Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego? was my second exposure to the Carmen Sandiego Series of games. I played the first game in the series, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” which was in 1985. The graphics were absolutely awful playing it on an Apple IIc—nothing but shades of green with huge pixels making up the images. The graphics for “Europe” are an improvement, but still pale in comparison to today’s standard.
Every game in the Carmen Sandiego series is educational, but there is much fun to be had chasing criminals.
“Europe,” third in the series, was released in 1988 by Broderbund Software—an educational software company.
With your first case, you start off as a rookie detective. The Chief tells you what crime has been committed (usually outrageous in nature, such as stealing the Leaning Tower of Pisa) and if the suspect is male or female. The clock starts to tick as you only have a certain amount of time to track down the suspect. Avoid repeating your actions or flying off to the wrong location as you will waste valuable time.
Since this game only takes place in Europe, your assignment starts in the city of a European country (where the crime was committed). While in that city, you have four options to choose from on the screen:
investigate, use notebook, visit crime lab, and go to airport. Selecting “investigate” will let you ask locals if they have seen anyone suspicious. They might tell you what the suspect looked like (hair color, weight) or what he/she was wearing (glasses, hat).
Physical information on the thief needs to be put into the Crime Lab’s computer so you can get a warrant. Once you get enough information on the suspect, you can issue a warrant—which needs to be done as soon as possible, so when you run into the suspect, he/she can be arrested. If there is no warrant issued, then you can’t arrest the suspect.
Sometimes a local can give you a hint as to where the suspect was headed. You can enter that into your notebook. When you think you know where the suspect is headed, you can go to the airport. You are given a few places to choose from that you can travel to. Luckily you shortly know if you have chosen the wrong place, as you can’t get any information from the locals about the suspect. And if you managed to pick the right place, you will see a criminal pop up on your screen—sometimes seeming as if he is coming out of a manhole.
As you progress in the game, your rank will get higher and the cases will become harder to solve. After you capture all of Carmen’s gang, it’s time to go after her. Once you apprehend Carmen, the game is over and you will get your name entered into the Hall of Fame.
If you are a geography, history, and crime buff as I am, then this game should bring you much enjoyment. And forget just downloading this one game…get all of them that are on this website. Then you will have hundreds of hours catching Carmen and her gang.
