Play Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? on Msdos Online

Oh man, this is where it all started—the original 1985 DOS version of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? You play as a rookie detective chasing Carmen’s gang across the globe, piecing together clues from witnesses and flipping through the included World Almanac (which, by the way, was the copy protection—no almanac, no case-solving).

The gameplay’s simple but weirdly absorbing: you get a lead, jet off to some city, then grill locals for hints about the thief’s appearance or next move. Mess up, and they’ll slip away—I lost count of how many times I accused the wrong suspect because I mixed up "wearing a beret" with "last seen near a beret shop."

Fun fact: the 1986 re-release ditched the almanac for disk-based protection, and the 1990 Deluxe version spruced things up with better graphics. But this raw, text-heavy original still has charm. Just don’t expect hand-holding—you’ll actually need to crack open that almanac to win.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".