What I’d really like to do is just get myself into the trading outlet. But I don’t know it’s worth it anymore with all the negative feedback I’m getting.
Or I might just set up a shop on eBay.
Your sticks are built like tank’s MVC players love that, I love that seeing as i play alot of mvc2 not including you guys need to prepare for MVC3, If it still plays the same way time will tell
I think Anthony said it best. If you guys don’t like the way they wire things, you can feel free to buy a box from them and either put in the parts yourself or pay someone to if you’re not experienced with these things.
All in all, $60 for one of the most solid boxes you can buy sounds like a good deal to me. Especially when MAS is even willing to let you send your own custom template printed at no extra cost. This makes extra time and work for them but it shows that they do care if their customers enjoy their product or not, it’s just they’re not always able to satisfy everyone due to the limited resources they have.
If you guys have questions or comments I’m sure Anthony would love to clarify. Just don’t come in and troll like Grego did. Completely uncalled for.
Anthony, why haven’t you been let into the trading outlet yet? Because you’ve just joined? I thought they confirmed you were legit, and given MAS’s LONG history selling joysticks, I’m not sure what the problem is.
It’s not mine, it was given to me to take a look at. It had a wide open bottom to it, I didn’t have to actually open it or anything… just flipped it over.
He may have opened it up himself or something, but it’s old as hell so I don’t think he cared.
This says it all. (and I think I said a lot of this too in a previous post 
)
If you don’t like how they do their wiring, but you still want a mas stick, just buy the case itself.
MAS cases are like rocks, probably the best case you can find in the US for an american style stick, and at $60 for a FINISHED CASE you are getting a STEAL.
You save yourself money doing it this way, and you can just put a padhack + chimp inside or whatever you like.
I really don’t get what all the fuss is over, if you know how you want your shit to be just do it yourself.
Anthony has been upfront about everything they’re doing, and telling you that the PCB’s, while more effective, aren’t suitable for the business they do.
Nobody’s forcing you to buy their product if you don’t like how they’re manufacturing them, but all the info is there, out in the open, for you to decide on.
It’s really not that complicated, nobody is out to get you guys.
You can take the comments that I said about the wiring being a mess as “hey, wire your stuff better” if you will. I don’t see how my pointing out how the wiring is awful is flaming, but alright. (especially since it looked like Phreakazoid’s picture sans the hair–but it’s the guy’s fault for opening the stick, right? :D)
Izagaia: I don’t care how much you make in a year, saying that you’re A+ and MCP 70-270 and commenting on MAS’s value from a business standpoint are two different things. It doesn’t add credibility to what you’re saying. I’m not “coming after you”, but it’s nice to see you fluff up your feathers and get defensive about the comments that I made.
I’m an astronaut, and therefore McDonald’s hamburgers are great for the money from a business standpoint. See?
In any case, there are plenty of people on this very forum that do their own woodworking/wiring. My custom stick is from QCFGaming.com. LuckyDay dual-modded my stick with clean wiring and quick disconnects, using a MadCatz 360 SE stick as well as a Cthulhu board. MAS systems being two people doesn’t carry that much weight when there’s people like Gummowned doing quality wiring for an affordable price. Also, I was in contact with Satek and LuckyDay throughout the whole process and never was worried about being unable to contact them. Satek also answered many questions I had after I received the stick.
Suggestions: Using iL parts instead of Happ is a great move, considering the Happ sticks suck.
At this point I would suggest selling only un-wired boxes with the buttons/stick inside them since you won’t move to better PCBs. Or work with someone on SRK to do the wiring for you.
From the consumer side though, if I spend 160 bucks at Arcade Shock for a stick, I’d really hope that the PCB was worked out a little better. Arcade in a Box will sell me a similar stick for 150 bucks with a decent PCB that if after six months, will be easier to repair. Not to mention give me the option of sanwa if I wanted it.
Yes there is. You can improve your product or go broke becoming a footnote in a niche market of gaming. Gordon Ramsay said, “This is a business, you better start treating it like a business.” Businesses improve in face of competition, or they die. I’ve got some money coming to me, and I’ve been itching to buy an American style stick for the hell of it. Give me a reason not to give my cash to Ed Farias at Arcade in a Box. Or any of the multitudes of stick makers out there.
How the hell do you go broke during one of the biggest fighting game booms of the last 15 years with the name and pedigree of MAS Systems? How the hell do you not have reliable phone or email access?
MAS is a legendary name in this subculture, it would be a shame to see it die like this.
Don’t be discouraged by the criticisms. The bottom line is that MAS still makes great sticks. While the PICs could be mounted better, the sticks overall are solid.
Taiki has a point, though. You have to update to compete.
Do not take the comments seriously. When Qanba made their thread, there were posters demanding top of the line sanwa sticks to be sold for 75$.
This forum is very niche. Most of us here have done some mods of our own, and some very advanced. This is a tough crowd. There are sticks we buy and throw away everything but the PCB (Datel). Even if a certain part of your product is lacking, you can still sell to us.
