Greetings folks! Once again we're nestled into the month of April,

and on LGR that means edutainment time!

And time for a game about time, this time being Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego, popping

up for a plethora of popular personal computers in 1989 by Broderbund Software.

It's actually the fifth main entry into the Carmen Sandiego series, after the original

game in 1985, Where in the USA in 1986, Where in Europe in 1988,

and Where in North Dakota in early 1989.

[chuckles] Yes really, how amusingly specific.

Then in the latter half of '89 came Where in Time Is Carmen Daggonit, because she just

won't stop at messing around with geography anymore.

The international woman of mystery is on the loose once again, serving up shady looks in

life-size cardboard standee form, and now she's aiming to screw with world history!

1500 years of history, to be specific, spanning from 400 AD to the mid twentieth century.

It's still a globe-trotting adventure though, with China, England, France, Holland, India,

Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Spain, and the USA

all possible targets of her chronological perversions.

But in lieu of traveling by plane to all corners of the Earth, now you have your own Tardis

-- er, Chronoskimmer, letting you wander through time and relative dimensions in space while

tracking down Carmen and her gang of V.I.L.E. criminals.

Where in Time did exceptionally well at retail, selling over a hundred thousand units by January

of 1990 and spending plenty of time in the best-selling educational software charts for years.

It's little wonder that it ended up getting a board game version in 1996, a full-on remake

with a point and click style interface in 1997, and a TV show airing on PBS until 1998,

superseding the first Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego show.

As before, Where in Time was a half hour game show, this time being hosted by Kevin Shinick,

along with the late Lynne Thigpen doing a fantastic job

playing The Chief of the ACME Detective Agency.

And yep, it has its own catchy theme song too,

though it's not nearly as timeless as the original by Rockapella.

♪ ”Tell me where in time is Carmen Sandiego?” ♫

♫ ”Stop her crime and solve this mystery!” ♪

♪ ”Tell me where in time is Carmen Sandiego?” ♫

♫ ”We're on the case and we're chasing her through history!” ♪

Back to the game though, packing a selection of goods similar to previous entries.

Notably a 1,374 page copy of the 1989 New American Desk Encyclopedia, acting as both

a reference guide to the game's take on world history

and as a form of copy protection as we'll soon see.

There is of course the game itself on floppy disk, with both a 5.25” and 3.5” copy

to choose from in this version 1.1 release.

You also get a Broderbund registration card, a couple of quick reference cards for installing

the game on Tandy and IBM PC compatibles, a fold-out poster detailing the most-wanted

criminals you'll soon be tailing through time, complete with all the naming puns you'd

expect from a Carmen Sandiego game.

And a 23 page black and white Detective's Manual, covering basic setup, gameplay options,

and examples on how to solve cases using deductive reasoning and cross-referencing of in-game

info and real world historical facts.

Enough time on that though, it's time for Where in Time is Carmen Timediego time.

Starting with a short time watching this timely intro sequence, complete with an AdLib rendition

of the original Carmen Sandiego theme.

[bouncy AdLib music plays]

Then you're greeted with a view of ACME Headquarters in San Francisco,

this being the first game in the series to establish them being there as a matter of fact.

And man, I dig the way those graphics look in VGA

but I think the game really shines in EGA.

There's something special about the way it makes use of the smaller color palette

and lower resolution, especially on an actual EGA display

like this delectable IBM 5154 monitor.

Mm, crispy 16-color graphics always make me smile in no time.

Regardless of your choice in graphical mode,

the next order of business is ordering this elevator around.

[elevator dings, doors open]

This acts as the game's menu system, with each floor of the ACME building

providing something to do at different points in the game.

Your first stop should be the Personnel department though, where you'll meet Diane who explains

that becoming a Time Cadet is exceedingly dangerous so you need to sign this waiver

before moving forward.

Ahh, liability release forms, how educationally entertaining!

Once you've brushed aside those pesky rights, congratulations!

You're a Time Cadet!

Here's a time machine, try not to die or screw up the spacetime continuum.

[time machine buzzing]

In reality, there's really no risk of either one happening, but

the game's commitment to world-building is appreciated.

And yeah, just like that you're piloting your very own Chronoskimmer 325i,

presumably built by BMW.

No word on whether it's an automatic or standard model, but I'm leaning towards

the former considering the thing immediately begins diagnostics

and presents to you your first assignment.

The overall process is similar to previous games, where something's been stolen by

one of Carmen's V.I.L.E. goons and it's your job to recover it and put 'em behind bars.

The twist of course is that the criminal is travelling through time now, so instead of

only tracking down where they are, you need to find out when they are as well.

The Federal Time Travel Commission limits all Chronoskimmer usage, meaning you can only

jump around for a set number of in-game hours before time runs out.

Even though you, uh.

You have a time machine.

So part of me thinks you could just, get all the clues and then travel back to when you

had more hours left to guarantee success, but whatever.

Time travel hurts mah brain parts so let's not dwell on it and accept that there's

limited time to travel through time.

Tracking down a V.I.L.E. gang member happens in three stages as usual:

the chase, the warrant, and the arrest.

The chase involves traveling to a certain time and place, and then searching for clues

as to the thief's identity and intentions.

