Where in America's Past Is Carmen Sandiego?


Where in America's Past Is Carmen Sandiego? is the 5th videogame release of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. It was produced by Brøderbund and released in 1991.

Development

Art

The scenery for the locations came from photographs that were digitized and pixelated.

Educational goals

This game is widely considered the most informational game of the entire series. Though it may contain some minute differences from the main series, it remains true to it. The game's aim, as with the others, is to capture Carmen's gang of thieves, one-by-one, until all of her henchmen have been caught. This is done by searching for clues, trailing them, identifying them and, finally, bringing them in for trial. After all of the henchmen have been caught, the player must then go after Carmen herself. One of the main differences is that the player can receive in-game help. PC Mag explains that "While Where in Time simply challenges players to look up and recall historical facts, Where in America's Past develops a true historical context for places and events as it covers more than 400 years of American history".

Commercial performance

As the game came to be released on other computer platforms, the game series had sold 3 million copies.

Gameplay

The game includes 45 geographic locations, and 9 different historical eras to travel to. This far outweighs the number of travel destinations in the 1985 Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? game. Carmen and her henchmen are involved with some of American history's most iconic moments, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The "32-color VGA 'location graphics' paint crime scenes that are more vivid and interesting" than in previous Carmen editions. The graphics include scanned art from notable sources, such as the Virginia Historical Society and NASA. The "game auto-detects the player's video card and installs itself for the appropriate graphics standard".

Reception

PC Magazine said the game "offers complexities of plot and graphics that make the original Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego seem almost bland by comparison". It said the game "won't disappoint adventure hungry Carmen fans" and that "as edutainment, this game is fun and challenging". Compute! named it a "Compute Choice", calling the game's VGA graphics "stunning". The magazine concluded that "Where in the Past is Carmen Sandiego? is a must-have package for anyone interested in superior and engaging entertainment software". Computer Gaming World liked the game, but stated that it would become boring to older children and adults, and that it seemed designed to teach rudimentary facts about the chronology of American history as opposed to details. The reviewer was hopeful, however, that Where in America's Past would encourage students to study history on their own.