Carmen Sandiego Word Detective

In 1997, the Carmen Sandiego franchise added an educational title called *Carmen Sandiego Word Detective*. The story has Carmen building a Babble-On Machine that turns speech into nonsense, and the player, cast as Agent 13, works to free twelve captured ACME agents by solving language-based puzzles. The game shares its format with *Carmen Sandiego Math Detective*, which came out the following year.

The adventure begins with Agent 12, Ann Tickwittee, looking for missing agents. Following orders from ACME agent Chase Devineaux, she finds Carmen’s hideout—a tower called the Tower of Babble—but falls into a trap and is captured. Carmen explains she has already caught eleven agents and plans to cause worldwide illiteracy. She sends the keys to her machine to her henchmen. As Agent 13, the player uses a CyberCom 2000 to teleport between hideouts, solving language challenges (such as the Spellanyzer, Fusion Chamber, MicroPix, Code Breaker, and Power Pack) to find passwords. These tasks test vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. After collecting enough passwords, the player can unlock a container to get a key needed to free an agent. Each freed agent gives a fragment of the Babble-On Machine’s password. The player also receives emails, some with videos, from Chase and Carmen. Once all agents are free, the player assembles the password fragments into a sentence to trigger a self-destruct sequence. Carmen activates the machine but finds it broken. She and the player escape as the building collapses, and Chase finds her hat in the rubble, vowing to meet again.

The game includes bonus features: three difficulty levels, an electronic dictionary, 10,000 spelling words, customizable spelling lists, 50 spelling rules, and on-screen progress reports. The School Edition added a three-ring binder, a User’s Guide, a Teacher’s Guide, and a resource book from the Usborne English Skills series.

Development began as a game called “Word Workshop,” a language companion to *Math Workshop*. After six months of design, management ordered the team to rework it as a Carmen Sandiego title to improve its chances in a crowded market. The team agreed and brainstormed a story where Carmen scrambles language. A freelance writer suggested a new agent with a checkered past, which became Chase Devineaux. His name was chosen through a contest on America Online. Artists and 20 contract animators fro