Bank Panic

Bank Panic is an arcade game developed by Sanritsu and manufactured by Sega in 1984. West Bank is a clone of the game, released on several platforms.

Game description

The player assumes the part of an Old West sheriff who must protect a bank and its customers from masked robbers. The layout of the bank is implicitly a circle with twelve numbered doors and the player in the center. The player can rotate to the left or right and view three doors at a time. The doors will open to reveal a customer (who will drop a bag of money, making a deposit), a robber (who will attempt to shoot the player) or a young boy (who will be holding a stack of three to five hats, which the player can rapidly shoot for a bag of money or bonus time). The level ends when all twelve doors have received one or more deposits. This is indicated by the numbered boxes across the top of the screen, with a red dollar sign showing a door with a completed deposit.

At random intervals, a bomb will be placed on one of the doors and a rapid timer will count down from 99. The player must move to that door and destroy the bomb with gunfire. Shooting a customer, being shot by a robber, failing to destroy a bomb, or failing to complete the level before the overall timer runs out (shown by a bar at the bottom of the screen) costs the player one life.

Panic

Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction. Panic may occur singularly in individuals or manifest suddenly in large groups as mass panic (closely related to herd behavior).

Etymology

The word derives from antiquity and is a tribute to the ancient God, Pan. One of the many gods in the mythology of ancient Greece: Pan was the god of shepherds and of woods and pastures. The Greeks believed that he often wandered peacefully through the woods, playing a pipe, but when accidentally awakened from his noontime nap he could give a great shout that would cause flocks to stampede. From this aspect of Pan's nature Greek authors derived the word panikon, “sudden fear,” the ultimate source of the English word: "panic".

Effects

Bank

A bank is a financial institution that creates credit by lending money to a borrower, thereby creating a corresponding deposit on the bank's balance sheet. Lending activities can be performed either directly or indirectly through capital markets. Due to their importance in the financial system and influence on national economies, banks are highly regulated in most countries. Most nations have institutionalized a system known as fractional reserve banking under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities. In addition to other regulations intended to ensure liquidity, banks are generally subject to minimum capital requirements based on an international set of capital standards, known as the Basel Accords.

Banking in its modern sense evolved in the 14th century in the rich cities of Renaissance Italy but in many ways was a continuation of ideas and concepts of credit and lending that had their roots in the ancient world. In the history of banking, a number of banking dynasties — notably, the Medicis, the Fuggers, the Welsers, the Berenbergs and the Rothschilds — have played a central role over many centuries. The oldest existing retail bank is Monte dei Paschi di Siena, while the oldest existing merchant bank is Berenberg Bank.