111 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
111 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
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WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO?
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The work never ends at the Acme Detective Agency. You've chased Carmen around
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the world and finally have her and her gang all safely behind bars, when...oh,
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no! Matt Brannigan, your pal at the Agency, shows you the headlines: Carmen's
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broken out of the toughest prison in Europe, and she's headed straight for the
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United States! Well, you've always wanted to get to know your country better.
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Maybe you can take in a few sights as you head off to capture the computer
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world's most notorious criminal.
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If you've never played any of Broderbund's CARMEN SANDIEGO games, you've missed
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out on the closest thing to TRIVIAL PURSUIT in the computer gaming world. If
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you're a fan of such pastimes, this series will easily hook you for hours of
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fascinating and informative play. Even if you're not a fan, the combination of
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the simple-to-use interface, the wonderfully drawn and detailed graphics, the
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enormous database of facts and details about life in the U.S., and the cute
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animations of various thieves will entertain you for many hours. This review is
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based on the Amiga version.
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The point of WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? is to combine the bits of
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information you gather about a thief from the numerous innocent (and sometimes
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not-so-innocent) bystanders you encounter at each place you visit. Once you've
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collected enough information about the thief's looks, favorite meals, hobbies,
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favorite sports, music, and so on, you enter it into the crime computer. If you
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have enough clues to identify the thief, you're issued a warrant for his or her
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arrest. You then collect additional facts (to assist you in figuring out where
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the thief is going), pursue your suspect as closely as possible, and finally
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catch up with him or her and make the arrest.
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You have a set time limit (usually a week) in each case to locate and capture
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the thief. If you're successful within the allotted time, you're congratulated
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at headquarters, and you move one step closer to a promotion. Solve two cases,
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and you're promoted a step. Further promotions involve an increasing number of
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successes per promotion and increasingly harder cases; there are ten promotions
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in all.
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The difficult segments are nicely paced. Thus, there's plenty of fun and little
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frustration to begin with. As you become more proficient, there are lots of
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challenging puzzles to solve.
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Part of the fascination of WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? stems from the
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way you collect your information, and from the kind of information you must
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collect. You travel from city to city across the 50 states; within each city you
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visit three locations, selecting among universities, libraries, sports
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facilities, tourist bureaus, etc. (Which three depends on the city you're
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visiting; when in Lincoln, for instance, you can get information from a grad
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student at the University of Nebraska.) The answers to your questions involve
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mention of facts you need to connect to places. For instance, while visiting the
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sports facility in Seattle, you might be told that the thief was looking for
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tickets to the main Formula One racing event in the U.S. It's your task,
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independent of the program, to figure out where that event is held, and then to
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head there in the hope of drawing closer to the thief.
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Each time you stop in a city, you're greeted by a beautiful picture (a scenic
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vista, a monument, an event) representing some aspect of that place. The picture
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is always a joy to observe, and the database of pictures -- like the database of
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facts -- is quite large.
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Before making any queries, you receive a bit of information about each place
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you visit. Over time, this information proves helpful in your pursuit of the
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thief, so it's a good idea to take notes during your travels. A copy of FODOR'S
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U.S.A. (Broderbund Edition) is included with the game. This is a sizable (879
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pages) tome, chock-full of details you'll need to complete your tasks. As you
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progress in the game, the clues you must collect become ever more abstruse, so
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keep this book handy!
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The game is simple to control: To ask questions, take flights to cities, and
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enter data into the crime computer, you make selections with the mouse from
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various menus. Most screens are beautifully done still-shots; animated screens
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appear when you're hot on the trail. A member of V.I.L.E. may show up, doing
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something suspicious, or disguised as an innocent bystander posted by Carmen to
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keep an eye out for you (my favorite is the scruffy guitar player). If you get
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even closer, nasty things start happening: Knives are thrown at you; bombs
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explode; bags of flour drop. However, none of these has any affect on you (this
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isn't an arcade game, after all!).
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When you're finally at the point of nabbing the thief, the pursuit and capture
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are nicely animated. If you didn't obtain an arrest warrant, you see yourself
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walking away from the scene, growling; if you did get a warrant, the thief is
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shown locked in the back of your police wagon. On the Amiga, hilarious sound
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effects accompany each animated graphic. These features provide a welcome series
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of minor interludes in the midst of game play.
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The Amiga version requires 512K of RAM and a mouse. The manual includes
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detailed instructions for hard disk installation, and for changing the Tool
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Types so the game can make use of more RAM, if available. It's clear that the
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manual's author knows the Amiga well, an admirable quality I wish we'd encounter
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more often.
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The game comes on two disks, one of which must be inserted as a key disk when
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starting play. All the files on both disks can be copied, although an entire
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copy can't be made of the key disk. You can play WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN
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SANDIEGO? with just one drive, but I'd advise against it: The second disk is
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accessed whenever you use the crime computer, and gameplay is much smoother if
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you have two floppy drives or have installed the program on a hard disk.
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If you like playing sleuth, or enjoy games that test your ability to organize
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facts and make logical deductions, WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? should
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be tops on your list. The game is appealing to both kids and adults, and
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provides an agreeable little facts-oriented tour of the geography and history of
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the United States. While playing, you might even decide where you want to spend
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your next vacation. But make sure Carmen and her gang are safely behind bars
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before you leave!
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WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? is published and distributed by Broderbund
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Software, Inc.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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