S.C.I.O.N – A new ZX Spectrum Game!

Name: S.C.I.O.N - A new ZX Spectrum Game!
SKU: BS094
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5.00 (3 reviews)

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 3 customer ratings

(3 customer reviews)

Developer: Tom Potter / Sausageware Games
Publisher: Bitmap Soft
System: ZX Spectrum
Media: Tape

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SKU: BS094 Category: Spectrum 48k/128k Tag: Sausageware Games

Bitmap Soft is proud to present our Tom Potter / Sausageware Games latest creation, S.C.I.O.N for the ZX Spectrum!

Welcome to the Special Covert Infiltration Operations Network, known to insiders as S.C.I.O.N.

S.C.I.O.N. is a top secret, inter-governmental agency dedicated to rooting out and defeating the toughest multi-national criminal organisations. You have been hand-picked to join our elite taskforce because your skillset ranks you amongst the best of the best. The challenges you will face in our organisation will not be easy, but we believe you will prove up to the job.

Our Intelligence Division is becoming increasingly concerned by the activities of the nefarious crime syndicate known as The Morticians, led by criminal mastermind Maz Mort.

We have discovered the location of their secret lair in an underground cave system on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Your mission as an agent of S.C.I.O.N. will be to penetrate the base and locate the reactor that powers their operations. Once inside, find a way to overload the reactor core then escape to safety before the base goes into meltdown.

You won’t be alone on your mission. Through your wrist-mounted S.C.I.O.N. communication device, you’ll be able to access the S.C.I.O.N. computer system to request resupply and upgrades which will be essential to your success.

Further instructions will be relayed via your S.C.I.O.N. uplink once your mission begins.

Credits:

Code and Graphics: Tom Potter / Sausageware Games

In-Game Music: Joe Olney

Chief Playtester: Paul James

Cover Illustration: Kevin McGrorty

Thanks to: Jonathan Cauldwell, David Saphier, Tim Child, David Rowe, Ed Welch, Hugo Myatt, Andre Leao, Bruce Groves, Ramon Fernandez

S.C.I.O.N	Physical Tape, Digital Version

3 reviews for S.C.I.O.N – A new ZX Spectrum Game!

5.0

Based on 3 reviews

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Rated 5 out of 5

wpj22 (verified owner) – March 23, 2025

A quality addition to the Spectrum. Very happy to have bought this.
Rated 5 out of 5

Spectrum Nez (verified owner) – August 6, 2025

A lovely run and gun maze game for the Speccy. Lovely graphics and the tune will not leave my brain! The SCION and upgrade elements really give you a incentive to beat those baddies!
Rated 5 out of 5

davey_sloan (verified owner) – August 6, 2025

Every so often someone comes along that looks at things a little differently. When most people think “oh that tele program I liked as a kid didn’t translate to a Speccy game in quite the way I’d hoped” their next thought is generally “that’s a shame, now I move on with my life”. If you’re Tom Potter of Sausageware Games however, when Activision’s version of Knightmare falls short of expectations you go well, I’ll just make my own Knightmare, with blackjack and hoo…oh wait that’s Futurama.

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, Tom does things differently. That’s why for this follow up game, when he had the idea to make a colourful maze game using MPAGD, instead of making a flick screen game like the engine was designed for, he opted to push the envelope. Maybe that should be “push scroll” the envelope, as he’s gone and created a four-way scrolling environment to explore for Sausageware’s sophomore hit, S.C.I.O.N.

S.C.I.O.N. (or Special Covert Infiltration Operations Network to its friends) sees you take on the role of a member of a crack squad, hand-picked to take down an evil crime syndicate known as The Morticians. Your mission begins on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, where your first task is to battle your way through the terrain & some unfriendly locals to attempt to uncover the secret base.

Once you’ve tailored your controls and chosen from one of the two difficulty modes, you’re thrust right into the midst of a great run and gun action adventure. You start off equipped with a standard gun, limited bullets & a handful of smart bombs, but there are numerous pickups you can acquire on your travels including shields, smart bombs bullets and health.

These goodies are parachuted in during the levels. Between levels there’s also a clever shop system to buy extras, using coins dropped by your downed enemies, which brings to mind games like Fantasy Zone & Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road.

Each level has a decent sized map to explore, with different coloured keys to find that enable you to unlock new areas. There’s a bit of backtracking to be done at times, with some dead ends to contend with. Having a good sense of direction and those map making skills you picked up from the Speccy’s heyday will come in very handy here. Your cute main character can move & fire in 8 directions, which becomes essential in seeing off the nasties you encounter.

As more of a flick or single screen fan myself, the scrolling does take a bit of getting used to, but it certainly adds an extra dimension, as well as being an extremely impressive technical feat. I’m extremely impressed with how much game is squeezed into a single load. There’s even a 48k version, on which the only compromise I can find is the sound. Overall, the game is extremely polished. The graphics are vibrant and well defined, the soundtrack on the 128k version is great too.

Rumour has it that Tom’s next plans to bend MPAGD to his will, involve making a brand new Speccy dungeon crawler. I for one can’t wait to see how that turns out.