How to play the fictionalized Star Trek game Tongo by Certifiably Ingame

Give credit where it’s due, especially to a content creator like Certifiably Ingame, who just got done covering the game of Dabo; which became a well-known in-lore game from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Dabo is relatively simple, comparatively, to its card-based counterpart; Tongo.

Dabo, for those who don’t know, is a roulette-like game that the Ferengi cultivated and brought to Deep Space Nine. It’s a game based on chance and luck, not too dissimilar to that of roulette. The game added a sense of lived-in ambiance to Quark’s Bar, a regular hangout destination for both people passing through the station and the residents who lived there.

As far as in-universe creations, it’s one of the more referenced ones in all of Deep Space Nine’s run. Yet, Tongo is not. Tongo appeared in fewer episodes than Dabo, with one particular episode featuring Julian Bashir and Miles O’Brien attempting to learn the game the best they could to defeat Quark.

How badly was Dabo showcased over Tongo? Well, Dabo has some 43 appearances across Star Trek, including, Deep Space Nine, the Next Generation, and Voyager. It was very popular to use, mostly because you could just have a scene where someone shouts “Dabo!”, as per the rules, and that would qualify for an appearance of the game.

Tongo only had seven appearances in Deep Space Nine, but would usually have a larger role in the episode, Change of Heart; the 16th episode of the sixth season. This was the premise that saw O’Brien trying to end Quark’s winning streak but failing to do so.

The card game’s rules are complicated and long. Considering there are two sets of cards, possibly some dice, and a whole lot of Ferengi ingenuity, it may be a game that’s fully playable, though there are plenty of places to learn the rules if you want to give it a go.