Carmen Sandiego made her first appearance in the Broderbund computer game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? © 1985. In this game she is described as a former spy for the Intelligence Service of Monaco with auburn hair and a fondness for tacos. She is shown wearing a black wide-rimmed had and a fur coat. She appears to somewhere between her late 30's to early 40's.
Carmen made addtional appearances in other computer games sharing her name such as Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?, © 1986 and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, © 1989. In the packaging for these programs Carmen appears to be slightly younger (mid-30's) and is shown wearing the color red. However, her black wide-brimmed hat remains a constant factor in her depiction.
In 1991 Carmen made the jump from computer games into television. In the PBS game show, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Carmen does not actually appear as a character, but rather becomes a prominent feature in the program's logo. The creators describe the logo as "a cartoon drawing of a woman in a red trench coat, silhouetted against a globe. With a gloved hand, she tugs her wide-brimmed hat (now a read wide-brimmed hat) mysteriously over her eyes."
Carmen then made the move to an animated cartoon program,Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego, for Saturday morning television. Carmen retains most of the elements that were representative of her appearance in past forms. In this version her thick black hair is emphasized and she retains the red wide-brimmed hat and trench coat that have become her trademark.
In addition to the new television cartoon program, Carmen also re-emerged in a new CD-ROM version of the educational computer game that made her popular, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. Carmen is shown as having red hair, but otherwise bears a great amout of resemblance to her predecessors.
Recently Carmen made the move to Canada, appearing in a Candian version of the popular PBS game show called Mais ou se cache Carmen Sandiego which premired on September 5, 1995. The image of Carmen that is used for this program's logo is very similar to the one used for the new CD-ROM game and the logo that is used for the original PBS game show. She wears a red trench coat and matching hat that she is pulling down over her eyes and red flowing hair.
