Question regarding the blank cases.
I noticed you offer 6 & 8 button configurations according to the pictures, so is this something we’d be able to specify when ordering a blank case?
Also would we be able to opt to remove the select/start buttons from the face as well? In other words, not have those holes drilled?
Reason being those buttons can start costing you matches in competitive play since there’s no lockout switch like the madcatz TE’s. Anyone ordering blank should be more then capable of drilling a few holes on the side of the case to put these buttons on, since there is a much much lower chance of that happening when the button are located off of the face of the stick.
So yeah just basically curious if there is some flexibility to the blank cases being offered, or if they are set in one specific design.
First of all, I just wanna say that MAS sticks are just plain awesome. I’ll gladly take a MAS stick over an unmodified Japanese stick anyday.
However, the only thing that bothers me is that since MAS Systems uses Happ controls which unfortunately has gone down in quality over the last couple of years.
The best Happ stick is/was the perfect 360, and last from what i heard, there were some calibration problems. not sure have that been fixed yet.
The Happ competition stick is garbage. You’ll lose your diagonals within a week or so.
What I was wondering though is that would MAS Systems ever use IL sticks? Its pretty much identical to Happ controls but doesnt crap out.
The MAS Pro-Sticks I own have painted cases with your laminate print on the face. I have seen some case makers that use a sort of plastic-coated or wooden panel that has a thin hard plastic shell over the exposed side. Given the new trend to plexi-protected art so that users can easily customize and protect their investments, do you think you could forsee doing or offering similar options such as a the plastic-coated sides and plexi top panel? I might be mistaken, but it appeared as if the stick you manufactured, with the all-black face and blue buttons/handle, that you said could not be purchased by the general public, had that sort of plastic-coated wood or unpainted casing.
^
the overlays that arcade-in-a-box and others use are coated with polycarbonate, which is a plastic made from artificial estrogen. It’s not something you want to have your hands on at all times.
MAS uses vinyl overlays if I remember correctly which I certainly would prefer to polycarbonate.
Yeah, that’s MAS stuff. The two MAS sticks that I have (I ordered blanks) were ordered through eBay and I was communicating with a rep from them and everything, they do have an eBay front.
OK sounds good. At first I was a little put off because they look exactly like MAS parts, but no MAS sticker to be seen anywhere. They looked awesome but wasn’t sure if it was a damn good knock off or not. Might need to get one of those some time.
Blank cases come in both 6 button and 8 button layouts, respectively they are 8 button and 10 button layouts for us though, because we include start and select. We can do a face without start and select, but since we don?t have any faces that would work with a layout like that, you would have to send in one of your own. There is flexibility, although we?ve never had to do anything like this before, I don?t believe, but we?re trying a lot of new things lately. I understand what you want, so you can just PM me about it if you want. Be sure to use the format I have on the original post.
That?s something we have not looked into yet, but I?ll be sure to mention it to the engineer. It?s hard to find time to actually sit down and talk about changes since he?s always so busy.
Sorry, plexi-glass is just way too much work for us to be able to do. We would love to make a controller like that, but the problem is we have way too many people who would want one, and there are only so many of us here at MAS Systems. Being able to mass produce a reasonably made product is what we’re aiming for.
There is only paint on the wood. Nothing else.
I don?t think we?ve been selling SuperNovas on eBay, or much of anything else, lately. Unless the seller had massystems in their name, I?m not sure who they are, as it could also be one of our dealers. I?m not sure though.
EDIT: It’s very likely that you were talking to one of our dealers.
However, we do plan on selling stuff on eBay very soon actually (I volunteered to set that up). If some of you would rather purchase it through eBay for whatever reason, let me know what you would like to see. However, I think it would only be a ?buy now? shop with all of our selections. I opted to do something like this rather than a website, but eventually we?ll have to get a website going as well.
That’s the eBay vendor I ordered my stuff from. My sticks were completely made to order, custom face and everything. Perhaps one of your guys’ vendors is more invested in MAS than you know? lol.
Good thread. I’ve had a Mas Stick for a while now that I bought at a Chinatown store. It has that worthless digital button that does not do anything at all. Currently getting a 360/PC converter shipped to me so I can use it with my 360.
I will say one thing though and it has been years since this happened to me. I remember I called in and a lady picked up. She was nice and all and was really great to work with. When I put my order in(for a PS2/DC Mas Stick) I decided to pay with a MO since stuff like PP wasn’t around and I really didn’t trust giving out my card number over the phone for anything.
Long story short, I sent in the money but never got my stick. I went through so much probs back and forth between the bank and Mas(they claimed the order was never put in). I ended up losing about $140 and got nothing. Just really felt like putting that here since the rep is here. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you guys are bad. It’s that whenever someone brings up Mas or I see my current stick, I always remember that damn experience.
