NEWS: MAS Super NOVA review

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What is a MAS Super NOVA?

A MAS Super NOVA is a name brand of a "supergun". A "supergun" is a device that allows the playing of JAMMA arcade boards on a home TV. The origin of the name supergun is a bit cloudy, but it seems to be traced to a chinese company that made the devices back in the early 90's. The Japanese market has had devices like this around for a while, but it's not easy to get those, so they are not compared or discussed.

Why the arcade at home?

Let's say you crave accuracy, not console ports of games that have cut animations, or load times.
More likely you want it for unreleased games.You've saved six months for a $300 copy of XEXEX.
Your palms sweat when you see large PCBS.You yearn for real sound generated by real chips.

Why not MAME? A delicate question. Mame allows you to play arcade games on your computer instead of owning the board. Let's be brutally honest. The main reason is piracy. Flat out if you're using MAME to play capcom CPS games, you're stealing.

Is it realistic to expect someone to lay out a thousands for CPS packs that they can play on MAME for free? On a personal level piracy isn't my motivation or reason for buying a supergun. Download all the roms you want, but there is a certain romance and soul of the machine in using real hardware. Loading a program does not give you the feel,the experience and full appreciation of a game. There is much to be said about the beauty of hardware. If all you care about is loading up a few roms, you're probably bored by now and are now googling for more stolen intellectual property.

So why buy a MAS Super NOVA?

Time,convenience,and brand. You can spend a lot of money on parts to build a home supergun and it might turn out like shit. Building a supergun also involves basic concepts of electronics.If you have the wood cutting skills of a quadriplegic,forget you can't put metal in a microwave,and don't know what master/slave/cs means on your hard drive, it's time to extinguish the idea of building a supergun of your own.

For me, the time saved and aggravation avoided make it worthwhile buying a ready made supergun. Being busy, and usually too tired after a day of work to cut/solder/wire, it seemed the ideal choice. another appeal is to the city dweller like myself.Just TRY to carry a 4x8 piece of laminated wood home on a subway.

Placing the Order:

MAS offers a huge variety of options, some of them not listed on their outdated web site. My order seemed typical; I called the number on the the MAS web site and got a woman on the line. I told her what I wanted, and she began to take my order. She seemed easily flustered, and asked me to start over several times, but I was patient.Step by step we went over the options:

Ten button(PS2 style, the default),Six button(NeoGeo),eight button(Jamma+kick).

The ten button controller has Playstation 2 graphics, so I told her "I want them to work with PS2". "$20 she replied, and I though it a deal.I picked my buttons and had choice of color, Japanese convex, or usa concave.
the options I picked were all orange buttons for stick #1 so it would stand out at competitions with Japanese convex buttons.I really prefer Japanese convex buttons, you can have much more fluid movements, and some games I play are bishi-bashi type games.The second stick was the "default" settings they had, I wanted to see what their standard stick looked like, so I left that one unchanged.I was give a choice of soft or hard spring.The optical competition sticks were out of stock,and their price for the perfect 360 was a bit on the high side. I was offered a choice of wood color; red or black. I picked black. you also have a choice of white or black top graphic. Black was picked as well.

The shipping price given was very high.$88 for 3 day or $37 for UPS 7 day ground. Picking the cheaper ground shipping saved me a few dollars, and I was patient. I asked about other shipping options, and told them fedex was cheaper. They offerd to try to use fedex, but I decided against it as I didn't want to wait on the phone while they figured it out.
All was well, I gave her my credit card info and said goodbye! My long wanted MAS Super NOVA and two PS2 compatable sticks were on the way.Total: $352.18, $20 over the base price.

Two weeks passed, and lo and behold my sticks arrived.

I immediately noticed the box was crushed, and I mean crushed. The cardboard shipping box was very thin. Opening the box showed that the contents had settled, with no styrofoam peanuts on top. You CAN'T pack something almost 40 pounds in anything less than bubble wrap. I was not happy, but the contents for the most part were undamaged.I removed the control box and inspected the two sticks. There was no packing material seperating the sticks from the control box. Pretty much unacceptable to me. To make it worse the sticks had been striking and rubbing along the bottom of the large, heavy control box. Contact was with sufficient force that the plastic bags covering the sticks was worn away, and the tops were scratched and discoloured.The cheap, thin box contrasted greatly with the excellent custom carboard that held the arcade sticks. Two slotted pieces of cardboard firmly held the sides of the sticks. I was impressed. It seemed at odds to have custom holders for the sticks, but a cheap shipping box and subpar packing materials.

Inspecting the sticks,I went looking for the PS2 connector. The layout was correct. Was there a converter box buried in the packing peanuts? I got a sinking feeling and came to a realization with a quick call confirming my fears.I had been charged $20 for the PS2 button arrangement, but the sticks did not have PS2 compatibility. I was immediately angry because it meant one thing; My order was misunderstood and I now had two PS2 layout sticks WITH THE BUTTONS CONNECTED TO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I was stunned. It seemed incredibly ridiculous given the conversation. Explaining the situation to the salesperson, there was silence. I was told: "it seems there was a miscommunication". The thought that someone thought I wanted TWO PS2 layout sticks with the extra buttons connected to nothing at all made me scream. Out loud, crazy motherfucka screaming. I really should have been more concerned when I placed the order with the flustered salesperson. I advise you fax over your order, the phone service plain sucks. Surely this is the end result of placing an order with someone who has no idea what they are selling.I asked for a correction and was offered a "compromise".

