Editing Trax (game) (section)

==History==
{|class="floatright" style="text-align:center;background:#484;border-spacing:0px;"
|+Loops in Trax
|-
| [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) FB.svg|frameless|25px]]
| [[File:Trax tile (R) BB.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]]
|-
| [[File:Trax tile (R) FW.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]]
| [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) BW.svg|frameless|25px]]
|-
| [[File:Trax tile (R) BB.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]]
| [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) FB.svg|frameless|25px]]
|-
| [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) BW.svg|frameless|25px]]
| [[File:Trax tile (R) FW.svg|frameless|25px]] || [[File:Trax tile (R) +W.svg|frameless|25px]]
|}
Trax was invented in 1980 by David Smith, a chartered accountant in Christchurch, New Zealand.<ref name=Smith-interview>{{cite interview |url=https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/entertainment/people/s/smithdavidl/ |title=David Smith, Christchurch game inventor |subject=David Smith |publisher=Christchurch City Council Libraries |access-date=19 May 2022}}</ref> Smith published five games between 1970 and 1980, including ''[[Chess Cards]]'', a variant of chess in which players could choose to either draw a card (with a chess piece printed on the obverse) or move a card already in play according to the revealed piece's rules. ''Chess Cards'' featured "boardless" play; once drawn, the card could be played onto any flat surface, subject to additional rules that would prevent playing the cards into isolation from the cards already in play. In November 1980, Smith began to develop the boardless aspect of ''Chess Cards'' with a more original, abstract game, which led to Trax.<ref name=discovered-Trax>{{cite news |url=http://www.traxgame.com/community_ontrax.php?article=37 |title=How I Discovered Trax |author=Smith, David |date=December 1993 |work=On Trax |publisher=The New Zealand Trax Association Newsletter |number=1 |access-date=18 May 2022}}</ref> He quickly developed the idea of two coloured paths, but discovered that play could stop if three edges had the same colours, leading to his breakthrough invention of the forced-play rule,<ref name=Smith-interview/> approximately one week later on November 26.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.traxgame.com/community_ontrax.php?article=135 |title=Happy Birthday Trax |author=Smith, David |date=November 2000 |work=On Trax |publisher=The New Zealand Trax Association |access-date=19 May 2022}}</ref>

The game was first published in New Zealand and the United States in 1982.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.traxgame.com/about_history.php |title=History of TRAX |website=Traxgame |access-date=19 May 2022}}</ref> Originally, the tiles were made out of cardboard and were red with black and white lines. As the game became more popular, the tiles were changed to high-density plastic using the same colors. The change to black tiles with red and white lines took place in 2005. 

In 1999, [[Microsoft Corporation]] selected Trax as one of the first proprietary games in its [[Internet Gaming Zone]].<ref name=AbstractGames/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.traxgame.com/community_ontrax.php?article=108 |title=Trax Zones in on Microsoft |author=Smith, David |date=June 1999 |work=On Trax |publisher=The New Zealand Trax Association |access-date=19 May 2022}}</ref> For the 2015 International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology in Queenstown, New Zealand, Trax was selected for the design competition for implementation using a [[field programmable gate array]] processor.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7393115 |chapter=FPT2015 Welcome from General Chair |author=Bailey, Donald |title=2015 International Conference on Field Programmable Technology (FPT) |date=2015 |page=1 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/FPT.2015.7393115 |isbn=978-1-4673-9091-0 |access-date=19 May 2022}}</ref>

The reigning world champion is Donald Bailey, an engineering professor at Massey University in [[New Zealand]]. {{as of|2018}}, with the exception of a loss in the 1994 final, he has won every Trax world championship since 1990.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.traxgame.com/games_archives.php |title=Trax Archives |website=Trax Game |access-date=18 May 2022}}</ref>