Where in Europe Is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1988 European geography-based educational computer game in the Carmen Sandiego detective mystery franchise. It was originally published by Broderbund in 1988 for Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS, and ported to the Amiga and Macintosh in 1989. It is the third Carmen Sandiego title, after Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985) and Where in the USA Is Carmen Sandiego? (1986). Under the guidance of The Acme Agency's chief, the player completes cases to catch Carmen's henchmen; they accomplish this by traveling to European cities to find clues relating to the crook's last known whereabouts, and by gaining enough character data to issue a warrant of arrest. Once the player has captured all 15 thieves, they can pursue Carmen herself.
Critics noted that the game followed the design of its Carmen Sandiego predecessors, and gave it generally favourable reviews.
Development
The game intended to improve players' skills in map-reading, research, and problem solving. It was developed and published by Broderbund, Inc., and released on the Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Apple II, Macintosh, and IBM PC.; special editions of the program were made for use in classrooms. The Apple II version was released on a double-sided -inch disk, while the IBM version was available in either a or format. The disks were written using Apple ProDOS.
The third in the series after Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985) and Where in the USA Is Carmen Sandiego? (1986), it would be was followed by state-specific video game Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? in February 1989 and Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? in August of that year.
Plot
Similar to the previous games in the series, Europe focuses on notorious master thief and leader of V.I.L.E crime syndicate Carmen Sandiego, whose band of crooks successfully stole a series of items after Sandiego broke out of a maximum security prison. While World and Time saw the crooks take worldwide and historical items, respectively, this game sees them take famous European items. As with other entries in the series, stolen items are not always physical and feasible; for instance one thief steals the geysers of Iceland. Some are even fictitious, such as James Bond's Aston Martin being stolen from the United Kingdom. The player's detective agency, The Acme Agency, has joined forces with Interpol, and has been tasked by the Chief to track down Carmen's crooks and stop Carmen. The player achieves this by traveling to locations, collecting clues, creating arrest warrants, and finally tracking down and arresting the criminals, thereby retrieving the stolen items. The Chief will introduce the stolen object at the beginning of each case, and sends the player off to the thief's last known whereabouts. 16 cases are included, and 34 countries ranging from east (USSR) to west (Iceland) Europe are featured. Starting as a gumshoe, players advance in rank within the Bureau as they succeed in cases and get promoted, until the final case when they have a shot at catching Carmen herself, when the player will achieve the level of Super Sleuth and have completed the game.