Make Trax

Make Trax
Developer(s)	Alpha Denshi
Publisher(s)	Kural Samno Electric (Japan) Williams Electronics (North America) Karateco/Exidy (Europe)
Platform(s)	Arcade (original), Famicom, Neo Geo Pocket Color
Release	1981
Genre(s)	Maze game
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns

Make Trax, known in Japan as Crush Roller (クラッシュローラー, Kurasshu Rōrā), is a Template:Vgy arcade game developed by Alpha Denshi and published by Kural Samno Electric in Japan. It was later licensed for North American release to Williams Electronics, and in Europe to both Karateco and Exidy. It has been also remaked for Neo Geo Pocket Color always by ADK, and released worldwide by SNK under its original name Crush Roller in 1999.

Gameplay

Make Trax is a maze game in which the player controls a paintbrush and must paint the entire layout in order to advance to the next stage. Two fish – one yellow, the other light-blue – emerge from separate aquariums to pursue the paintbrush around the board, and if either of the fish succeeds in making contact with the paintbrush, the player loses one of three lives.

The player may use two "rollers" to attack the fish. The rollers are located on two overpasses, one vertical in its orientation, the other horizontal. To use a roller, the player positions the paintbrush on the forward end of the roller, waits for either or both of the fish to approach, then pushes the paintbrush along the roller, attacking the fish. The fish is removed from the maze for a few seconds, then returns to one of the aquariums and resumes its pursuit of the paintbrush. Killing fish in this manner scores bonus points.

The fish initially are dumb, but as time goes on they get "smarter." They learn to avoid the roller when the paint brush nears it, and develop strategies to trap the player between them.

A third character, appearing to be an animal, rolling tire, or invisible man depending on the level, may enter the maze and leave tracks that must be painted over in order for the board to be completed. The player can limit the damage by running over the figure, which not only stops further tracks from being left but also awards the player a score, which progressively increases as more boards are cleared.

Some time after its release, was added a "speedup chip" allowing to move faster the paintbrush (but not the fish). This variant was accorded the name Make Trax Turbo.

Clones

Title	Platform	Release date	Developer	Publisher	Notes
Brush Roller	NES	1990	Hwang Shinwei	Unknown	In this version, the player starts with nine lives plus 200 time seconds available and the points are obtained in two ways: attacking the fishes and adding them by the remaining time sum, this once painted the layout.
Bookyman	NES	1991	NTDEC	NTDEC	Brush Roller hack, later included on Caltron 6-in-1 multicart in 1992. Here changed all the maze animated images, and the paintbrush and the two fishes were respectively replaced by an insect and by two frogs.
Paint Master	VG Pocket Max		JungleTac	JungleTac

External links

Make Trax at the Killer List of Videogames