'''''Carmen Sandiego''''' refers to a media franchise of educational computer & video games, television programs, books and other media featuring a Carmen Sandiego thieving villainess of the same name. The basic premise of the franchise has the user or protagonists being agents of the ACME Detective Agency, which attempts to thwart and capture V.I.L.E. ringleader and former ACME agent Carmen Sandiego. The series initially focused on teaching geography & history, though it later branched out into mathematics, English & other subjects.

Originally distributed in the United States & Canada, most of the computer games are now available to international audiences. With the exception of Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition, all the games in the series are aimed at preteens, although the geography and history games are often difficult enough for adults since much of the trivia learned is not widely known. Many entries in the series contain elements of various genres, including mystery, comedy, science fiction, spy-fi and fantasy.

==The computer games==
===Brøderbund games===
====Origin and history====
Carmen Sandiego was originally conceived by Broderbund Software co-founder Gary Carlston and proposed to programmer Dane Bigham in 1983. The idea was to create a computer game which would get kids interested in pouring through almanacs, a childhood hobby of Broderbund Co-founders Gary and Doug Carlston. Bigham provided the "look and feel" for the game interface from an adventure game he was developing independently and further development was entrusted to the creative "Rubber Room", led by ex-Disney artist Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott at Brøderbund Software.

The game script, graphics and humor were created by Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott, and writer David Siefkin.  Siefkin wrote one of the first scripts for the game which ultimately provided the game mechanics and which included treasures stolen from countries around the world, clues taken from the World Almanac, and a villain named Carmen Sandiego, whose name he adapted from the name of 1940s singer & actress Carmen Miranda.  Siefkin left the project soon afterwards to become a foreign service officer, serving as a diplomat in several of the countries featured in the game.  He is listed in the game manual as a contributing author.

Another early draft version of the game was based in England, chasing Henry VII around town collecting treasures. 

Catherine Byrd was the first project manager at Brøderbund Software and the original project manager of the game.  The game was programmed by Dane Bigham.  Graphics and clues were by Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott. The final name and scenario of the game came out of a number of meetings between the development group. 

The first Carmen Sandiego software game, ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'', was released in 1985 for the Apple II computer and was subsequently ported to other systems. The first seven games were each awarded one or more SPA Excellence in Software Awards, particularly for their educational effort. The Brøderbund-produced games were as follows:

*''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1985)
*''Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1986)
*''Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1988)
*''Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1989)
*''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe'' (1990)
*''Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1991)
*''Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1993)
*''Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1994)
*''Carmen Sandiego Junior Detective Edition'' (1995)
*''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1996)
*''Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1996)
*''Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?'' (1997)
*''Carmen Sandiego Word Detective'' (1997)
*''Carmen Sandiego Math Detective'' (1998)
*''Where in America is Carmen Sandiego? The Great Amtrak Train Adventure'' (1998)

====The original "formula" for the series====

The first game in the series, ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'', established a formula that was followed very faithfully in all ''Carmen Sandiego'' products for over ten years. This formula involves a series of missions in which the user tracks and apprehends each of Carmen's underlings. Each case begins with the user being alerted that a ridiculously spectacular theft has been committed. Immediately transported to the scene of the crime, the user must find clues to infer the suspect's next stop and to create a arrest warrant describing the guilty party's attributes. The culprit travels through a series of different destinations in an attempt to shake off any pursuers so the user will have to continue tracking the thief for some time. The game continues in this manner until the user catches up with culprit, at which point the thief is arrested and, if the warrant is correct, put in prison. As more and more thieves are arrested, the user rises up through ACME's ranks and the cases the user is assigned become more difficult. On the last case, the perpetrator turns out to be Carmen Sandiego herself and once she is arrested the program is completed.

With Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, Carmen Sandiego Math Detective & especially Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time, Brøderbund began to abandon this formula. ''Word Detective'' and ''Math Detective'' involve the user infiltrating V.I.L.E. hideouts around the world and therefore maintain the globe-hopping element of previous games. ''Great Chase Through Time'', however, nearly completely abandoned the series' original formula and has the user spending each mission in one time period, where the goal is to first create makeshift solutions to any historical problems that the theft has caused and second to find the thief Carmen has dropped off. The last mission of ''Time'' in which the user tracks down Carmen is similar to the traditional formula, although the user does not construct a warrant.

