Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? CD-ROM

Where in the U.S.A. CD-ROM: the Deluxe Edition goes to Windows

This is the U.S.A. Deluxe Edition rebuilt for Windows 3.1, behind a title screen that says CD-ROM and © 1992, 1994. Brøderbund ran it on Mohawk, the in-house engine whose data files end in .MHK, and the case work did not change: the same fifteen crooks plus Carmen, the same fifty-one stops, the same photographs, relief maps and state songs. The Chief still sends the case file (on one, the Homestake Mine has gone missing from South Dakota), Employee Travel still flies you across the map, evidence still comes in as typed reports, and informants still leave tips on the ACME V-Mail Snitch Hot Line.

What Windows changes in the U.S.A. CD-ROM

The music goes through Windows' MIDI system, so the install ends in Brøderbund's MIDI Setup, which asks which synthesizer to use and plays two test songs to judge it by. In the emulator here it is the Sound Blaster's FM synth, which is what the setup picks on its own. The characters speak, and the read-me suggests a sound card's mixer if their speech and the music come out unbalanced. The Source Information program gets its own icon in the Program Manager group: pick a state, look at its photographs or its map, and play its songs, “The Ma Grinder” for Texas included. The read-me also warns against running it alongside the game, since both read the same sound and graphics files.

U.S.A. CD-ROM credits and later pressings

The opening credits play over a San Francisco street and name the design team of Philip Bouchard, Claire Curtin, Ken Goldstein, Lance Groody, Leila Joslyn, Hilary Nation, Rod Nelsen, Andrew Pedersen, Tom Rettig and Kim Walls, with Brian Eheler as product manager, Frankie Ford, Grace Kim and Clifton Caverly programming, Leila Joslyn as art director, Marcela Pesqueira Evans as senior artist, and Ralph Marsh, Tom Rettig and Jonelle Adkisson on sound. A 1995 update, version 1.1.1, added Windows 95 support and a demo of Alien Tales; the copy here is the earlier Windows 3.1 disc.

Play Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? CD-ROM (1994) online in your browser

Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? CD-ROM runs right here in your web browser, free, with nothing to download or install. The copy here is the Windows 3.1 CD-ROM, installed from its own disc. The page starts Windows 3.1 first, and Windows starts the game on its own. Click inside the picture to capture the mouse, and press Esc when you want your pointer back.

Anything the game writes to its own disk, from your detective's rank to a saved case, is kept in this browser, and in your account too once you sign in. Press Play in browser at the top of this page to open the case.