Nowdays game devs try every trick in the book to get into your wallet to keep you spending in a game, back in 2008 there was an intriguing gadget that used the same tactic however in a rather fun way.
Meet Chokin densetsu: Bank quest
Aka savings legend: bank quest in english. An unusual money box with an RPG game built in. It took me 6 years to eventually get my hands on one as it's a pretty obscure, so what's good about a weird tower shaped money box with a cheap looking original gen tamagotchi looking LCD screen? Thought this little gadget deserved some exposure, so i shall go into glorious detail.
For a RPG game it's actually suprisingly fleshed out for a simple LCD game, you start out in the village which is just a couple of huts at first and there is the tower in the distance, in the village is some shops to buy & sell weapons and items along with a pub that has someone who will sell you secret hints regarding the tower. When you start you have no items at all and things cost money, boy do they cost. To buy anything in the game you need to use real cash 1 yen = 1 gold in the game. On top of the tower is a spot to put money, twist the handle and the money gets deposited into the vault and you get credited gold to your account to equip yourself with weapons. It literally is pay to play lol, don't even think about trying to sneak around the back to open it to get your money back to reuse as if you open it your game progress will totally reset. It's totally prepared for your cheating antics.
Here's some pics of the money box itself
The front view with the dragon head relief on it along with the screen & buttons, the dragon head has a led that flashes when you deposit money or you level up or if you land a critical attack.
On the top of the tower is where you deposit your money, it's designed for Japanese currency but it works fine with foreign coins if they match the diameter & thickness. Here in the UK there are 3 coins are detected by the bank 10p = 10 yen, 20p = 50 yen, 2p = 500 yen smaller ones also go in and are deposited but the mechanism doesn't register them as gold.
Around the back is where you can empty your funds but only go in there when you need to as like i said when you plunder the vault it resets your game.
Around the side is a little clear window to see the vault contents.
When in the tower this is what you mainly see, your character will be walking down the corridoor. The sword at the bottom is used as a gauge for the floor progress and in battles it shows as the enemies HP. To the top left is your HP and the top right is either the floor you are on or you can toggle it to display how much gold you have on you, as you go up to the next floor of the tower the wall textures will change to indicate this.
To actually make progress you need to select the search function, you will then look about and trigger one of several events.
If you are lucky you will sometime find the angel that will totally refill your HP for you, other times you can find a chest with a random item in and occasionally you will come across the shopkeeper who will sell you stuff to keep yourself alive in the tower.
Mainly though when you search you will be taken into a battle, the damage you give & take will be determined by your level as well as what items & weapons you have equipped. Sometimes your attacks will miss or you can land a critical blow and the dragons mouth will light up to let you know. There are a lot of different enemies and they change and get a lot stronger the higher up in the tower you get.
After battling enough enemies to fill up your sword (it takes 10) you then go up to the next floor.
Every 10 or so floors you go through you will end up in a boss battle, these take a lot of health off you so make sure you are fully stocked up on HP items and the best weapons & armour.
You gain lots of exp from a boss battle but you also get it from regular monsters too, if you like you can go back down to the lower floors and grind to increase your level if you like.
The game has lots of little extra options and screens, this is the stat screen giving you a quick look at how much damage you can do. It shows attack, defence & speed.
The game has a lot of weapons/items to find, some can be used in battle others only work outside of a battle like the gold card that summons a special shopkeeper that will sell you items not usually found in the shops in the tower/town, or using the chocolate bar will summon the angel to refill your HP. Also some enemies drop items too, i have quite a stocked inventory so far.
Time to leave the tower for a bit and go back to town.
This is my current town, i haven't figured out what causes it to be upgraded weither it's the number of floors i have reached in the tower or weither it has something to do with my level or how much i have deposited into the vault. As the town upgrades you will find the items that the shops sell are a lot stronger.
This is my current vault total, in yen that's a lot of money but in UK currency it's nowhere near as much. YAY for the second cheapest UK coin registering as the most expensive Japanese coin.
The monsters are getting stronger so time to deposit more cash and get shopping for better items. When you deposit a coin you get a little spinning coin animation as it drops into the screen and the dragon lights up.
Damn that's one pricy sword, costs 4050 yen (about ?22) although thanks to the currency mismatch because im using UK money it costs me about 18p hehe.
Raided my savings for a stronger set of armour and shield, there are also accessories that you can equip for various status boosts.
Time to head back into the tower.
The guard at the tower gate offers a extremely useful service, if i'm feeling sadistic i can choose to go through from floor 1 and redo the entire tower till i reach the level i left at, or if i pay a small amount he will let me take me use the balloon to get back upto where i was last, the balloon can only stop on certain floors so you need to make sure that you have reached for example 11, 21,31,41 as if you are on floor 40 and you never got to 41 you leave the tower you'll only be able to use the balloon to floor 31. You can go back to the lower levels and grind to level up though then leave the tower and use the balloon to go back upto the furthest floor you have reached as the game remembers your progress.
As you equip new weapons/armour your appearance in the game will actually change which is kind of neat, theres me from a bit further back and using the new items i blew my savings on in the town.
While not playing actively the game will turn the screen off but it will actually keep playing in the background, at random times the light will flash on it to alert you to an event happening. If you have the sound on you'll definately hear it. On a night it's recommended you mute the sound or you will get woken up by your money box letting you know that you simply must have a look at the events it's wanting to show you. Because it keeps playing you need to make sure your HP is well stocked if you leave yourself in the tower. If you go back to the town you will be safe as you don't get battles while in town.
Getting nearer the top now i have another 40 odd floors to go, i'm actually having a lot of fun with it, yes it's pretty crude by todays standards but it has a pretty interesting twist on saving money as i find myself depositing all my spare change to keep going.
