, people in the city will give ominous warnings to the player rather than clues. Once the suspect is located, he/she will attack the player with a gun. Bullets can be evaded using the controls. After dodging the bullets for a while, local police will arrive and arrest the criminal. If players have the warrant for the correct person, suspect will be arrested and the case will be over. If there is no warrant or players issued the warrant for the wrong person, suspect will be released and case will fail.

Players can be promoted to a higher rank after solving enough cases. Ranks act as difficulty levels. In higher difficulties, clues will be more cryptic and VILE henchmen, suspects will be harder to evade.

Production credits

Mega Drive version

SEGA Programming: Kevin P. Pickell
SEGA Art: Jackie Ritchie, Tony Lee, Steve Livaja
SEGA Sounds: David Galloway, Alistair Hirst
Development Producer: Stan Chow

Thursday, July 16, 1992 7:02:15 PM

Source:

In-game credits^[6]

Master System version

SEGA Programming: Kevin P. Pickell
Original game design by: Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott, Broderbund Software, Inc.
SEGA SYSTEM program by: Bob Halliday, Chase Sebor, Gary Piatt
Video graphics by: Joanne Cord and Debbie Graziano
Additional video graphics by: Richard Blewett, Parker Brothers
Translation design by: Sam Kjellman, Parker Brothers
Package design by: Karen Schmidt, Parker Brothers
Copy edited by: Susan Nash, Parker Brothers