We do not recognize that username, nor are we affliated with anything close to that.
I’m really sorry that happened to you. However, if the order was never put in, that means we never received your money order i.e something happened to it before it reached us. If you would like to purchase from us again though, you would be more than welcome to.
Or you could stop being a jackass and just put hotglue on the wire? People are pretty dumb all sticks have issue’s after prolonged use even the TE Stick, if you don’t remember round 1 and round2 there were even sticks that had the microswitches die out, It just happens it’s not expensive to replace a part when you have the stick, Stop being over dramatical because of your bad experiences doesn’t seem many others have had that experience also, I opened many mas stick’s the wires always seem secure to me
Ok, so by face I’m assuming you just mean the art that would be applied to the top of the stick, which I’d be designing without the graphics for the select and start buttons. That’s fine by me.
Just another quickie on the blank cases also, because most people here when they sell “blank”, you will get an unfinished case which you basically paint or stain yourself. Since you’re asking for a face design, I’m now curious if the blank cases come similar to a finished mas case, with the side paint applied. Basically like a finished mas stick without the pcb, buttons, and stick added. If that’s the case, that’s a pretty hot deal for $60.
Again I’m not sure, so that’s why I’m asking. I have a feeling you guys will do some good business with blank cases here if that’s what you get though
I can confirm this. Although it’s strange that MAS doesn’t recognize the dudes I got my sticks from, what I got exactly was two mini MAS “blanks” with the custom overlay (really just a modified faux-Capcom control panel design) with the painted-black sides, unfinished but hey that’s how they’ve always been.
edit: although I can’t comment on Grego’s harsh ass rant since I’ve never had a “OEM” MAS before, based on the pictures I’ve seen of stock internals I will say that perhaps the fastening of said parts could be better done. It’s a legitimate area needing improvement, even if the dude’s post was fucked up. Maybe you guys can look into designing a PCB using your existing chips just for the sake of having something that can be fastened more effectively?
They weren’t my MAS sticks, I was repairing people in michigans. And having the wires from the controller cord going directly to some chips is about as ghetto as it gets. I have a degree in computer engineering and do quite a bit of my own electronics and I know a bad design when I see one. You should think about what you say, since maybe Im just trying to give people a heads up on a scam.
That’s exactly what we offer. Just to say it again: a blank case comes with a finished frame meaning painted sides, artwork (or standard design), and t-molding. I should have some blank templates up by later today for custom art.
Also, thanks for your kind words on the subject. The reason we do what we do is because of cost. PCB’s were costing us a lot, and coupled with the hard economic times, it’s no longer possible to maintain upkeep along with how much we had to spend. The PIC’s work just as intended though, and shouldn’t be of any problem; the engineer will test each and every one of them, and we rarely ever receive complaints. It’s not easy to make 10-15 controllers a day, with only one person making them, while still trying to maintain the quality that we do.
Often times, others will bash something without trying to understand the reasons for it. He just throws out the fact that he has a degree, and then uses that to justify that he knows something. There is no reason for his anger, and we don’t scam people. We’ve been in business for well over 20 years, and I assure you, if we scammed other people, I wouldn’t be here right now for obvious reasons. I’m pretty much speechless on what to say. Thanks again for putting it nicely.
Also, just to add to things, ***when something goes wrong like the chip going bad, if it’s our fault, we’ll fix it for you. We don’t hold you accountable for anything that’s our fault. We have a warranty that lasts six months, after that there’s a very small fee to fix it, depending on what the problem is.***, only if you mess around with it and it no longer works, then it’s pretty much your fault. Quite obvious (but even then, we may still be able to fix it for you!). It’s not like we leave you out in the cold with a broken controller and now with $115+ less in your bank account. WE DON’T SCAM PEOPLE!
No I can understand perfectly why people cut costs. To make more money. And I’m telling you that multiple IC’s soldered to each other and then flopping around in a stick is a bad design. It wears out, very quickly. In any quality electronics design cords are secured at some point. Moving wire’s become brittle and eventually your electrical connection is shit. I have seen a newer MAS stick go bad in only a couple months. A wire became disconnected from a pin from mechanical wear due to no strain relief. The only reason I could repair the stick is because I had other peoples MAS’ sticks laying around waiting to be fixed, therefore I could determine the pinout of the chips. A regular person buying a joystick does not know shit about electronics, do not have the pinout for this crap, and can’t solder. In other words MAS sold them a $115 pile of crap. If thats not scamming someone I don’t know what is. At the very least they should add strain relief to their design.
