Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1989 edutainment video game. It is the fourth game in the Carmen Sandiego video game series after World (1985), U.S.A. (1986), and Europe (1988). Having observed the popularity of the Carmen Sandiego franchise in the education of school children, educators were inspired to develop a North Dakota version to teach North Dakotans about their state's history and geography.
In contrast to the previous titles which were developed internally by Broderbund, North Dakota was largely developed for the Apple II by a team of fourteen educators led by computer coordinator Craig Nansen, concept designer Bonny Berryman, and co-chairwoman Mary Littler collectively known as the North Dakota Database Committee (NDDC) of the Minot Public Schools, who made the game idea a reality.
This "franchise extension" is the only game in the series based on a U.S. state and was patterned after the previous games in the then-four year old series. Intended as a type of "pilot program" to test whether region-specific versions for the remaining 49 states were financially viable, the game was released in celebration of North Dakota's centennial celebration in 1989. Although 5,000 school copies were sold to schools in the region, the game has become extremely rare and only three retail copies are known to exist. There is disagreement as to whether or not they are complimentary versions offered to educators who worked on the project, or stock left for mail order at a North Dakota game shop. There is currently no proof that retail copies were ever sold in stores.
The game was "save[d] from the memory hole of history" by video game historian Frank Cifaldi and his archivist organization The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF). He believes the game is a great example of history that might have been lost had he not recovered documents for his archival non-for-profit organization.
Gameplay
Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego? is a first-person history and geography-based edutainment game for the Apple II platform. The interface of Where in North Dakota... is similar to the other games in the series, World, U.S.A., and Europe. Two design changes were made for this game. The language was softened—"criminals" are called "imposters" and "crimes" are called "pranks"— and a four-wheel drive vehicle is used to travel between locations instead of an airplane. Where in North Dakota ... includes 38 locations within the state, 50 famous people connected to it, 16 pun-named gang members, and over 1,000 factual clues.
Players begin in the office of the NoDak Detective Agency. They type their name into the crime computer using up to 14 characters and are informed about the case. Players are sent to the scene of the crime and tasked with capturing Carmen Sandiego and her cronies by questioning witnesses. Using these clues, players decipher the appearance of the imposters and follow their geographic trail to locations such as the International Peace Garden, Cando, and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
Players always have six days' worth of allotted time to track down the crook and create a correct warrant. Every time the player captures three imposters, they are promoted to a higher rank and the game's difficulty increases. More difficult clues provided by witnesses are added to the pool, and players must travel to more locations related to the case; the lowest rank requires the player travel to four different locations, while the hardest level has them travel to 14. They must advance 10 ranks before having an opportunity to catch Carmen herself. When they do catch her, they are placed into the North Dakota Roughrider Detective Hall of Fame, which contains 16 slots.
Solving clues requires research using sources other than the game, which at the time meant almanacs, maps, and biographical dictionaries focused on North Dakota. In doing so, players learn facts about the geography, environment, economy, and history of the state, as well as techniques for conducting research, using databases, and deductive reasoning. The teacher's guide also suggests the game can be used to teach students skills in: using maps, thinking, studying, comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and computer literacy. The teacher's guide notes that while skill is an important factor, luck is also very important. The elements of each case are randomly generated which means repeats of the same case can have vastly different results. It is also possible, albeit highly unlikely, for a game not to provide enough character clues for the suspect to be identified, so that even the most conscientious players may occasionally be unsuccessful.