Junior Detective's ranks, regions and options

The case loop is what a child sees. Around it sits a little grown-up machinery, described in the 1996 user’s guide and the disc’s Read-Me and spelled out in the game’s own data files.

The roster and the rank ladder

Installation copies about 700K of the program to the hard disk, which, says the guide, “makes it possible for you to establish a detective roster and keep track of your rank and merits.” Players sign in at the ACME Detective Agency; a name comes off the roster with Ctrl-D on Windows or Option-D on a Mac, where the roster is a file called CJrRoster, normally kept in the Preferences folder.

The ranks sit in the English TEXT.DAT, in order: Rookie, Investigator, Sr. Investigator, Inspector, Sr. Inspector, Detective, Master Detective and Super Sleuth. Eight titles is a long ladder for a game pitched at five-year-olds. Wikipedia’s summary notes that “the user is not required to answer questions in order to be promoted,” and the leftover cheat menu in CARMEN.EXE carries “User Level +” and “User Level -” commands, next to a message that reads “Game level has been adjusted. A new game must now start.” For the other games’ ladders, see rank progression.

Seven regions, fifty-five countries

The box promises that “each case stays in one region of the world, showing its flags, animals and local products.” The country table in CJR.DAT holds 55 names in seven blocks, and the disc’s background-music files are named to match: Africa, Asia, Europe, AusAsia, NAfrica, NAmer and SAmer. The labels below are ours.

• Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Zaire.
• Asia: Afghanistan, China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka.
• Europe: Great Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden.
• Australia and Southeast Asia: Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
• North Africa and the Middle East: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia.
• North and Central America: Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama.
• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela.

Small countries are fiddly targets on the Travel Map, so the Read-Me suggests clicking the triangular pointer that leads to them. At each stop a Clue Counter of little magnifying glasses shows what is left: the bright yellow ones are clues still hiding.

The Options menu

After sign-in, Ctrl-O (Option-O on a Mac) opens five switches:

• Automatic Help: Dee Jaye prompts the player through a case; switched off, she waits for a click on her Call Button.
• Interrupt Animations: lets the Space bar cut short the villains, the photographers, Dee Jaye, the Junior Agents and the Chief.
• Battery Meter: cases are normally “timed” by the battery; off gives “an unlimited amount of time to investigate and track the villain.”
• Background Music and All Sound: the regional music alone, or everything including dialogue.

That third switch matters more than it looks. The battery is the game’s only clock (see the case clock and travel for what it replaces), so a parent can turn the game into an untimed hunt with one shortcut and one click.