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Our favorite foe, Carmen Sandiego, has once again concocted a diabolical scheme that both challenges and entertains its participants. This time she stole twelve of the world's most treasured landmarks. With the help of her latest invention, a powerful shrinky-dink machine known as the "Quantum Crystallizer", Carmen has shrunk these wonders and secreted them in V.I.L.E. hideouts throughout the world. What she plans to do with the pocket-sized treasures, one can only imagine. Clearly, she must be stopped. To do so, the user must infiltrate V.I.L.E. headquarters and complete 12 missions, each of which unveils the location of a hidden wonder while involving the user in numerous critical math-skills.

Carmen Sandiego Math Detective features five basic activities with multiple variations and three levels of difficulty. Skills addressed include such essentials as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as beginning geometry, estimation, simplification, conversion (fractions, decimals and percents) and place value. Also included are hundreds of word problems, each requiring the creation of an appropriate equation as well as the solution. To succeed, students must analyze each problem and extract important variables, leading to better understanding of the concepts involved and word-problem techniques.

Math Detective also offers a training, or practice mode, which allows the student to work independently on skill-building activities, a "Strategy Guide" with problem-solving hints and tips and a Glossary for quick referencing of math terms.

Kids like the Carmen Sandiego titles with their creative spy-adventures and their cleverly disguised skill-building activities, and Math Detective is no exception. "Carmen Sandiego games are always good," and "I love Carmen Sandiego games," were the repeatedly expressed reactions of our kid testers.

For the most part the activities are enjoyable, even when tackled away from the adventure in the practice mode. The only reported exception was the Crimewave Sensor, an estimation activity, which students felt was boring and "a waste of time." Most admitted they used a calculator for quick answers rather than arriving at the answer through estimation.

Carmen Sandiego Math Detective is best suited for kids who like to hunt for clues and solve mysteries. Filled with challenges to spark the emerging mathematical mind, this monumental Carmen Sandiego caper proves that with adequate training and the right equipment, math needn't be a mystery

 

Carmen Sandiego Word Detective
Broderbund	Ages 8 to 14

Description
In Carmen San Diego Word Detective, Carmen has created the "Babble-On Machine," an invention that transforms words to gibberish. She is currently testing the machine on captured ACME agents with the hope that eventually she can turn it loose on Earth and steal one of the human race’s most valuable assets, the power of speech, thus leaving the world unable to unite to prevent her tyrannical plans. To stop her, the user must complete a myriad of enriching language-based activities.

Educational Value
Word Detective is a linguist’s dream, with word puzzles, stories and games that focus on spelling (10,000 words), grammar and vocabulary, as well as alphabetizing, and dictionary and reference skills. An added educational attraction is the ability to customize the spelling lists, making the program a true homework helper for the struggling language arts student.

Kid Appeal
Featuring the sophisticated graphics and the type of compelling story-line we’ve come to expect from this series of software, Carmen San Diego Word Detective delivers an energetic mix that combines solid skill-building activities with an intriguing plot. The user is launched to various villainous hideouts where she undertakes exercises at any of three levels of difficulty. Upon completion of each activity, a key is retrieved and used to free an imprisoned ACME agent. Ultimately, the user must free twelve agents and piece together a phrase that will destroy the "Babble-On Machine." Carmen herself makes frequent appearances, and V.I.L.E. henchmen provide added suspense. This quest aspect encourages the user to pursue the program through completion. Our kid testers returned frequently to this program during our month of testing.

Bottom-line
Step aside Bond, there’s fun and learning in the secret agent business, and Carmen Sandiego rules! Another winner in the Carmen Sandiego series from Broderbund.

What’s the latest devious scheme concocted by Carmen Sandiego and her VILE henchmen? Having failed miserably at her previous attempts at world domination, Carmen has finally hit on the ultimate plan. She will steal all the world’s knowledge, for, to quote the thief herself: “Knowledge is Power.” To help with her plan, Carmen has enlisted a group of master thieves. Past experience warns her that ACME agents are clever and motivated, and will do their best to thwart her escapades. She has, therefore, also created a team of information gobbling Knowledge Robots. Acme agents must travel to famous locations throughout the world to outwit these ‘Knowbots’ in a variety of subjects, and prevent them from consuming all the knowledge in the world.

