; the protagonists (most often including the in-game character controlled by the computer user) are agents of the ACME Detective Agency who try to thwart the crooks' plans to steal treasures from around the world, while the later ultimate goal is to capture Carmen Sandiego herself.

[6] Towards the turn of the 21st century, the Carmen Sandiego property passed through a series of five corporate hands: Broderbund (1985–1997), The Learning Company (1998), Mattel (1999), The Gores Group (2000), and Riverdeep (2001–present).

HMH Productions co-produced the animated Netflix TV series Carmen Sandiego, which ran for four seasons from 2019 to 2021 (including a 2020 interactive special), and is set to produce a live-action film as well.

[10] One aspect of the series that has received consistent praise by critics is its diverse representation of strong, independent, and intelligent minority women.

By 1997, Carmen Sandiego games had been translated into three different languages, and over 5 million copies had been sold into schools and homes worldwide.

Initial work was done with Broderbund's "Rubber Room" artists, Gene Portwood and Lauren Elliott, creating a game where the player would chase down various crooks.

In his draft he substituted real countries for the rooms of the cave, and proposed a list of villains, including Carmen Sandiego.

[15] Broderbund included response cards in their games to gather information, which once in a database could be used via direct mail to sell upgrades or future products.

[15] According to New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators, Broderbund had also built an "organisational capacity that supports creativity" and was customer focused on its game development.

[16][17] By 1997, Carmen Sandiego games had been translated into three different languages and over 5 million copies had been sold into schools and homes, worldwide.

[18] It was acknowledged that history can be more subjective than geography, but the show hoped to tackle more challenging material like the infamous Japanese American internment camps during World War II in a straightforward and educational way.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton stated: "When I met the co-leaders of San Marino at the Olympics, I knew where it was because of Carmen Sandiego".

The new structure of Time was apparently to The Learning Company's liking since their new version of World, titled Treasures of Knowledge, was similar.

The sale includes HMH's trade publishing division and computer game franchises such as Carmen Sandiego and The Oregon Trail.

Each subsequent video game in the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use their knowledge to find Carmen Sandiego or any of her myriad henchmen.

A successful gumshoe who placed all the correct locations and captured Carmen Sandiego would win a trip to anywhere in the contiguous United States and later in North America.

Kevin Shinick portrayed himself as a Time Pilot Squadron Leader and Rockapella was replaced by a different dance group, The Engine Crew.

The series features the adventures of Zack and Ivy, two teenage siblings who work as ACME agents in San Francisco and are aided by the Max Headroom–like Chief, who had to stop Carmen Sandiego and her henchmen from stealing artifacts from around the world.

In the early 1990s, in response to the successful Carmen Sandiego franchise, "editor Sharon Shavers was tasked with turning the games into a book series".

Each book in the series was subtitled A Carmen Sandiego Mystery and featured child detectives Ben and Maya as the protagonists.

Rodriguez is set to co-produce the film, alongside Kevin Misher and the series' executive producer, Caroline Fraser.

[43] In September 2021, the official Twitter account for the Carmen Sandiego animated series confirmed that the live-action film was in the "early stages.

[62] They include: The commercial success of Carmen Sandiego is due in part to its intrinsic fantasy that makes the game both fun and educational.

"It teaches knowledge of world geography and cultures, electronic database research skills, map reading and deductive reasoning.

The 1991 document Three Instructional Approaches to Carmen Sandiego Software Series outlined three ways in which the Carmen Sandiego series could be utilized in an educational context: turning teacher instruction into a gamified cooperative/competitive experience, linking the previously discrete academic topics, and not playing it in its entirety but isolating segments for lessons on particular items.

"[67] Compute said of the series, "Although the gameplay varies only slightly from one title to the next, these games continue to be entertaining and, best of all, painlessly educational—a tough combination to beat".

It suggest that the many games in the franchise "...hold your child's interest by putting them in touch with real-life places and events in a way no formal history or geography lesson can match".

challenge ideas of gender stereotypes in regard to games, due to it "hav[ing] equal appeal for boys and girls".

Kids are short but not stupid", and concluded "By treating children as the intelligent little people they are, the designers had no need to hide from them the fact that they were playing and learning at the same time.

In Valve's team-based first person shooter, Team Fortress 2, the Pyro class has a set of cosmetic items that are based on Carmen Sandiego's coat and fedora.