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Carmen Sandiego: Difference between revisions
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''Tell me, where in the world is... Carmen Sandiego?''|Rockapella's [[Crowning Music of Awesome|"Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"]]}}
[[Edutainment Game]] series created by now-defunct [[Broderbund Software]] in 1985. The series became phenomenally successful in the [[The Nineties|1990s]], spawning no fewer than ''three'' television shows, two on [[PBS]] and one on [[
The standard case involves an educational quest to find [[MacGuffin|The Loot]], [[Artistic License: Law|The Warrant]] and The Crook.
TV shows in the franchise include:
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: In ''Great Chase Through Time'', the manual points out that you couldn't ''really'' have spoken to any of the people (except ''maybe'' a few in English-speaking areas). You also really couldn't have been able to approach any of the royalty figures and have a chat with them. And [[Yuri Gagarin]] probably wouldn't have been too eager to help a couple of Americans who decide to help him launch into space — you and Ivan would have been arrested in a ''heartbeat'' in addition to Carmen.
** It is possible that the same device used to talk to people of all different languages all over the world in "Where in the World..." is also in use during "Great Chase...", but as for the other issues, yeah, acceptable breaks...
* [[Acme Products]]: Possibly parodied, as the name is given to a detective agency rather than a product.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: In a rather strange variation, some of the background information for the Acme detectives introduced in ''Treasures of Knowledge'' appears in the manual for ''Secret of the Stolen Drums''.
** For that matter, a lot of information in "Great chase through time" is in the manual. Justified as you are ''supposed'' to read the Chronopedia.
* [[Alphabet Soup Cans]]: Newer games are generally worse offenders here than the earlier ones.
** Justifiable in the sense that you are trying to find a culprit, so are gathering evidence to suggest where they went. Some clues make sense, such as they describe where the suspect is going, but other times it seems rather contrived, such as naming the country where something was invented or finding the birthplace of a celebrity.
** "Great chase through time" also has a few justifiable examples; such as where one must use the accounting systems employed by the Incans, put movable type on the right way (Mind you this was backwards) or properly balance a brick of salt with gold to make a fair trade. A few were rather contrived though - in 1776 for example, you give Thomas Jefferson some paper so he can draft the Declaration of Independence before taking it to Continental Congress. Somehow in the trip, he ''completely forgets'' which order he wrote what clauses on.
* [[Alternate Continuity]]: [[
** It could be said ''Treasures of Knowledge'', ''Secret of the Stolen Drums'', and the [[No Export for You|DS game]] do form one continuity as they share a few common characters and Carmen's backstory, but the games can be played without [[Continuity Lock Out]] being an issue.
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Chase Devineaux from the ''Word Detective'', ''Math Detective'', and ''ThinkQuick Challenge'' games. Shadow Hawkins from ''Treasures of Knowledge'' is actually a subversion, the [[All There in the Manual|manual]] for ''Secret of the Stolen Drums'' reveals Shadow's real name is [[Gender Blender Name|Shannon]].
* [[Badass in a Nice Suit]]: Carmen Sandiego's signature [[Lady in Red|red]] [[Badass Longcoat]] and [[Nice Hat|fedora]].
* [[Big Bad Friend]]: The Facebook version occasionally enlists [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|people from the player's friends list]] as some of Carmen's mooks.
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* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Extremely blatant: Carmen gets captured at the end of every computer game and maybe 30% to 50% of the time on the PBS game shows. Despite this, she's at large in the next game/episode. This also applies to many of the lesser villains.
** So you captured all of the villains in ''Great Chase Through Time'', right? [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Carmen comes in and breaks them out of prison. ]]
* [[Classy Cat Burglar]]: Carmen's practically an archetype.
* [[Collection Sidequest]]: Finding all 450 amulets in ''Secret of the Stolen Drums''. Not necessary for [[Hundred-Percent Completion]], but on the [[Sliding Scale of Collectible Tracking]], it varies from "Could Be Anywhere" to [[Lost Forever]], especially since once you moved to the next location there was no way to travel back to a previous location. Just to make things worse, the [[PlayStation 2]] version has one amulet [[Dummied Out]] for no apparent reason.
* [[Copy Protection]]: Horrible, horrible copy protection. Arguably some of the most frustrating of all time. You can play all you want, but to get promoted and even have a chance to capture Carmen, you have to enter certain words from certain pages of the included travel guides every few cases. Sound easy enough? Then remember that these games were incredibly common in schools...where the manuals would often get ''lost.'' And even the teachers couldn't exactly summon new copies of a travel guide (now often several years, if not a decade) out of date at will...
** ''Where in Time...'' came with a hefty paperback ''desk encyclopedia'' in the box.
*** Ironically enough, the later CD games had no protection at all.
** At least with ''World'', the reference was an Almanac; most of the information in one of those can now be found on [[The Other Wiki|Wikipedia]]. ''Europe'' used an atlas and asked questions about what color country X on page Y was. Have fun guessing!
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* [[Da Chief]]
* [[Difficulty Levels]]: In ''Word Detective'', ''Math Detective'' and the awful ''ThinkQuick Challenge'' games
* [[Disc One Final Boss|Disc One Final Case]]: Johan Gutenburg's Printing Press case in "Great chase through time". You appeared to have caught every case...yet you're still in the 15th century, and there's another disc. Not to mention, Dee Cryption is still out-[[Plot Hole|Oh wait.]]