Carmen Sandiego’s ThinkQuick Challenge features a quiz-show theme. With multiplayer capacity, and 3 levels of difficulty, students must correctly answer grade-appropriate questions in Math, Science, Language Arts, Geography, History, Art and Music. Question formats vary between multiple choice, true/false, matching, and quick response. Follow-up information is provided for many of the questions, offering kids the opportunity to expand their knowledge of included subjects.

Each mission commences with a ‘sleuth activity’, which requires arcade-like quick reaction skills. Problem-solving skills are needed for the last portion of each mission, which requires the user to crack the code required to gain entrance to the VILE headquarters. At this point a click is all that’s required to capture the thief and recover the stolen scholarship.

Carmen’s capers continue to provide exciting, non-stop action, while challenging students to think, react and learn. Those who have never experienced a Carmen adventure will be amazed at the complexity of the storyline and the refinement of the graphic style.

Those familiar with the theme will note (with varying reactions) that this program is quite similar to other programs in the line (see Carmen Sandiego Math Detective and Carmen Sandiego Word Detective). This fact, and the ‘quiz-show’ motif which has been overdone of late in the kids software industry, conspire to make the program seem slightly stale to veteran software users.

These potential shortcomings aside, QuickThink Challenge is quite likable, and fared well with our testers. They especially enjoyed the avatar (proxy) agents who cheer correct user responses with phrases like: “ka ching!” and “UNstoppable” while performing characteristic victory dances.

Carmen Sandiego’s QuickThink Challenge installs without difficulty on Windows machines. General program navigation is never a problem, although our testers did, at times, feel unsure about how to proceed with a given question type. They were unable to find specific help in the User’s Manual, but eventually figured out what to do through somewhat frustrating trial and error.

With superb graphics and an intricate storyline, this multisubject program will amaze and delight Carmen Sandiego neophytes and enthusiasts. Those who have begun to tire of the oft-used quiz-show theme, however, may be disappointed by this Carmen Sandiego adventure.

Where in the USA is Carmen SanDiego?

Features:

• 8 levels, from Gumshoe to Super Sleuth
• Includes 3,000 clues to help you on your search
• Classic regional music from all 50 states
• Spoken descriptions of each state by local residents
• Breathtaking digitized photographs
   

Where in the USA is Carmen SanDiego?

Click the link above for buying info at Amazon.com including price, pictures and customer reviews

Amazon.com Editorial Review:
The world's boldest thief is at it again, this time depriving Americans of their great national treasures. Carmen Sandiego is on the loose once more, and Acme Detectives is calling upon players, aged 8 to 14, to use a powerful multimedia database to help stall her latest statewide crime spree in Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego?.

As with most of the Carmen Sandiego offerings, this game has a simple play structure. One of Carmen's minions steals a national monument--the head of the Oregon Trail, for example, or Delaware's corporate registry--and you, as a detective, must track down the miscreant. This process involves interviewing witnesses until you have worked out the suspect's physical description and decoded the necessary clues required to chase him to his next location. Then, warrant in hand, you make the arrest ... and move on to your next case. In time and with enough successful arrests, you might get a chance to bag Carmen herself!

If this sounds somewhat repetitive, it is. What makes the whole process entertaining, however, is the inclusion of location clues, which focus on American history and geography. If the thief has fled to Florida, a witness in Nevada might say that he has sent his golf clubs ahead to Fort Lauderdale. These witness clues are often witty and playful, and in many cases, they can be misleading if taken at face value. Has a criminal gone to Columbus, Ohio, or is the interviewee actually referring to the famous explorer for whom the city is named? Too many wrong guesses will result in a wild goose chase, which will eventually drain your fuel budget and leave you unable to complete your mission.

Other features of this game make it useful as a study tool. The profiles of the various states are interesting and colorful, and players will be delighted to see Carmen's underlings wandering through familiar terrain in their home cities, such as the Pike Place Market in Seattle or the Las Vegas Strip. This deluxe version of the game--which features in-depth essays from Grolier's Children's Press, a multimedia library with keyword search, and more than 200 animated, talking characters--offers an archive of U. S. information with a great deal of depth. It is also well organized, intuitively designed, and linked to Internet resources containing even more facts. Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? may require players to know a great deal about America, but it also makes it easy to research the facts they need to bring Carmen to justice. --Alyx Dellamonica