Bank Panic

Overview

Bank Panic is a Sega published Arcade game originally developed by Sanritsu. The goal is to scan a dozen doors in a Wild West frontier town bank, allowing innocent citizens to make bank deposits while shooting any outlaws or bombs that appear.

Sega would later port the game on their Sega Mark 1 and Sega Mark 3 consoles, the latter of which is better known to Western gamers as the Master System. The game would receive various other ports for home computers as well.

The game later influenced an iOS game named Westbang.

Gameplay

Each level contains 12 doors. From this doors can either enter customers with intention to deposit money or bandits that come to rob the bank. The player must allow the customer to make the deposit and shoot the outlaws before they shoot back.

Each door has a counter attached to it. To pass the level every counter must be filled with at least one bag of money. There is a time limit to each level and if a counter has only one bag for too long it will disappear making the player to come back there again and wait for another deposit. From time to time, there will be time bombs placed in a door. In that case, another timer shows and the player must shoot the bomb before the timer runs out.

The player loses a life if a bandit shoots them, if the bomb explodes, if the level timer reaches zero or if the player shoots an innocent customer. Sometimes bandits will hide behind customers. Some customers will be tied up and the player has to shoot the rope to free them. In this case, the customer gives 3 bags of money.

Sometimes, especially at the beginning of each level, a small cowboy appears holding a gift that the player must shoot to get bonus points. The player gets point for receiving bags of money and shooting outlaws. If the player doesn’t shoot the bandit before he draws his gun (which the game considers an "unfair" kill and thus is worth less points), a very quick timer will appear and additional points will be granted to the player by shooting the bandit with as little time as possible left on the timer.

Points scoring

Points by shooting an outlaw:

• Before he draws his gun: 100 or 200 points
• With the timer on 0.26-0.33: 300 points
• With the timer on 0.21-0.25: 600 points
• With the timer on 0.16-0.20: 700 points
• With the timer on 0.11-0.15: 800 points
• With the timer on 0.01-0.10: 1,000 points
• With the timer on 0.00: 2,000 points for brown shirt gunman
• With the timer on 0.00: 3,000 points for green shirt gunman
• With the timer on 0.00: 5,000 points for red shirt gunman

Deposits:

• First bag of money: 200 points
• Second bag of money: 400 points
• Third bag of money: 600 points
• Fourth or more bag of money: 1,000 points
• Shooting the rope on a customer who is tied up: 3 bags of money worth 1,000 points each

End of level bonuses:

• Money bags 1-12: 50 points each
• Money bags 13-24: 100 points each
• Money bags 25-36: 150 points each
• Money bags 37-48: 200 points each

Others:

• Shooting the bomb: 100 points
• If a woman is held up and the gunman is shot: 500 points
• If a man is held up and the gunman is shot: 200 points

Trivia

• In the last stages of the games, the boy who carries the hats is seen lifting up the woman client's skirts.
• Alessandro Giuriato and Gary A. Hatt share the official record for this game, with a maximum possible 9.999.999 points.