[1] Designed by Bob Whitehead, who also wrote Chopper Command,[2] Private Eye requires players to track down clues and recover items stolen by a master criminal, ultimately leading to his capture and arrest.

During the game's original release, players who successfully completed the game's third case could photograph their scores on their TV screens and send the pictures to Activision in exchange for a "Super Sleuth" patch.

[3] In Private Eye, players assume the role of Pierre Touché, a private investigator who has been assigned the task of capturing the criminal mastermind, Henri Le Fiend.

[3] The player starts with 1000 "merit points.” Points are lost whenever the player hits an obstacle or is attacked by a thug, and are awarded whenever an item is located, subsequently returned, and when a thug (or Le Fiend himself) is nabbed.

[3] Private Eye was included as part of the Activision Anthology collection, released in 2002 for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and other systems.