In the early hours of March 29, year accidental fire related to cooking in Westminster, California, claimed the life of Reynalda Lynn Nguyen, 63. Her husband, Thao Nguyen, survived for two weeks in critical condition before also dying on April 13. He leaves behind two children, Anthony and Alexandria Kristen Nguyen, who are accepting donations so that he can afford to bury his parents.
You may not know Nguyens by name, but if you are familiar with fighting games, you may be aware of their heritage. They were the creators of the Multi Arcade System joystick or MAS for short, a monumental piece of hardware that helped transform the way fighting games were played. As the United States moved away from arcades in favor of home consoles, Nguyens’ custom arcade sticks supported the competitive fighting gaming community in an increasingly indifferent gaming culture.
While nowadays anyone with a few hundred dollars can grab a decent arcade from companies like Mad Catz, Razer or Qanba, this has not been the case for American players in ‘90s and early things. And even if you had the time and money to import a controller from Japan, what you received would be far from what you were used to in arcades, both in terms of the parts used and the overall caliber of construction. Back then, American gamers felt even more comfortable with the elongated joysticks found in the West – that was long before the proliferation of standard Japanese-style ball tops – and the early manufacturers were still figuring out how to produce controllers. quality for the mass market.
That’s what made MAS so special for wrestling players in the United States. The family’s massive, heavy, multi-system controllers – these beauties were meant to be placed on floors or tables, not human towers – almost perfectly reproduced the US arcade experience, allowing players to train at home and when the scene began to move exclusively on consoles, participate in prestigious tournaments, such as the Evolution Championship Series, without resorting to playing on a modest Dreamcast or PlayStation pad. It was a revolutionary concept at the time that paved the way for the widely produced arcade sticks we know today and the modern fighting game competition in general.
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“I’m kidding that at the time, you felt like you were going to the secret blacksmith who forged your gun when you were introduced to the fighting game community,” said Timberline Studio programmer and designer Nathaniel Chapman. Kotaku by private message. “Reynalda used to watch her children in the back while Thao worked. Thao beloved to talk to you while he was working and, in my experience, a lot of what he talked about was how shitty other controllers were. He was obsessed with quality; he glued everything by hand and ran several consoles near his workstation to test the inputs before turning your stick over. ”
After learning of the deaths of Thao and Reynalda Lynn, social media was flooded with now bittersweet memories of the impact Nguyens had on fighting games in both casual gaming and serious competition. Many come from people who still participate in the fighting game community, but have continued to work as game developers.
“If I didn’t get a MAS stick, where would I be? Would I still play fighting games? “The legend of the fighting game said Justin Wong its Twitch stream while raising money for the Nguyen family earlier this week. He, too mentioned that he was using a MAS in his time the infamous Evo 2004 match with Daigo Umehara, who has since become one of the most important moments in the history of fighting games.
“Thank you for helping us build our community.” said Mark Julio, a member of the fighting game community who helped Mad Catz enter the stick market around the launch Street Fighter IV in 2009.
“Thao and Lynn are absolute legends of the fighting game community,” longtime contestant Scott “Saber” Bender wrote on Twitter.
“[Thao’s] The passion for creating the perfect arcade fighting sticks in the 1990s is how the early fighting game community managed to train at home, “added Alex Valle, a Southern California tournament organizer and veteran of the fighting game. Alex Valle added which LISTED Thao as the “original FGC blacksmith.”
Patrick Miller, another old man he’s currently working on A League of Legends fighting game the Riot Games, wrote the fact that MAS sticks “defined an early era of home fighting games.”
Supergiant Games creative director Greg Kasavin left a very emotional comment family donation page. “When I first came in contact with [the Nguyens’] to work, I was a miserable teenager who could never hope to explain a normal person how significant was a stick MAS Systems ” Hades the writer said. “These are some of the best things I’ve ever paid for. I remember thinking that Thao and Lynn were real artists, creating these authentic pieces of the arcade experience that people like me could have at home. ”
A common feeling among those who remember those who left is the hope that Thao and Reynalda Lynn have understood how important their work is to the different people who made up (and still make up) the fighting game community. As Justin Wong noted, it might not be the case today if a MAS controller hadn’t eased its transition from arcade competition to the home console. Thao, Reynalda Lynn and the small business they grew up in Southern California have touched so many lives that their memory will live on in the hearts of fighting game players and the passion of the competitive community forever.
Thank you, Thao and Reynalda Lynn, for every push of a button, every pop-up window, every salty comeback in the last two decades. Rest in peace.
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