Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

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Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System
Publisher: Parker Brothers Electronic Arts
Developer: Brøderbund Software, Venture Technologies Electronic Arts Canada
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 $39.9539.95 4350 BR 1994 023450 US 1992-09 $59.9559.95 716101 EU 1992 E035SMXI BR 199x 046690
Non-Sega versions Amiga Amstrad CPC Apple IIGS Atari ST CD-ROM² IBM PC Macintosh Super NES
Tectoy

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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

SEGA Code (C) Copyright 1992 Electronic Arts Canada Inc.

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

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Master System print advert in Sega Challenge: The Team Sega Newsletter (US) #4: "Fall 1988" (1988-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Consoles + (FR) 65 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 56 Game Mania (UK) 85 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 73 Hobby Consolas (ES) 85 Joypad (FR) PAL 61 Joystick (FR) PAL 76 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL 85 MegaTech (UK) PAL 65 Player One (FR) 80 Play Time (DE) 68 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 59 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 59 Sega Force (UK) PAL 82 Video Games (DE) PAL 42

	69
Based on 15 reviews

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, BR
Cart

Master System version

Master System, US
Cover
Cart Manual Almanac

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual Almanac

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 88aa8ca6 MD5 551e85dc05f12557a56a6528aab6421a SHA-1 c848e92899dc9b6f664e98ad247fed86c0e46a41	128kB		Cartridge (BR)
?	CRC32 428b1e7c MD5 29dcfcf773ceb9ef29b524183ad89d8c SHA-1 683317c8d7d8b974066d7ddb3ed64f99801aa9de	128kB		Cartridge (US)

References

NEC Retro has more information related to Carmen Sandiego o Oe! Sekaihen