Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective

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Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective is a 1995 educational computer game in the Carmen Sandiego series, made by Broderbund. It’s a simplified version of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? designed for younger players and pre-readers, with 14 cases to solve.

What it’s like
- It includes Zack and Ivy from the Earth TV show and Stretch the crime dog, though Carmen looks different from the show.
- Stretch’s cat Carmine and the bumbling photographer are also part of the game.
- DeeJay, an AI guide, helps you on a GizmoTapper device. Each country gives you a photo and simple clue icons (like coffee, cathedrals, snakes, gold). You match these clues to icons on a map to find where the crook went.

Gameplay differences
- Instead of a time limit, you have a fuel limit. Travel between countries uses power, so you must finish each case before the GizmoTapper runs out.
- Countries are named by their country, not a city.
- At each location, a photographer captures pieces of the crook’s portrait. You assemble a Wanted Poster in the corner of the screen. If you don’t finish the poster, the crook escapes.
- The poster gets more pieces as you progress, making the final chase harder.

Other details
- The game uses real photos for each country and is the first post-Cold War World game, showing Russia instead of the Soviet Union. There is one inaccuracy: Sakhalin is shown as part of Japan in the Asia map.
- It runs on Windows and Mac OS and is single-player.
- Release date: March 1, 1995.

Reception
- German PC Player gave it 70/100.
- Allgame rated it 4/5 stars overall (high marks for graphics, sound, and enjoyment; lower for replay value; good documentation).
- It won the 1995 Codie award for Best Early Education Program.