Thirty-two ports of call
How the series' trip off Earth was scoped — thirty-two Solar System stops and fourteen of Carmen's "henchthings."
From Earth orbit outward
Where in Space (1993) sets its map across thirty-two locations in the Solar System — planets, moons, and points of interest the crook can flee to next, with each new stop searched for fresh clues before the trail moves on.
Fourteen henchthings, one fuel gauge
The roster of crooks is smaller here than in the geography games: the player is up against Carmen and fourteen “henchthings,” the game’s science-fiction spin on the usual V.I.L.E. henchmen roster. In place of the usual case clock, wrong leads burn through a fuel supply instead (see the case clock & travel) — run dry, or dawdle too long over the evidence, and the suspect gets away clean.
What VAL keeps on file
With no boxed almanac built for the job (see the boxed reference library), the actual research tool is the ship’s own database, the VAL 9000. It holds astronomy and space-exploration data, including digitised NASA photographs, alongside criminal dossiers, a log of everywhere the player has already searched, and — according to descriptions of the game — a running line of sarcastic commentary on how the case is going. Some of the objects on VAL’s stolen-property list, like a crater on the moon Umbriel or a surface feature on Venus, are real astronomical sites (see the stolen treasures) — a small sign of how much of the game’s “geography” is genuine astronomy dressed up as a crime blotter.
A familiar-sounding name
The name VAL 9000 is also a fairly transparent nod: game references note it as an echo of HAL 9000, the shipboard computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the same “9000” model number and a similarly chatty personality standing in for a mission-critical system. It's a wink aimed squarely over younger players’ heads at whichever parent grew up on Kubrick’s film — in keeping with a series that had already been quietly rewarding adults in the room since the stolen treasures started including props borrowed from spy movies.
The end of the line for the format
Thirty-two ports of call also marks a kind of last stop for the original witness-and-warrant formula. Where in Space is the final mainline entry built around the classic detective loop before the franchise moved toward younger-skewing spin-offs and, eventually, a full adventure game (see after the almanac: the spin-off era). After chasing crooks across thirty countries, fifty states, thirty-four nations, and fifteen centuries, the Solar System was the last new map the format got before the series changed shape entirely.