Meet Chokin densetsu: Bank quest
Aka savings legend: bank quest in english. An unusual money box with an RPG game built in. It took me 6 years to eventually get my hands on one as it's a pretty obscure, so what's good about a weird tower shaped money box with a cheap looking original gen tamagotchi looking LCD screen? Thought this little gadget deserved some exposure, so i shall go into glorious detail.
For a RPG game it's actually suprisingly fleshed out for a simple LCD game, you start out in the village which is just a couple of huts at first and there is the tower in the distance, in the village is some shops to buy & sell weapons and items along with a pub that has someone who will sell you secret hints regarding the tower. When you start you have no items at all and things cost money, boy do they cost. To buy anything in the game you need to use real cash 1 yen = 1 gold in the game. On top of the tower is a spot to put money, twist the handle and the money gets deposited into the vault and you get credited gold to your account to equip yourself with weapons. It literally is pay to play lol, don't even think about trying to sneak around the back to open it to get your money back to reuse as if you open it your game progress will totally reset. It's totally prepared for your cheating antics.
Here's some pics of the money box itself
The front view with the dragon head relief on it along with the screen & buttons, the dragon head has a led that flashes when you deposit money or you level up or if you land a critical attack.
On the top of the tower is where you deposit your money, it's designed for Japanese currency but it works fine with foreign coins if they match the diameter & thickness. Here in the UK there are 3 coins are detected by the bank 10p = 10 yen, 20p = 50 yen, 2p = 500 yen smaller ones also go in and are deposited but the mechanism doesn't register them as gold.
Around the back is where you can empty your funds but only go in there when you need to as like i said when you plunder the vault it resets your game.
Around the side is a little clear window to see the vault contents.
When in the tower this is what you mainly see, your character will be walking down the corridoor. The sword at the bottom is used as a gauge for the floor progress and in battles it shows as the enemies HP. To the top left is your HP and the top right is either the floor you are on or you can toggle it to display how much gold you have on you, as you go up to the next floor of the tower the wall textures will change to indicate this.
To actually make progress you need to select the search function, you will then look about and trigger one of several events.
If you are lucky you will sometime find the angel that will totally refill your HP for you, other times you can find a chest with a random item in and occasionally you will come across the shopkeeper who will sell you stuff to keep yourself alive in the tower.
Mainly though when you search you will be taken into a battle, the damage you give & take will be determined by your level as well as what items & weapons you have equipped. Sometimes your attacks will miss or you can land a critical blow and the dragons mouth will light up to let you know. There are a lot of different enemies and they change and get a lot stronger the higher up in the tower you get.
After battling enough enemies to fill up your sword (it takes 10) you then go up to the next floor.
Every 10 or so floors you go through you will end up in a boss battle, these take a lot of health off you so make sure you are fully stocked up on HP items and the best weapons & armour.
You gain lots of exp from a boss battle but you also get it from regular monsters too, if you like you can go back down to the lower floors and grind to increase your level if you like.
The game has lots of little extra options and screens, this is the stat screen giving you a quick look at how much damage you can do. It shows attack, defence & speed.
The game has a lot of weapons/items to find, some can be used in battle others only work outside of a battle like the gold card that summons a special shopkeeper that will sell you items not usually found in the shops in the tower/town, or using the chocolate bar will summon the angel to refill your HP. Also some enemies drop items too, i have quite a stocked inventory so far.
Time to leave the tower for a bit and go back to town.
This is my current town, i haven't figured out what causes it to be upgraded weither it's the number of floors i have reached in the tower or weither it has something to do with my level or how much i have deposited into the vault. As the town upgrades you will find the items that the shops sell are a lot stronger.
This is my current vault total, in yen that's a lot of money but in UK currency it's nowhere near as much. YAY for the second cheapest UK coin registering as the most expensive Japanese coin.
The monsters are getting stronger so time to deposit more cash and get shopping for better items. When you deposit a coin you get a little spinning coin animation as it drops into the screen and the dragon lights up.
Damn that's one pricy sword, costs 4050 yen (about ?22) although thanks to the currency mismatch because im using UK money it costs me about 18p hehe.
Raided my savings for a stronger set of armour and shield, there are also accessories that you can equip for various status boosts.
Time to head back into the tower.
The guard at the tower gate offers a extremely useful service, if i'm feeling sadistic i can choose to go through from floor 1 and redo the entire tower till i reach the level i left at, or if i pay a small amount he will let me take me use the balloon to get back upto where i was last, the balloon can only stop on certain floors so you need to make sure that you have reached for example 11, 21,31,41 as if you are on floor 40 and you never got to 41 you leave the tower you'll only be able to use the balloon to floor 31. You can go back to the lower levels and grind to level up though then leave the tower and use the balloon to go back upto the furthest floor you have reached as the game remembers your progress.
As you equip new weapons/armour your appearance in the game will actually change which is kind of neat, theres me from a bit further back and using the new items i blew my savings on in the town.
While not playing actively the game will turn the screen off but it will actually keep playing in the background, at random times the light will flash on it to alert you to an event happening. If you have the sound on you'll definately hear it. On a night it's recommended you mute the sound or you will get woken up by your money box letting you know that you simply must have a look at the events it's wanting to show you. Because it keeps playing you need to make sure your HP is well stocked if you leave yourself in the tower. If you go back to the town you will be safe as you don't get battles while in town.
Getting nearer the top now i have another 40 odd floors to go, i'm actually having a lot of fun with it, yes it's pretty crude by todays standards but it has a pretty interesting twist on saving money as i find myself depositing all my spare change to keep going.
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