Globe-Trotting Gangsters

If you don’t know who Carmen Sandiego is, you probably don’t get around much. She’s one of the best-known mobsters among the post-Nintendo set. And her creators at Broderbund have remade her bigger and badder than ever in a terrific new CD-ROM release of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe Edition.”

Carmen Sandiego, the first mega-star of computer gaming, heads up a worldwide crime organization called V.I.L.E. You play the detective assigned to catch Carmen and the bad guys.

In the process, you travel the world and learn geography.

The new multimedia version of the game has 10 more villains, twice as many countries and more than three times as many clues as the original version. Digitized photographs of each location and appropriate folk music selections increase the visual stimulation and improve the learning and memory features of the game. Extra fun has been added with several talking characters. (Until the voices drive you crazy and you turn them off, it’s fun to hear the animated characters instead of just reading all the text.)

To be really successful at this game, your children also will need a dictionary, an atlas and possibly an encyclopedia--and a couple of lessons on how to use them. A copy of the 1992 “World Almanac” is included with the game.

For those who already own a CD-ROM player for your PC, this is a fun game to add to your collection and promises many hours of play for a wide age range of children. The game really uses the full spectrum of the new multimedia technology.

There’s probably no single game that justifies spending the considerable money required to upgrade to CD-ROM. But if you are ready to take that plunge, be on the lookout for Carmen. She’s quite a find.

Carmen Sandiego, Rating: * * * * *. IBM and compatibles, Tandy; 10 mhz 286 or faster; 640K RAM, hard disk and CD-ROM drive required; VGA; sound card. List: $99.95.

Computer games are rated on a five-star system, from one star for poor to five for excellent.