====Style of humor====
The games created by Brøderbund featured silly humor and especially a distinctive style of word play with extensive use of puns, rhymes and alliteration. This style of word play was also present, in varying degrees, in all three of the ''Carmen Sandiego'' TV shows.

Gag names ("Hardley Worthit," "Rob M. Blind," "Ruth Less," etc.) were quite frequently used in the series, often to the point where Carmen herself seemed to be the only person without such a name. Clues about the suspect's next destination often used extended puns (example: "I '''pumped''' her for information, but her '''unrefined''' answer only suggested a '''crude''' plan to visit blackouts from ''Carmen Sandiego Math Detective'' quotes an official as saying, "We're taking a dim view of the situation."

Although Carmen's V.I.L.E. agents were often portrayed as cartoonish buffoons, they seemed to be capable of "stealing" cities, non sequiturs'' based on word play, such as "robbing the banks of the Nile," or plays on the word "steal" such as "stealing the show."

===Learning Company games===

After Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998, the Learning Company apparently sought to redesign the series. Under The Learning Company, the series seems to beplay its premise more seriously and uses character-based humor. Since The Learning Company has only created two ''Carmen Sandiego'' games, one of which is no longer sold, this change is evident mainly through marketing and which Brøderbund products The Learning Company has chosen to continue to sell.

The first title released by The Learning Company was ''Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge'', a quiz game with a similar tonality to ''Carmen Sandiego: Word Detective'' and ''Carmen Sandiego: Math Detective'', including the reappearance of Chase Devineaux. The new structure of ''Time'' was apparently to The Learning Company's liking since their new version of ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'', fully titled ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge'', was similar.

The Learning Company decided to return the series to its original focus on geography and history, discontinuing ''Word Detective'', ''Math Detective'' & ''ThinkQuick Challenge''.

===''The Secret of the Stolen Drums''===
In 2004, Bam! Entertainment released ''real-time 3D computer graphics, although many previous games had used pre-rendered 3D graphics. It was also an action game and while geographical facts were included, learning them was not necessary to complete the game. Although The Learning Company evidently licensed the use of the series as well as some of their own characters from ''Treasures of Knowledge'', this game is not distributed by or sold under The Learning Company name.

==Television Programs==
Carmen's character has also appeared in three television shows, two of them PBS. The first was ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?,'' which aired from September Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?,'' which was on until September Fox and ran for four seasons.

'''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?''' é um jogo de computador lançado inicialmente em versão para Apple II, no início da década de 80. Posteriormente foram lançadas versões para IBM PC XT. Além dele, foram lançados também ''Where in the US is Carmen Sandiego?'' e ''Carmen Sandiego Junior Detective''.
No enredo somos um detetive que junta pistas ao redor do mundo para solucionar um caso.É um jogo bem educativo porque,  durante essa procura , acabamos aprendendo aspectos de geografia e as características de vários países.

==Carmen Sandiego==

Carmen Isabela Sandiego surgiu pela primeira vez em 1983, como personagem do jogo ''Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?''. A personagem foi criada pelos ex-funcionários da Disney, Gene Portwood e Lauren Elliott, que quiseram criar um jogo educativo e divertido para as crianças aprenderem geografia. Por isso, elaboraram uma personagem com nome "diferente", mas fácil de pronunciar pelas crianças, e o primeiro jogo com seu nome foi lançado dois anos depois. 

A história da personagem em si é a seguinte: Carmen ficou órfã cedo, e ainda nova foi adotada pelo Chefe da Agência de Detetives ACME. Na ACME, ela cresceu e se transformou na melhor detetive que já passara por lá. Com o passar do tempo, os casos foram ficando muito cansativos e simples para Carmen, que saiu da agência e fundou a VILE, reunindo vilões. Juntos, e a mandado dela, eles saíram viajando pelo mundo, pelo espaço e pelo tempo, roubando as coisas mais impossíveis - tudo isso porque Carmen Sandiego era obstinada, e roubava pelo prazer de vencer todos os desafios. 

==Carmen na TV==