Carmen's henchthings

When Brøderbund sent the series into the Solar System with Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? (1993), Carmen’s human henchmen were retired along with Earth. In their place: a crew of fourteen aliens the game itself calls “henchthings,” recruited, per the manual, “from every galaxy” to help her “purloin planetary plunder.”

Fifteen suspects, fourteen aliens

The manual is explicit: “There are 15 suspects for the crime” — the fourteen henchthings plus Carmen herself, now billed in her dossier as “Inter-galactic Crime Overlord” running franchises on nine planets, twenty moons and the outer ring of Saturn.

The lineup

• Astro Fizzix — a mad-scientist robot that invented itself.
• Avery Littlebit Phelps — Carmen’s gang mascot and apprentice pickpocket, who takes every instruction literally.
• Bea Miupscotti — a nightclub “lounge lizard” singer once caught lip-synching mid-concert.
• Enzo di Galaxi — a Jovian who signed up as a lifeguard on Earth’s moon and now hijacks catamarans in shallow water.
• G. “Whiz” Bang — an electronic messenger that travels faster than light by hitching rides on radio waves.
• Hanover Fist — a spaceship poacher and mechanic who was hot-wiring DC-10s at age thirteen.
• Infinity McMath — the gang’s “brains,” a cosmic accountant too physically clumsy to join any actual heist.
• Kit Incaboodle — described as “half-life-raft, half-whoopie-cushion,” a living rest stop for travel-weary space crooks.
• Liebsen Bounz — a disgraced ex-basketball star who now serves as a living getaway vehicle, leaping cities in a single bound.
• Marcy Bo Koo — a starstruck spaceship flight attendant recruited from one of Saturn’s moons.
• Morton U. Bargandfore — a former televangelist turned silver-tongued con-man salesman.
• Nebulus Doolittle — a lookout so lethargic he rarely summons the energy to actually warn the gang.
• Rita Laboudit — an investigative reporter for the Mercury Mercury, famous for debunking popular space myths.
• Verna-Lee Kwinox — a vegetarian microbiologist chasing a vaccine against bad karma.

New evidence categories

Since none of the henchthings are human, the warrant categories changed to match: VAL 9000, the onboard computer, logs gender, number of eyes, a physical feature, mode of locomotion (walk, fly, swim, slither or bounce), favourite writer, favourite astronomer, and favourite food for each suspect. Clues to a henchthing’s identity come specifically from the Contact Informant option at the V.I.L.E. Club, separate from the Question Witness, Tap V.I.L.E. Encrypted Frequencies and Star Search options that track its next destination.

Climbing through the ranks

A detective on this beat starts as a Space Cadet and is promoted through seven levels, ultimately reaching Sun Admiral after catching up with Carmen herself — at which point induction into the Hall of Fame is available, though a Sun Admiral can keep playing at the game’s hardest difficulty and try to catch Carmen again.