Carmen Sandiego (video game series)

Carmen Sandiego
The box sets of the six Carmen Sandiego titles during the Broderbund era in chronological order of release: Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985), Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? (1986), Where in Europe Is Carmen Sandiego? (1988), Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (1989), Where in America's Past Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991), and Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? (1993).
Genres	Edutainment
Developers	Brøderbund The Learning Company
Publishers	Brøderbund
Creators	Gene Portwood Mark Iscaro Dane Bigham Lauren Elliott
Platforms	DOS, Apple II, Windows, Macintosh, Wii
Platform of origin	Apple II
First release	Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? 1985
Latest release	Carmen Sandiego Returns 2015

Carmen Sandiego is a long-running series of American educational mystery video games based on the edutainment franchise of the same name. The game Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? in 1985 triggered both the video game series and the franchise as a whole, which has continued up to the present day. Each game of the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use his or her knowledge to find Carmen Sandiego or any of her innumerable henchmen. This series was originally owned by Brøderbund, but it is owned by The Learning Company, whose latest release was Carmen Sandiego Returns in 2015. Since then, the series has won over 125 awards and accolades.

The first game in the series released in 1985, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, established an original formula that was followed very faithfully in all Carmen Sandiego games. This formula involves a series of missions in which the computer player tracks and apprehends each of Carmen Sandiego's underlings. Each case begins with the player being alerted that a spectacular theft has been committed. Immediately transported to the scene of the crime, the player must find clues to infer the suspect's next destination and to create an arrest warrant describing the guilty party's attributes. The culprit travels through a series of different destinations in an attempt to shake off any pursuers, so the player will have to continue tracking the thief for some time. The game continues in this manner until the player catches up with culprit, at which point the thief is arrested, and if the warrant is correct, the player puts the thief in ACME prison. As more and more thieves are arrested, the player rises up through ACME's ranks, and the later cases assigned to the player will become more difficult. On the final case, the perpetrator is revealed to be Carmen herself, and the game ends after the player successfully captures her and inducted to the ACME Hall of Fame.

With the release of Word Detective, Math Detective, and Great Chase Through Time, Brøderbund began to abandon the original formula in 1997. Word Detective and Math Detective involves the player infiltrating V.I.L.E. hideouts around the world and therefore maintain the globe-hopping element of previous games. However, Great Chase Through Time completely abandoned the series' original formula and has the player spending each mission in one time period, where the goal is to create makeshift solutions to any historical problems that the theft has caused and find the thief whom Carmen has dropped off. The final mission of the game involves the player to track down Carmen in similar to the traditional formula, although the player does not construct a warrant.