The game will start with Carmen Sandiego in a Subway tunnel ripping down one of her wanted posters and making her getaway to a secret bunker where she has already stolen some of America's greatest treasures (like a Baseball bat I’m assuming belonged to Babe Ruth and Ben Franklin’s Kite) and it ends with “Soon all of the world's treasures will belong to Carmen Sandiego”

Once the intro is done you will be taken to a sign in screen (and this time you’re home base is in Washington DC), and after you have signed in for the first time you will immediately receive a call from the Chief (once again played by the late Lynne Thigpen)

There are 51 loots in this game however you will only get to recover 39 of them

Alabama: Alabama Rocket City

Alaska: Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Arizona: OK Corral

Arkansas: The Dripstone Trail

California: Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame*

Connecticut: All the Hour hand on the clocks at the American clock and watch museum

Colorado: Pike's Peak

Delaware: Every Certificate of Incorporation

Florida: Countdown Clock from Kennedy Space Center*

Georgia: Coke Recipe

Hawaii: the sand from Waikiki Beach

Idaho: America's First Ski lift

Illinois: The Recipe for the world's best Chicago style deep dish pizza

Indiana: The Checkered Flag from the Indy 500

Iowa: The Field of Dreams

Kansas: The Little House on the Prairie replica

Kentucky : The cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born

Louisiana: The Receipt for the Louisiana Purchase

Maine: All the Lobster Bibs in the State

Maryland: The Mason-Dixon Line

Massachusetts: All the Boston Red Sox's Socks

Michigan: Hand Crank from the first Ford Model T

Minnesota: Mall of America

Mississippi: Delta Queen Riverboat

Missouri: The Head of the Oregon Trail

Montana: Continental Divide

Nebraska: Chimney Rock

Nevada: Hoover Dam's Drain plug

New Hampshire: Ballot Boxes for the New Hampshire Primaries

New Jersey: The Jersey Turnpike

New Mexico: Bottomless Pit

New York: The Electronic Billboards from Times Square

North Carolina: The Wright Brothers Runway (what too lazy to take the plane?)

North Dakota: Town of Rugby

Ohio: Football Hall of Fame

Oklahoma: John Wayne's Boots

Oregon: The Water from Crater Lake

Pennsylvania: Valley Forge

Rhode Island: the Brakers

South Carolina: The Flagpole from Fort Sumter

South Dakota: Corn Palace*

Texas: Dallas Cowboys Playbook

Tennessee: The Gate to Graceland

Utah: Organ from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Vermont: The Entire Maple Syrup Supply

Virginia: Monticello (Jefferson’s residence)

Washington: Space Needle

Washington DC: Library of Congress card catalogue

West Virginia: Seneca Rock

Wisconsin: Recipe for Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Wyoming: Old Faithful Schedule


*Denotes that the loot was also stolen on the World Game show

The chase will then begin you will automatically be taken to the scene of the crime and you start questioning witnesses about where the suspect went and a description about the Suspect (a suggestion: chances are the suspect will leave a clue behind that will tell you about the suspect, it would save time especially when you are trying to get a missing link in the digisketch considering the suspects feature.) Click on the magnifying glass to open the DigiSketch, that's the part of the device where you put together a warrant (no warrant, no arrest) then click on the button that shows the shape of the United States, it will open CrimeNet Travel. If you choose the correct location you will either see the Ick brothers, VILE's janitors that were hired to clean up after the crook that was on the job, Carmine; Carmen's psychotic kitty, or Robocrook (who also appears after you fill up the ACME Federal Fact Link up) you will know that you have caught up to the crook when you see Robocrook at the location or you see Stop Thief you are under arrest greyed out at the top of the tool (they didn't even bother to give RoboCrook new animations? show some respect that's a game show crook)

Oh right the Satellite and ACME Federal Fact Link-up this is an optional activity that has one of these things in every state (unlike the World 3.5 game that has this in only a few select countries) you have to essentially answer a true or false question when it tells you a random fact about a US state and you have to answer if it's true or false. Once you do completely charge it you'll have exposed Robocrook.