You have great prices on cases. Even those here who wouldn’t think of buying your completes would love to own one of your cases, which are completely top of the line for American style sticks, which there is not alot offered. Even if it fit, I would not put iL or Happ parts in a plastic japanese case.
My only advice is that Super Street Fighter 4 has blown up the stick market. This would be an opportune time to step up your marketing (with a web site or getting more distributors).
To the posters- stop with the grandstanding and tough talk. If you don’t like their product then offer polite reccomendations but TT running MAS out of SRK would be really stupid. These direct lines we have to stickmakers is invaluable. Also, you don’t know the hardships of running a small (and family) business.
I really don?t know what your point is in telling me that, however if what we sell doesn’t suit your preference, I would really hate to see you “lose” that 160 on something you didn’t want. It should be pretty obvious that you should only spend your money on something you feel is worth it. Take it or leave it, it’s up to you. Granted that wasn?t the best sales pitch in the world, but I can only go so far to convince you as to what best suits you as the buyer. Our controllers are what they are, and if you’re right in the middle of playing street fighter, and you all of the sudden go, “FUCK that PIC without a board ruined my combo, I wish I had a PCB to help me play better” then there?s really nothing else I can do for you. That was a rather exaggerated example, I know, but that?s how it looks like from our point of view.
I?m sorry, it?s the way you worded it, and I?m not attacking you at all. But if I were your friend, I would gladly tell you that you shouldn?t be here telling us why Arcade in a Box has so much of a better deal. You should just go for the deal, instead of telling us about it. There?s really no point in telling us! I hope that didn?t sound offensive.
Hell?s Kitchen, awesome show, but incomparable to our situation. This is a little off-topic, but the restaurants that he runs into are completely filthy and unorganized, not due to the fact that they are incapable of being any better (which most are) but due to the fact that they?re just run by poor management.
MAS Systems is fully aware of all the possible changes we could make, but every customer is different, and we can?t cater to each and every single one of you. We simply don?t have the resources for that. If you?d like to make a donation to our cause that would be great. The engineer has also offered that if you truly want a kick-ass controller fully customized for everything, even Japanese parts or anything else that you?d like, and that price is of no concern to you. We?d gladly sell you a controller for around 300-500 dollars if that?s what you want.
Again, I don?t mean to sound rude, I really don?t, but all you see is a product that isn?t satisfactory to you. Posing a two-way street to us with no other options does seem rather ignorant as well (and it?s also a bit of a logical fallacy). Given you read that entire post I made and you still don?t seem to quite understand why we cannot improve our product given our circumstance, there?s really nothing else I can do or say to convince you. You?re on the outside looking in, even though I?ve verbally given you a glimpse of what it looks like on the inside for my family.
I really wish I knew why our business was doing so bad, as the only change we?ve made in over 20 years, was from PCB to PIC, just because we had to cut costs in order to survive. That?s it. We don?t have reliable phone or email access because of the following reasons: our phone lines are going bad, no clue why that?s happening (lord knows we have enough problems as it is), and our engineer being both a family man and a full time engineer building and producing controllers to feed our family, simply doesn?t have time to properly respond to you guys like I do (not to mention all the arguments/debate/ridiculously good feedback(?) going on).
If he had to sit here and prove himself to everyone here, no one would be getting their orders. I haven?t asked him why he doesn?t answer his e-mails, but it?s most likely due to the fact that he already knows what your reactions/responses will be, and he didn?t want to deal with it. I can see why now, but I?d rather continue what I?m doing and try to make the best out of it. Thanks for the great feedback. Your time with us, and concern for our products is highly appreciated.
EDIT: I’m sorry if that came off as a negative response, Taiki! If you really were just looking for a reason as to why you should by our controllers, there are already many reasons that have been listed previously which can be found at my previous post made here: http://shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=238941&p=8987301&viewfull=1#post8987301
I don’t know if that link works or not, but it’s post 18 on the first page.
I’d love to get a website up (I’ll work on setting up an eBay shop), or have more dealers. I’ve spent a long time considering everything that has been said on this thread, and so that has taken up most of my time. I have a life outside of these forums, and I’m not getting paid to do this. I do it out of necessity so that I can still have a roof over my head. My father, the engineer, is also against me doing this. I still do it anyway though.
The rules say I can’t sell in those forums until I have met the requirements. No more, no less. I tried asking MrWizard about it, but he requested a sample of our products in order to prove my legitimacy, and granted you’ve kept up with everything in this this thread thus far, we can’t afford to just give away a controller as a sample. It’s not reasonable for our situation.
Kyle confirmed I was legit, and he only moderates the Tech Talk forums, not the Trading Outlet. I haven’t tried contacting a moderator in the trading outlet… I just thought about doing that. I basically came here as a new member, trying to contact as many moderators as I could, and Kyle was the first to respond, he was even responding to a previous thread started by cammy-white on MAS sticks. So that’s what lead to the making of this thread. I don’t want to overstep any boundaries or have my account suspended. That would be terrible.
