This is the majority of the block before the program handles its title screen input, after which it loads DATAINIT.PRG:
18 REM // DEPENDING ON GAME STATE: INIT DATA, MAIN LOOP, EXTRA, TERMINATE
29 REM //SETUP ENGINE, START GAME, MAIN LOOP, (TBD), END PROGRAM
20 IF CS%=0 THEN : CS%=1
21 ON CS% GOTO 25,1020,2000,9997,30000
22 GOTO 31110
25 REM //ENGINE SETUP AND INITIALIZATION=====================================
26 REM //NOTE: NEVER EVER OVERWRITE THESE!
27 CS%=0 : PL%=27 : REM //CONTROL STATE AND PREVIOUS LINE
28 VN$="0.0.1" : VD$="SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2020"
29 FC%=5 : BC%=0 : FI%=0 : BI%=5 : COLOR FC%, BC%
30 SX%=640 : SY%=480 : REM //SCREEN SIZE
31 DIM MSGQ$(20) : REM //OUTPUT SPAM QUEUE
32 QH=1 : QS=0 : REM //QUEUE HEAD, TAIL, AND STATUS
33 REM //===PROGRAM START=========================================
34 CLS : GOSUB 3120
35 LY%=43 : LX%=1 : GOSUB 1100
36 INPUT "PLEASE MAKE YOUR SELECTION"; MNU$
37 GT$ = MNU$
38 DEF FN FR(X)=FRE(0)-65536*(FRE(0)<0) : REM //COLLECT GARBAGE AND FREE BYTES
39 GOSUB 73 : POKE $30D,0 : POKE $30E,50 : SYS $FFF0
40 RF$ = STR$(FN FR(0))
41 PRINT FN FR(0);"BYTES FREE" : GOSUB 70
42 REM //===PROGRAM DATA ALLOCATION=================================
43 DIM GD%(10) : REM //GAME DATA - SEE README.
44 DIM RGN$(9,19,2) : REM //SPACIAL REGION - SEE README.
45 REM DIM SCTR$(9,9,2) : REM //SPACIAL SECTOR - SEE README.
46 DIM SPCS%(7,5) : REM //SPECIES LIST - SEE README.
47 REM //DIM PLANETS$(13,3) : REM //CONTAINS PLANET NAME, TYPE, IFF
48 DIM SHPS%(10,16) : DIM SID$(10,2) : REM //SHIPS LIST AND SHIP NAME AND IFF
49 NS%=0 : GD%(1)=10 : GD%(0)=0
50 SU$="GRN" : REM //SHIP STATUS
51 GA$ = "*********************************************************"
52 GB$ = "* *"
58 CS%=2
59 GOTO 1000
DATAINIT.PRG is less than 100 lines with whitespace, but both creates DATA and shoves values into the various arrays.
As reminder: check above image some posts up to see what is happening.
A good but laborious experiment is if I were to change the line numbers of the DATAINIT.PRG program to never touch any of the numbers in the main file? What would happen? Would the string literals upon execution be restored?