Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge

Treasures of Knowledge (2001): the last classic case

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge (2001) is where the original computer-game line bows out, and it goes out doing something the series had never really tried: telling a story. Developed by ImageBuilder Software and released under The Learning Company label, it drops the city-hopping warrant loop for a full point-and-click adventure, aimed at roughly ages eight to twelve.

The Marco Polo job in Treasures of Knowledge

Carmen steals a rare edition of The Travels of Marco Polo, and it turns out the book is a map — to a string of artefacts and, beyond them, a lost city. Two ACME agents take the case: Jules Argent, who was Carmen's partner before her days of crime and took her defection hard, and Shadow Hawkins, fresh out of the ACME academy, first in his class and a whiz with technology. The trail runs through eight missions and more than thirty destinations on all seven continents, Antarctica included.

Real places and real puzzles in Treasures of Knowledge

You travel by the Global Transportation System on Shadow's vest, look things up in the WorldWide Data Resource (50 countries and all seven continents, with a talking translator), and pick up fifteen gadgets along the way. Jules keeps a journal of what you learn, and the “Chief Com” on her bag strap is the fastest way to get help from the agency. The fifteen puzzles draw on what you pick up: a PLATYPUS lock in Antarctica, a hieroglyph sequence in Egypt, five gears in Germany, Hanafuda cards in Japan, panpipes in Peru, stone images in Mexico and more. Carmen's clues come in writing, on video and as audio, sometimes addressed to you and sometimes to her own henchpeople.

Treasures of Knowledge, a different kind of Carmen game

It's a tonal departure — slower, more serious, more interested in why Carmen turned than in punny henchmen. The hand-drawn characters over pre-rendered backdrops won't be to every taste, and the adventure puzzles rarely fight back hard. But the geography and history are rich, the writing has real warmth, and the characters were redrawn for it by Wild Brain. Not the sharpest Carmen game, but one of the better educational-geography titles of its era — and, fittingly, one of the few classic-line entries still sold digitally today. The copy here is the Windows version, installed from its own disc into Windows 95 and played in the browser.

Play Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge (2001) online in your browser

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge runs right here in your web browser, free, with nothing to download or install. The copy here is the Windows version, installed from its own disc into Windows 95. The page starts Windows 95 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.