Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Crossroads of Time is an action-adventure video game for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive game console, later ported to Super Nintendo. The game was developed by Novotrade Entertainment and published by Playmates Interactive.
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Stardate 46871.6. Political turmoil on Bajor has slowed the usual flow of visitors on the Deep Space Nine. A cardassian warship is docked at the station as well as at least one bajoran vessel. An attack is made on a station's crew member and soon after that, Jadzia Dax scans some anti-proton emissions at the lower pylon 3 where the cardassian ship is docked. Captain Sisko volunteers to inspect it personally since chief O'Brien is busy repairing the station's security grid. Upon arrival, he finds some bajorans planting bilitrium grenades around the area. He manages to beam all grenades to space before they explode while Odo arrests the terrorists. They turn out to be bajoran 'redemptionists', a radical movement that rejects traditional bajoran culture. Cardassian captain, Gul Gurgey, comes to Sisko's office railing that he "won't tolerate terrorist acts against his ship". Meanwhile, the ship the redemptionists came from is found to have left the station a little bit earlier. Major Kira Nerys takes a runabout to chase it through the wormhole and catches up in an asteroid field near the Idran system. She incapacitates the terrorists' ship with phaser fire, beams the crew aboard and tows the vessel back to the station. Captain Sisko asks Gurgey how come that his crew left the station just before the bombing attempts and Gul assures him it was a mere coincidence.
Stardate 46872.5. Sisko learns from Kira that redemptionists have kidnapped Kai Opaka, a bajoran spiritual leader, and demand him to personally negotiate for her return. Captain travels to Bajor on a runabout piloted by Dax and beams to the agreed-upon place but finds no negotiators. He nevertheless manages to find and free Opaka from her holding place in a nearby temple. Jadzia is unable to beam them up due to strong interference cause by redemptionists' facilities underground. Sisko descends to the catacombs and destroys a power generator and a weapons replicator that were causing the interference.
Stardate 46872.7. Having returned to the station with Kai Opaka and the Tear of the Prophets, Sisko and his officers continue to investigate the recent events. Sisko is positive that someone on the station has been giving information to the terrorists. Meanwhile, a bajoran monk is attacked at his temple on the promenade, the assailant undoubtedly being after the orb. Doctor Bashir scans the monk's robe for evidence and finds that the attacker was a cardassian wearing bajoran redemptionists' clothes. Jadzia examines parts of the redemtionists' weapons replicator that Sisko brought from Bajor and finds it is also cardassian-made. Sisko finally deduces that the redemptionists' leader, Etok, is a cardassian disguised as a bajoran to manipulate the terrorists on behalf of Gul Gurgey. The cardassians' plan is to accuse bajorans of terrorism, get the last Orb for their collection, destroy Deep Space Nine and use the cause to justify re-invading Bajor to gain control of the strategically invaluable wormhole.
Stardate 46873.4. Gul Gurgey scores the captain for his deduction but says it is too late. He teleports onto his ship and takes an attack position against the station but doesn't fire. The DS9 crew announces red alert knowing the station isn't equipped to fight off warships. They try to send a message to the Starfleet command or at least Bajor so Gurgey can't attack without risking war. However, the cardassian ship is jamming their communications. Odo finds what Gurgey is waiting for: his men find and disarm a bilitrium bomb set to explode in a few hours. The station crew strives desperately to find a solution before Gul finds out the bomb is not going off.
Kai Opaka tells Sisko that the solution is in his own past. After consulting his offices, captain finds out they can beam through the cardassians' shields to crash their computers but he needs information from a ship he previously served on, USS Saratoga. He asks Kai how to do that. She says: "That's where the Prophets can help you". She opens the Orb's enclosure and Sisko steps into his own past to the Saratoga, just after she has been critically damaged by the Borg in the battle of Wolf 359.
At the Saratoga, Sisko manages to access the tactical computer on the deck 10 to see the Borg transportation beams' characteristics. He also rescues his son and a few other crew members along the way. After beaming to the survival pod bay, his consciousness returns to the present time.
Using the data Sisko has witnessed during his flashback, chief O'Brien modifies the transporter system and beams Odo to Gurgey's ship right through their shields. Using his changeling abilities, Odo infiltrates the ship undetected and finds its control center. He gives DS9 the coordinates and Sisko himself beams there too. He traverses the ship, stunning cardassian crewmen and incapacitating computers with a 'code breaker' device. After disabling the ship's main computational array, he meets Gul Gurgey. Gurgey has activated the ship's self-destruction device as a last resort, intending to take DS9 along. Sisko nevertheless manages to break the device before it goes off and beams back to the station.
Stardate 46873.6. Gurgey's ship is hopelessly crippled and DS9 is finally able to report the cardassian's ploy to the Starfleet and Bajor. Suddenly, three more cardassian warships approach. Gul Dukat, the commander of the force, comes to Sisko's office. He assures captain that Gurgey had been acting on his own initiative which Sisko doesn't believe. Dukat replies: "What you believe is unimportant as is what you cannot prove". Sisko warns him: "We will be watching you". The cardassians depart and Sisko feels he can finally take some time to relax.
In the game, the player controls a member of the Deep Space Nine's crew, mostly captain Benjamin Sisko, also doctor Julian Bashir, major Kira Nerys and Odo. Most of the game's levels are cinematic platformers, one is a horizontal-scrolling shooter. Platformer levels are of two types: 'adventure' levels and 'action' levels. In 'adventure' levels, the player character moves around the Deep Space Nine, talking with NPCs and ultimately reaching a certain point in the plot. In 'action' levels, the player wanders the level in the cinematic platformer style, climbing ledges, fighting enemies with a phaser, finding and using items, with an ultimate goal to fulfill a certain mission, sometimes within a given time limit.
A password is given after completing each one or two subsequent levels. If the player gets his/her character killed, the game can be resumed from the point the last password was given at. The number of retries is unlimited, however, the player can be pushed quite a distance behind.
The game has a distinctive Star Trek flavor in that to complete most levels, the player needs to first thoroughly investigate the level map and learn to use various equipment found throughout it. Only after that the walkthrough becomes more or less straightforward and the player can start training to meet the level goals within the given time limit and not get the protagonist killed in the process.
Due to that and to moderate to moderately high difficulty, few levels are completable on the first try. Each one can take as many as a few dozen attempts before a decent walkthrough plan is prepared and executed with enough mastery.