The "compromise" I was offered was to ship back the two sticks at my cost (It would cost me $20 to mail both, I have no idea why they charge people $40 to mail two on their site), pay the extra approximately $40 per stick to add PS2 compatibility, and then wait two weeks for this to be done and the items shipped back. Then they would "compromise" by paying return shipping. That's three weeks. One week to MAS, one week for the work, one week back. Add that to existing time of two weeks and that is FIVE WEEKS weeks I will have paid money and been without a functional Super NOVA. I was not a happy. Small, fragile things in my room were broken. Several beers were consumed between screams.

That aside, I will take a good look at the unit, and compared the MAS legend to the reality.
I set aside my frustration and tried to be as impartial as I could for my readers. So here's the review:

MAS Super NOVA
Base Price: $295.99
As Built: $315.00 ($20 for ps2 buttons arrangement that is hooked to absofuckingloutely nothing.)
Shipping: $37.12 UPS ground 7 days. (Compare to U.S.Post Office 3 Day,same weight,same dimensions $24.25)

Control unit: (what everything connects to)

Very well made, nice laminated top. Connections are all secure. I did however have black paint on several of the RCA connectors that I had to buff off. Sawdust on everything, which should have been cleaned off; the result is the unit now has a pervasive sawdust smell that has yet to leave. The lack of adjustment for video is notable.The Jamma harness is short and could be longer, but the Super Nova is known for this defect.The traditional lack of the service/test button on the NOVA has lost none of it's annoyance.

Arcade Sticks:

The arcade sticks were a shocker. I expected exceptional quality from their reputation. What I found was cut corners. The unit is made of high density fibreboard, however it is not laminate. It is the cheapest non laminate fibreboard you can buy, and the color choices I made when ordering were for paint. The pictures on the web site feature laminated wood, so I was disappointed to say the least. The fact that the paint had gaps in it made it worse. The unlaminated top means that the graphics laid over it have a cheap, bumpy look. The arcade stick is mounted with bolts that DON NOT have flush tops, and the sharp lettering annoys the bottom of the hand. The T-molding is too large for the wood, and all along the front is raised above the level of the wood, and cuts at the hand. I had to trim mine level with a razor, as it made use almost unacceptable. The angle and button arrangement is very pleasing, the build very sturdy and the moves easy to get off. The stick design is a classic, and if it were not for the shortcuts, would have been top notch.Cable length is excellent.

Video Out:

The MAS super nova remains mainly unchanged. The video is unadjustable, so depending on the arcade board, may be too dark or overly bright. My problem was with overly bright. If the MAS offered a JROK option, I would have bought it. The unit really needs an upgrade in video quality.

Sound:

Sound from the unit is excellent. The build in speaker makes advantage of the larger interior volume of the control box. The result is full, wonderful sound. I could not differentiate between my TV and the sound from the unit, it's that good. It would have been a nice option to have a switch to turn off the speaker, as adjustment of volume via the TV is much easier. The speaker volume is controlled by the PCB, so if you want to change how loud it is at night, you have to access the PCB menu and change it. (If you need to use a service button to get there, you're screwed as the NOVA doesn't have one.

Pros:

Convenient, complete tunrkey solution.
Highly customizable.
A "Name brand" keeps value.
Control box is of good size and excellent quality, especially the laminated top.
Ability to get several color schemes for buttons, unit, and graphics.
Ability to get sticks with multiple system configuration for about $40 per system.
Sturdy construction, built for years of use.
All connections are easy to access.
Comes with an excellent little package with all connections and wiring.
Excellent sound.
Warranty.
The defacto standard in the U.S.
Bragging Rights.

Cons:
Not as high quality as is reputed.
Everything covered in sawdust.Smells like sawdust.
Lack of video adjustment and no service button.
Arcade sticks subpar with the quality of the main unit, and definitely not up to MAS original builds.
Cheap, non laminated wood that is roughly painted and makes the top graphic look unacceptably lumpy.
Non level T-molding that cuts the hands and has cracked the wood.
Mounting bolts for the sticks do not have smooth tops, and aggrivate the hands.
Lack of laminated wood as pictured on the web site.
Graphics for sticks are outdated celebrating 1990 and 2000. It's the year 2005.
Outrageous and outdated shipping methods and price.
Cheap packing, item arrived damaged.
Confused Staff that does not know the product.

The Final note:

While my order may not be the rule, the review was of my order in particular, and thus represents the experience as a whole, which was unsatisfying.

Service: 2/10 (Inaccurate, wrong order, confused, expensive shipping. Web site is horrendously out of date.)
Quality: I have to break this down by control box, and arcade sticks.

Control box: 9/10 (Superb sound, solid build, and easy to use. However, lack of video adjust and service button prevent it from aperfect ranking)
Arcade Sticks: 4/10 Subpar materials, paint not laminate, cheap wood, non smooth bolts, uneven T-molding. Excellent design crippled by cut corners.

Overall: Average 6.5 (1 avoid at all costs,5 acceptable/marginal, 10 must have)


Here's some additional pictures for you to browse.
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I bought the damn thing so I could bring rumble fish with me wherever I go.

I want a good supergun , built with a Jrok 3.1, but it seems no one is selling superguns.
I'm too busy to make one...

 

I'm going to tear it apart and take pics, and I'm not going to have the ps2 parts "added in"

It starts in black and white! then the unit warms up and it goes color??!

Odd.
Those sony RGB chips are really old right? Like in neo geo? And are expensive too.

Point me to a circuit and I'll build it, I have thousands and thousands of ics from acclaim.

 

If you read the article, it tells you.

 

I bought a supwer nova with two arcade sticks that were supposed to workon playstation 2 as well.

They put in the extra ps2 buttons, but connected them to nothing, and now they want $40 each stick to put the forgotton bits in.