How to play Bank Heist online
- Drive the getaway car: arrow keys
- Drop dynamite from the tailpipe: Space bar
- Start a game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch) or Space
- Choose the starting level: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Police behaviour: F4 (left difficulty switch): A = smart pursuit, B = predictable patterns
- Bank positions: F9 (right difficulty switch): A = random, B = a set order
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0ā9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0ā9 loads it
Gameplay
Each town is a maze of streets, and you rob a bank by driving into it. Every robbery sends a police car after you, and up to three can hunt you in one town at the same time. The banks get more valuable as you go: the first one in a town is worth $10, the second $20, and so on up to $90 for the ninth.
Dynamite dropped behind your car destroys a police car on your tail. A police car is worth $10 when it is the only one chasing you, $30 when two are after you and $50 when there are three. The blast can also destroy your own car.
Fuel drains all the time, and dynamite uses extra. When you leave a town through the passage in the upper right corner, your tank is refilled, but only up to the level shown by a marker on the gauge. Robbing nine or more banks in a town lets you refill completely, earns a town bonus and gives you an extra getaway car. There is no way back to a town once you leave it.
You start with four spare cars. You lose one if you hit a police car, blow yourself up or run out of gas, and the game ends when they are all gone. The game has eight levels of four towns each: Bankersfield, Silver Dollar, Flat Broke and Heistown. On the first level the town bonuses are $93, $186, $279 and $372, and they grow on later levels.
Tips
- Use the wrap-around passages. Driving off one side of the screen and coming back on the other is the quickest way to shake off the police.
- Follow the police, donāt face them. Police cars cannot make U-turns, so tailing one is safe while meeting one head-on is not.
- Let them get close before you drop dynamite. The stick only helps if a police car is right behind you, and every stick costs fuel.
- Aim for nine banks per town. Nine robberies bring the full refill, the bonus and an extra car.
- Learn on B. With both difficulty switches on B, the police are predictable and the banks appear in a set order.
History
Fox Video Games released Bank Heist in July 1983. The review newsletter The Video Game Update was not impressed: it found the game too similar to other maze games and called the graphics mixed. Today the original North American cartridge is rated rare by collectors, and other editions of the game were sold in Australia and South America.
