Make Trax
Make Trax, known in Japan as Crush Roller (クラッシュローラー, Kurasshu Rōrā), is a 1981 maze game developed by Alpha Denshi and released in arcades by Kural Samno Electric in Japan.[1] It was licensed for North American release to Williams Electronics, and in Europe to Exidy.
| Make Trax | |
|---|---|
 North American flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Alpha Denshi |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, 2 players alternating |
Gameplay
The player controls a paintbrush and must paint the entire maze 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. They are located on two overpasses, one vertical in its orientation, the other horizontal. To use them, the player positions the paintbrush on its forward end, 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" learning to avoid the roller when the paintbrush 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.
Legacy
A hobbyist "speed-up" modification, allowing the paintbrush to move faster (but not the fish), was documented as Make Trax Turbo.[2]
An clone called Brush Roller for the Famicom/NES was programmed in 1990 by Hwang Shinwei and published by RCM Group, like Magic Jewelry, due to small size of the game. it is most commonly found on pirate Famicom/NES multicarts and systems which has many games. However, multicarts and Famicom/NES clones usually does removed copyright information, this is common behavior of many NES games in multicarts and Famicom/NES clones, and Brush Roller has no exception, despite being unlicensed. This game was later hacked by NTDEC to make Bookyman, which was released on the Caltron 6-in-1 and the Asder 20-in-1. It replaces the title screen, some of the graphics, and have revamped sound and music, and fixed the bugs that cause music temporary stops when the roller died or crush enemy, corrupted sprites at left maze scoreboard when completed stage, it replaced by some hollow squares. However the original NTDEC releases and the Asder version retained the original sounds from Brush Roller, despite the Asder version having been released a year later.
ADK remade the game for the Neo Geo Pocket Color which was released worldwide by SNK under its original name Crush Roller in 1999.
References
- "Overseas Readers Column - Mfg. and Licensing System for Video "Crush Roller" Unveiled". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 176. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 November 1981. p. 34.
- "Make Trax Turbo". Arcadecollecting.com. Retrieved 2012-03-16.