Is there a moderator in the Trading Outlet that I could talk to about any of this?
Well there you go, everything we sell comes with a bottom. He might have opened it up, and it was really old? It really doesn’t break down as quickly as everyone thinks it does. A lot of the time, we receive joysticks back that have been tampered with, undeniably, but the customer will say it broke on its own, and while we don’t mind fixing it, please try to refrain from hiding the fact that you messed it up on your own (or just leave the damned thing alone and send it back to us for repair). Also, this is somewhat summarized from a talk I had with my father, “when I get a controller back that needs to be fixed, I look for two things: what went wrong, why it happened, how it happened, and how can I improve our controllers so that it doesn’t happen again. If it’s my fault, then the problem needs to be addressed immediately (this is in regards to our current set up, not in regards to how everyone else would like the set up to change). We have a warranty set in place (six months time) to cover any problems that may occur, but not if they tamper with it on their own. This is the same with any other business, and we’re no different.”
Here’s an idea. The fact that hardly anyone ever sends controllers back to us says two things to us: our method is, for the most part, sound and reliable, and secondly, there’s nothing to improve on. If we got controllers sent back to us, like they should have been, instead of having so many of you fix them, we would get an accurate look at how often our controllers break down and how quickly they break down (and maybe what our most consistent problem would be, or not be), which to us is not that often, nor that quickly either. A lot of other people say the same, so it’s hard to say for sure. I understand we’ve been hard to reach, and so for anyone who needs a controller repaired, please send it back to ensure proper repair by contacting me through PM.
- MAS Systems
Got my MAS threads confused. I don’t know what was up with that pic posted with the tape but this is the inside of my MAS before and after I modded it. Also, again in MAS’s defense. When they started making these things why wouldn’t they have soldered the buttons? I mean who would have modded them? http://shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=140279&highlight=
Quick disconnects are all the rage now but they were not catering to the Mod market. My kids have danced on that MAS. It is unbreakable.
By the way, like I said in the other thread. I did have an issue years after I bought mine and way before I knew anything about modding. The PSone side of the stick stopped working. It was most likely a loose wire that needed to be soldered back. They were nice enough to add free of charge that analog button (the yellow one) for free when I sent the stick in to get fixed which they also did for free years after I bought it.
Hello,
I’m Looking into building a stick for My girlfriend. And your mas stick sounds like a perfect fit. It will save me time and a lot of work. But I have some questions, And I need to ask a bit.
- I didn’t read what Buttons you use. I may have overlooked it. So what buttons do you use?
- My Last Happ stick was a nightmare Are i had to pull a rusted actuator from a dead panel to fix my issue. Is there a way to get an IL stick in there or maybe a way to take out the happ and label the connections so I can put in an IL without spending extra and having a spare stick that wouldn’t have a use? I really disliked my last batch of happs and that black actuator is here to stay…
3)do you have anything pink?
Anthony I suggest you pm MegaManDS, Fir, and Valaris. They are the moderators of the trading outlet.
Anthony, I do have a suggestion about the bottom panel support. You know how there’s a wooden pillar in each corner? If one more was added in the middle of both walls, it would give the bottom panel a lot more support. I’ve noticed that the bottom panel does bend quite a bit if you apply pressure in the middle (like resting the stick on you lap). I’m sorry if I seem like I’m nit picking at the MAS stick’s design, but I’m just trying to help by giving you useful feedback.
It’s all the rage because it’s how the buttons are designed to be connected. It makes it simple to change out the switch when it breaks without the need to send the entire stick back. Or say you want to change out the button because you decide later on that you don’t like blue and now you like red buttons. Or switching from concave to convex.
Hey why call it a MAS-Stick if there’s no originality in it being a happ arcade stick, He would just be selling a case, also there switching to iL or it’s an option so buttons should be much more higher quality so there should be no complaint about it, if you want a sanwa stick get a sanwa stick if you want a happ stick get a happ stick if you want a seimitsu stick get a seimitsu stick, I can understand wanting to change the appearance on your stick, Im just saying
I know you mean well but I’m not sure how suggesting QDs prompted you to mention originality or Japanese parts. The fact is QDs would be an excellent, practical upgrade for little extra cost. I know the idea is that people aren’t supposed to be messing around with the internals anyway but like Gummowed pointed out, QDs would make it easier for the owners to fix their own stuff at a fraction of both the price and hassle of sending the whole thing out. In fact it would make it easier for both the customer and MAS, since they wouldn’t have to bite the cost of warranted repair and worry about shipping on top of that.
I never said anything about QD’s please reread my post because you’re way off topic from what, I am mentioning thank’s. I was saying why buy a happ stick if you want a Japanese style stick? Then why not get the one more jap based then american.
lol, I know you didn’t mention QDs, and the fact that you thought I was “off topic” adds to the irony. You quoted Gummowed and responded with a post irrelevant to what he said—that QDs are useful. His post had nothing to do with Japanese parts or originality.
And? I still don’t see your point