heeled travelers stranded in the middle of a desert, alongside a broken- down vehicle? They are escorted to civilization by a boy pointing and hollering what sounds like "AY-tienne, AY-tienne." Eventually, the couple are led to an ATM, where, presumably, they withdraw the cash to rescue their vacation. In depicting the ATM as an electronic savior, the advertisement cut to the heart of an industrywide thrust to change the way consumers think about the machines. Long regarded as dowdy cash dispensers, bankers and consultants say, ATMs are breaking out of the box, expanding their functions, and migrating to exotic locations. Machines that speak languages from Spanish to Swahili, or provide special access to the disabled, are old hat. Today's ATMs cash checks, dispense concert tickets, coins, and coupons, provide mortgage applications, sell mutual funds, play music, and run video games. They are turning up at tourist attractions, sports arenas, retail locations, and even on pleasure boats. In expanding their functionality, the once-prosaic machines are fast becoming the linchpins of an expanding electronic banking network. And because of a confluence of new technologies - such as smart cards - and the incessant demand of consumers in the information age for banking convenience, ATMs, thought by many to be a mature business, may be poised once more to defy the laws of market saturation. Some experts sound a cautionary note: that banks are straying too far from the ATM's primary purpose, dispensing cash. Generally, more features mean less cash and longer lines, said Richard T. Robida, senior executive vice president of Atlanta-based Speer & Associates. But in the rush to gain coveted fee income and reduce the costs of customer service at brick-and-mortar branches, pragmatists are being drowned out by multifunction enthusiasts. "The market is becoming more demanding," said Ernesto O. Gonzalez, senior vice president of sales and financial administration for $1.8 billion-asset BankAtlantic, which recently installed ATMs on ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines. "People expect cash and other options available at ATMs wherever they go." "Multifunction machines signal that banking can be fun, exciting, even entertaining," says Stephen A. Cone, marketing executive at Cleveland-based Keycorp, which has installed high-octane ATMs at the recently opened Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in Seattle's renovated KeyArena, home of the National Basketball Association's Seattle Supersonics. "For us, they make the point that Keycorp has a personality - that we're not some faceless institution plunking down money on meaningless technology." In an era of ATM innovation, $68 billion-asset Keycorp - the nation's 11th-largest banking company - ranks among the industry leaders. Forsaking banking's traditional button-down image, Keycorp and its affiliates nationwide are launching a broad-based marketing campaign, seeking to convert to electronic banking baby boomers and the 20-something members of Generation X. Clearly, such grand schemes won't come cheap: Keycorp paid $2 million for the right to have a 65,000-square-foot plaza outside the Hall of Fame bear the name Key Plaza. And in an agreement to rechristen the 17,000-seat Seattle Center Coliseum as KeyArena, the bank anted up a whopping $15 million. The Hall of Fame ATMs in Cleveland are customized to look and sound like jukeboxes. While processing transactions, they play a handful of rock hits, including "Taking Care of Business." A video character, named "Rock Pierre," introduces users to the machines, which are programmed to use four languages: English, Spanish, German, and Japanese. The diversity is intended to make the machines easier to use for the tourist groups expected to flock to rock's newest Mecca. "The machines symbolize our philosophy that banking should fit into its environment," says Keycorp's Mr. Cone. The machines at KeyArena take the entertainment concept a step further, offering video games, big-screen TV, and a Max Headroom-style hostess, Maxine Pixel. But they also underscore how newfangled ATMs can be customized for local markets, Mr. Cone says. From a television perch above a cash machine, Ms. Pixel may taunt passersby: "Hey, you, put down that double decaf, latte, mocha, frothing, wonderful nonfat thing you're drinking"- a reference to Seattle's unofficial status as the coffee-drinking capital of North America. While not as self-consciously hip as the Keycorp ATMs, BankAtlantic's cruise ship machines offer an effective platform to extend brand recognition, in addition to boosting fee income, said the bank's Mr. Gonzalez. Though he declined to comment on the specifics of the bank's arrangements with Carnival, experts maintain that ATMs in nontraditional locations, such as airports, attract a much higher percentage of "foreign" transactions - those from customers of other banks. Such transactions generate fees of up to $1 per withdrawal and sometimes more. The host bank typically divides an ATM fee with the operators of the site where it is placed. The BankAtlantic machines - installed on four Carnival ships thus far - posed unique technological challenges, Mr. Gonzalez said. The ATMs were installed by AT&T's Global Information Solutions, a leading ATM supplier. Through satellite communications equipment and compression technology developed by Maritime Telecommunications Network, the machines are linked to shared national bank networks, offering the same transaction services as onshore ATMs. In essence, transactions ride piggyback on a ship-to-shore communication system already in place throughout the nine-ship Carnival line. BankAtlantic plans to outfit the remainder of the fleet by year's end. Onshore, as the ATM marketplace becomes increasingly congested, BankAtlantic and other institutions are striking relationships with national retail chains, including Wal-Mart. BankAtlantic operates 150 ATM sites at Wal-Mart and affiliated Sam's Club locations throughout Florida. The bank also operates full-service branches at four Wal-Mart supercenters throughout the state. Wal-Marts are "high-traffic locations," Mr. Gonzalez said, adding that while BankAtlantic's machines currently offer cash-dispensing services only - with deposit-taking abilities at some sites - it is exploring other functions, including a more sophisticated graphics software package and the possibility of dispensing coupons good for merchandise discounts at the Wal-Mart site where an ATM is based. He said, for example, that the bank has discussed an arrangement with AT&T that would offer a discount on telephones and possibly long-distance services. St. Louis-based Boatmen's Bancshares also has an ATM deal with Wal-Mart, as well as machines positioned on casino boats on the Mississippi River. BankAtlantic has assets of $1.8 billion, with 38 banking offices in Broward, Dade, and Palm Beach counties, and some 220 ATMs throughout the state. Mr. Gonzalez described the Wal-Mart deal as an example of the way ATMs can function as a cost-effective, advance guard if the bank decides to expand its full-service, brick-and-mortar sites throughout the state. In another example of ATM convenience, New York-based Chemical Bank's Bank at Work program provides services as a convenience to corporations and their employees. At 52 ATM sites and roughly the same number of full-service teller sites, the aim is to provide cash advances, stamps, travelers checks and smart cards for public transportation in the New York area. A more ambitious Chemical pilot, Docutel, aims to handle transportation, travel, and event ticketing, leveraging mature self-service technology in