Planets, moons, and the VAL 9000

Where in Space keeps the series' warrant logic intact but rebuilds almost everything around it for a science-fiction setting. Investigation runs through the ship's onboard computer, the VAL 9000, described in the manual as an “enormous electronic database designed to help you decipher clues” — the role a printed reference book plays in the earlier, Earth-bound games.

Chasing an ion trail instead of a flight list

Rather than presenting a fixed connections list the way the geographic games do, the ship's Cosmohopper scans for ion trails and returns “a list of four possible locations, one of which is the suspect's hideout.” That's a real change in kind, not just theme: instead of decoding a clue to one confirmed destination, a player narrows a set of candidates and gambles on the best of four rather than picking a name off an open list.

Two gauges, not one clock

Every case runs against a required Star Date to make the arrest by, and a separate fuel supply that both travel and VAL 9000 queries draw down — and which has to have enough left afterward to fly the prisoner back to Jailhouse Rock. Running out of either ends the case the same way a missed deadline does anywhere else in the series.

The suspects and the map

The Warrant Database profiles fifteen suspects by gender, number of eyes, a distinguishing feature, mode of locomotion, favourite writer, favourite astronomer, and favourite food — the most elaborate trait set anywhere in the series. The map itself spans 32 locations across the solar system: planets, their moons, and landmarks like Halley's Comet, the Sun, and the Asteroid Belt. Climb the seven ranks from Space Cadet to Sun Admiral and, as in several of its sequels, the game offers a Hall of Fame at the top.