* [[Equal Opportunity Evil]]
* [[Expy]]: Most likely an unintentional example, but Ivan Idea from the v3.0 games/''Great Chase'', Ben from the junior novels, Shadow Hawkins from ''Treasures of Knowledge'', and Adam Shadow from the DS game share similar traits with Zack from the cartoon (blonde-haired male detectives who happen to be tech-savvy). However, Adam borders on being not just an expy but also a [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] - not only does [http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9550/wallpapercarmen1.jpg his default outfit] looks near identical to [http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4162/zackconceptart.jpg Zack's outfit], considering the DS game is set in the same continuity as ''Treasures of Knowledge'', Shadow is nowhere to be seen.
* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Carmen, way back when...
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]: In "Great Space through time", you have to arrest criminals in rather...obvious places. (See [[Idiot Ball]]) At least some spots make a bit of sense. (Such as how one time, Buggs Zapper is hiding underneath a table that has a cloth over it, or where Jane Reaction is hiding inside a bag attached to a llama.)
* [[Feelies]]: The oldest games in the series from the 1980s and very early '90s
* [[Fetch Quest]]: ''Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time'', ''Word Detective'', ''Math Detective'' and ''Treasures of Knowledge''
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** A more minor example is ''Where in Time/Great Chase Through Time''. The original ''Where in Time'' from the 1980s played very much like ''Where in the World'', only with picking the correct time period in addition to the location; ''Great Chase Through Time'' plays more like an adventure-lite game in the vein of [[Monkey Island]].
* [[Gentleman Thief]]: Carmen is a female version
* [[Guide Dang It]]: There are a few examples where they give a rather obscure hint that's not explained in-game because you're supposed to look in the guide book. The Facebook game justifies this because they [[Genre Savvy|know you're going to use Google]].
** Only in one case of "Great chase through time". You have to find a Carmen note in Japan by talking to one of the guards who saw the thief run by and drop a piece of litter on the ground. There is nothing indicating that it's the guard of the ''winter'' room. But to be fair, for one, the manual actually outright tells you this and two, an adventure-gamer would assume that they can brute-force their way through until they find a guard who ''has'' seen the thief walk past.
* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]]: The Chief of Acme Detective Agency is a mysterious, shadowy character in the early games.
** Unless the Chief is Lynne Thigpen.
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** The Chief in the DS game was named Margaret O'Hara.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: One episode of the Fox series establishes Carmen has a deep fondness for ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', her favorite book as a kid. Of course, in that episode she's after the Smithsonian's pair of Dorothy's slippers...
** Not to mention, the Fox series apparently states that Carmen doesn't want to ''hurt'' the ACME Detectives.
* [[Player Versus Player]]: ''Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge''
* [[Plot Hole]]: You don't arrest Dee Cryption in Disc 1 of ''Great Chase Through Time''. And yet you see her in jail...how'd she get in there?
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** Just for fun, have a gander at the following baddie names from the [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] book ''Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego?'': Bea Miupscotti, Avery Littlebit Phelps, Morton U. Bargandfore, Kit Incaboodle, Astro Fizzix, and Hanover Fist.
** For the Facebook game, it's initially [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] as most of the crooks have mundane names. It's played straight once you start solving the Hard cases that [[Punny Name]] criminals start showing.
* [[Race Lift]]: Carmen is usually unambiguously Hispanic, but at times she has been changed to a paler skin tone. Arguably she just gets turned into a [[Mukokuseki]] type lighter skinned Hispanic though.
* [[Re Boot]]: The recent [[Wii Ware]] games.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: ''Where In Space Is Carmen Sandiego'', naturally. Thankfully the game is a good example of this trope because it was one of the best in the series.
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** Hackers: Dee Cryption, Cy Berpunk, Telly Phone
** [[wikipedia:List of Carmen Sandiego characters#Robots|Robots]]
* [[Take Your Time]]: Sorry for the pun, but in ''Great Chase Through Time'', quite literally.
* [[Time Police]]: Whole point of ''Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?'' and ''Where in America's Past'' as well.
* [[Time Travel]]: ''Where in Time'' and ''America's Past'', obviously, and there were time machines in ''Where On Earth''.
* [[Unwinnable by Design]]: If you spend too much time going to the wrong places, before you figure out some of the more obscure hints (Especially in the later cases where there is almost ''no'' room for errors), you'll run out of time or battery power.
* [[Unwinnable By Mistake]]: In ''Great Chase Through Time'', it's possible to trigger a glitch that'll make the mission unwinnable. Before you can arrest the thief, you have to assemble a "Carmen Note" which tells you where the thief is hiding. In the Aztec Empire level, you have to assemble a headdress for Montezuma, and when you complete it and add it to your inventory, a Carmen note appears. However, if you give the headdress to Ann Tikwitee when taken from your inventory, another one will spawn on the wall, meaning you have to take it again to get the Carmen note. You give it to Montezuma...but you still give it to your inventory and you're not allowed to leave the room, making the game unwinnable.
* [[Updated Rerelease]]
* [[Victory Pose]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge''
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