Lost In Translation/Bank Panic

About The Game
Bank Panic is a reaction-based shoot-em-up in which the player takes on the role of a gun-slinging Deputy, who has been charged with protecting the town bank from outlaws.

Each stage contains 12 numbered doors, with 3 doors visable on-screen at any one time. The player must scroll the screen left or right to bring other doors into view. At regular intervals, one or more doors will open to reveal either a bank customer or an outlaw. The customers must be allowed to deposit their money unharmed while the outlaws must be shot before they have a chance to shoot the deputy. Some of the outlaws must be shot twice before they are killed. If the players kills an innocent citizen, a player life is lost.

Doors will only open when they are on-screen and a level is only completed once cash has been deposited safely into the bank via each of the 12 doors. Each level has a tight time limit so it's important to ensure that the player reaches the doors that are about to be opened as quickly as possible. Imminent visitors are indicated by the presence of a bar graph that sits above each door, with a red marker indicating an approaching customer or robber.

In addition to the outlaws, players must also be wary of time bombs that occasionally appear on one of the doors; this is indicated by both a timer and an icon above the door with the bomb. The bomb must be reached and shot before the timer runs out. As well as the outlaws and customers, a small, bandy-legged cowboy occasionally appears holding gifts above his head, these can be shot for bonus points.

Additional Technical Information
Players : 2

Control : 2-way joystick

Buttons : 3

=> [A] Left fire, [B] Center fire, [C] Right fire

Trivia
Released in December 1984.

Sanritsu is the actual developer of this game, and Sega produced and distributed it. In fact, if you look through the graphical data, you can see Sanritsu's logo amongst the different tiles and sprites.

The character's names are John, Sam (with a robber behind him), Hope (tied up with rope), Mary and Ann (with a robber behind her). Your character is simply referred to as the Hero.

Alessandro Giuriato and Gary Hatt share the official record for this game with 9,999,999 points on March 5, 1985 and May 27, 1987, respectively.

Deposits

 * Regaining a stolen money bag : 1000 points.
 * Shooting the rope on a customer who is tied up: 3 bags of money worth 1,000 points each (3,000 points total).
 * Shooting the hats: 100 points for the first one, 200 points for the second, 300 points for the third, etc...
 * Shooting the bag of money after all the hats : 1,000 points bonus.
 * There are only three and four hats on rounds 1 and 2 respectively.
 * Sometimes after a woman is help up and the gunman is killed, a 500 points bonus is awarded (woman peeks in the door before it closes, winks and a red heart is shown).
 * Sometimes after a man is help up and the gunman is killed, a 200 points bonus is awarded (man peeks in the door before it closes, smiles and waves).
 * If EXTRA is spelled, the player earns an extra life plus 20,000 bonus points, and the game advances to the next level.

Fair average bonus

 * Timer bonus : 100 points per click of time remaining.
 * Starting on Level 3 : 20,000 points bonus for clearing level 3.
 * Starting on Level 6 : 60,000 points bonus for clearing level 6.
 * Robber Bosses must be shot twice to be killed - you get two scores based on the time of each hit.

Tips and tricks

 * Try to always allow a gunman to draw, as you only score 100 points if he doesn't. If two or more gunmen appear take one out straight away, as it is a lot more difficult to kill more than one when they draw.
 * You don't have to shoot the little guy with the hat an exact number of times, just once for each hat or more. So fire as many times as you can and you will get the bonus points.
 * You should try to defuse bombs as soon as possible.
 * Doors cannot be opened while you are moving, so move directly to the door you require without stopping.
 * Watch the indicators above the door numbers to see which doors will be opening soon. If there are two next to each other, try to get only one of them on screen so you do not have to possibly contend with more than one gunman simultaneously.

Ports

 * Consoles :
 * Sega Master System (1987)


 * Computers :
 * Amstrad CPC (1986, "Westbank")
 * Commodore C64 (1986, "Westbank")
 * MSX