You do this by talking to witnesses, seeing what informants have to say,

and using your Sonic Screwdriver -- er, Chronoscanner

to zap the area and magically reveal useful objects in the vicinity.

Each of these options will provide some kind of clue as to the thief's identity, along

with where in the world and when in time they're headed next.

If you're on the right track, you'll get a threatening little animation upon arriving

in a new location.

[V.I.L.E. music plays]

[tommygun firing]

This simply indicates that you're headed the right direction,

it's not showing the criminal you're chasing or anything.

It's just a random encounter with a bendy cowboy,

a barrel pirate, a ropey man, a fancy lady,

a robin hood, or whatever it doesn't matter, they're just silly but useful distractions.

All the truly pertinent evidence comes in the form of identifying the unseen perp's

characteristics and an array of historical events, people, and artifacts.

And this is one reason Where in Time comes with that desk encyclopedia, so players have

a way to quickly look up historical facts in a pre-internet era.

The other reason being that it acts as the game's off-disk copy protection, where you'll

be asked to type in a heading from a specific page in the encyclopedia after completing

your first assignment.

But yeah, most of the time you'll be using the book to look up people, places, and things

throughout history and decipher out how they might relate to things going on in the game.

So if an informant says the criminal loves reading French authors, you can infer that

that means they prefer Victor Hugo over Rudyard Kipling, for example.

Or maybe it's said that the criminal wants to find out who threw the rock that killed

Montezuma, so you can assume they'll be travelling to Mexico in the early 1500s.

Wild guesses won't cut it here, so it's also advised that players take down a few

notes as needed since the game doesn't keep track of location clues.

Once you've got what you believe to be a clue, it can then be entered into the ship's

computer and cross-referenced against a dossier of known criminals, with the goal being to

narrow down the possible suspects to just one.

Keep travelling through time and space as needed, look for clues in that location based

on the context of the time period, and after you've acquired enough evidence,

apply for an arrest warrant.

This will awake your ship's Capture Robot, a cyborg justice-bringer armed to the teeth

with little toothy arms of justice.

However a warrant isn't enough though, so you've still gotta track down the thief's

current position in spacetime, so keep following those clues until you're attacked by something.

Crossbows, catapults, snakes, whatever it is, you'll know it when you see it.

As long as you've got enough time left at this point, you can perform a final scan of

the area and capture the criminal, whoever he or she may be.

Aw yeah, it's time for robotic justice!

[ominous robot tractor beam]

And there you go!

One less time-traveling delinquent in the world, one step closer to tracking down the

master thief herself: Carmen Sandiego, who only shows up after

you become an Ace Time Detective, so it'll take a while.

But yeah, after each successful arrest, congratulations and possible promotions are in order, and

after that it's up to you whether or not you wanna continue playing

or head back to headquarters.

If you do decide to head back, why not check out those other floors?

Like the detectives' lounge, with a coffee maker that rarely works as intended.

[coffee pours haphazardly]

Or the laboratory with science experiments that go wrong

with a concerning frequency.

[acid drips, explodes]

And don't forget the creepy basement, with its blazing furnace

next to the vault of records, which is where you manage savegames.

Then there's the hall of fame, a place of triumph once you ultimately succeed, but for

a long time is ominously empty with not a single detective having pulled off the task

of catching Carmen.

Again, I appreciate the world-building going on, it paints a picture of ACME being this

run-down fly-by-night operation that's barely holding on.

Everything's broken and worn out and none of the other detectives

are really doing a good job at anything.

Despite the place being on its last legs, these folks are still the best hope at saving

the world and human history through federally regulated time travel, so you make do with

whatcha got and accomplish your very best in a terrible situation.

Inspiring.

And that's Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego!

It's got all the sleuthing and worldwide travel you'd expect, augmented by a welcome

set of additional challenge in regards to the extra research needed to pinpoint criminals'

locations, as well as the hourly time management going on.

With every move you make during the chase taking up a number of hours, the whole process

is much more intense.

Chatting with witnesses, talking to informants, scanning object samples, even running evidence

through the computer.

All of these slowly whittle away the hours until you either pull off a successful arrest,

or you're left with nothing and The Chief sends a message ordering you back to the present,

with the case remaining unsolved.

It's an effective way of incentivizing players to follow clues much more carefully than before,

and making sure they're sure about getting their historical facts straight.

Because heading off to the wrong point in spacetime is a huge setback, costing multiple

hours each leg of the trip, so it's often worth spending a couple extra in-game hours

in each location to be doubly sure where you wanna go next.

It's all on the player to pay attention to each line in the game, look stuff up and

extrapolate data themselves, and either memorize what they find or write things down.

That's some darn good edutainment right there, man.

Fun, factual, fast-paced, fantastic.

Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego is not only a great entry in a classic series, but it's

an excellent game in its own right, entirely distinct from the others

while keeping that original fun factor intact.

[upbeat bossa outro]

If you liked this video then might I recommend checking out the other edutainment classics,

and not-so-classics, I've covered in the past.

Or LGR things in general, I upload videos each week on all kinds of topics,

so stick around if you'd like.

And as always, thank you for watching!