There is a function that can help you if you are stumped with a certain clue: the State-a-Base with all 50 states plus Washington DC. Each of them will have information about industry, major cities, famous people, they'll have jukeboxes that will show the track list of all the songs used in locations (it rotates and a majority of them are held over from the 1994 CD rom edition with a few token new tracks, because I guess they couldn’t retain the rights to use them in this game which is a shame since Mary McCaslin had THREE songs in the ‘94 edition. Also one song from that game ended up being used as background traveling music in this game) and a video about a certain thing for each state. Also a heads up using the search bar in that function will eat up juice in the Get a Clue Case Pad (yeah that's what it's called in this game different game different tool pad)



When we get to the next place the crook has been the Chief will tell us if we want to know more about a location we can call up one of the ACME Good Guides to give you a tour (you can also do this in explore mode when you aren't on a case), it's optional you're not on a ticking clock but it's nice to do these tours for fun. These are your good guides (yes they're the same as the World Game) and where they will be your tour guides (keep in mind you will notice that Herman Nootix and Rock Solid have slightly different looks from World ‘96 in fact Rock walks funny now)

Ivan Idea: Acme's Technet agent and inventor of most of the gadgets used. He will be your guide in Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Dakota

Herman Nootix: Professor of Carmenology. He will be your guide in Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Carolina

Dee Plomassy: ACME's resident Diplomat She will be your good guide in Alabama, Iowa, Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC and West Virginia

Renee Santz: She will be your Guide in Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island and Tennessee

Rock Solid: An Ecologist and Zoologist He will be your Guide in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Oregon Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Ann Tickwitte: An Archeologist. She will be your guide in Hawaii, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas (wonder why she has less in this game no seriously if you bunch all her tours together it’s about twelve minutes long)

Kim Yoonity: She will be your guide in Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Nevada, New York, Vermont and Washington

You can call them back after the tour and have them double check your warrant but be careful a phone call to them can eat your juice. Also one thing you need to keep an eye on during the case is the Get a Clue Case Pad, your battery power can run out easily so question witnesses conservatively, make sure you double check the warrant because issuing the warrant can drain the battery. Run out of juice and run out of time and the crook gets away and the Chief will chew you out about it. The Chief will stop calling you in the middle of the case once you are promoted to Investigator. Other ways to lose in the game include arresting the wrong person, arresting the crook without a warrant, issuing the wrong warrant. There will be a News Headline saying you screwed up as well. When you lose the case you will get a call from the Chief, she’ll have another case for you anyway.


Like in World (1996) it will take you 39 cases to catch up to Carmen Sandiego and there will again be cryptic clues that will be gained through interrogation, keep in mind her distinct trait will be radically different from the World game. She’ll actually be in disguise (Don’t worry the cryptic statements provide clues) once we confront her in disguise in Washington DC (yeah they deliberately make it that way so she can easily get to the main loot of the game and we can easily catch her) she will be like “Me? You Think I’m Carmen Sandiego? Well…” and then she’ll shed her disguise and summon Robocrook to drill into the National Archives where the Declaration of Independence is being kept (yeah her master plan here is kind of weak compared to World ‘96) the ACME good guides follow them with help from one of Ivan’s inventions and they find that Carmen and Robo already got to that historic document. So then they follow her to the bunker we saw in the intro where they manage to trap her in a dome where she intended to keep the declaration. Of course like in the last game if you let Carmen get away you have to catch three of her crooks over again before you can try again with her

The Chief will then congratulate us on apprehending Carmen, returning the document and making that bunker useless (I’m assuming the other loots we saw in the intro were returned too)


Everyone except Herman Nootix and Kim Yoonity will return in Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (1997) or Carmen Sandiego’s Great Chase Through Time