My review of the MAS system VS the HGA

MAS sent the Nova via UPS on Wednesday last week and I recieved it last night at about 6 in the evening.

Upon opening the box I noticed that everything was packed very well and plastic wrap covered the unit and the controllers.

Everything was in perfect shape. The Unit itself is large and sturdy and all of my pcb's fit perfectly on the top of it.

The controllers are arcade perfect as well. Large, heavy, and feel perfect.

I use composite video on a high definition Sony TV and the picture, while far from the likes of S-video, is pretty damn nice.

The speaker inside of the nova is actually quite impressive however I had hopes for a volume control.

When I compare this unit to the HGA made by great western trading, the Nova is by FAR the better of the two systems. The controllers of the Nova look and feel professional and there is no comparison to the half assed job blazing the "Made in Pakistan" sticker on the back of the HGA controllers.

The Nova unit itself blows away the HGA in all respects as well. You actually have to open the lid of the HGA to fiddle fuck around with the colors to make the game look good and the composite was easily 2-3 levels BELOW that of the Nova composite.

The HGA actually has the s-video and the composite video inputs located on the FRONT of the unit. One question...why the hell??

Final rating out of ten:
Inovation- While they are both inovative the HGA gets a higher rank due to the internal cooling fan versus the speaker in the Nova that you can't control the volume of.
Nova=9 HGA=9.5

Look-No comparison, the location of the units functions leave much to be desired from the HGA.
Nova=9 HGA=5

Controllers-Again no comparison, the strengths of the Nova's controllers once again outclass the HGA.
Nova=10 HGA=6

Video-While they both are not near the S-video bench mark, the HGA is much lower in quality than the Nova.
Nova=8.5 HGA=5.5

Sound-Not much difference here other than the Nova has an additional speaker located in the unit, small advantege.
Nova=8.5 HGA=8.0

If anyone has any questions, I will be more than happy to answer them...just post them here or write me at Miguel_ut@hotmail.com

Hey Brylmoo I want those controllers buddy!

Time to go and play Mark of the Wolves(amazing game incase you didn't know)

Always good to hear another side of this. There are seems to be someone with a diffirent opinion about each of these, but everyone seems to agree the HGA controls suck.

My biggest issue with these two is the video. I guess thats one of the main reasons I look forward to the seemingly "vaporware" AES2 that arcade is making.

i just got a HGA this monday, so I'm curious about the SuperNOVA. The HGA does have sticky controls, and their sales rep said that they system had RGB video outputs, which it apparently doesn't. I'm starting to feel a little disappointed in the HGA, and may return it for a SuperNOVA...

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"The speaker inside of the nova is actually quite impressive however I had hopes for a volume control."

Hey man, great review. Glad you like your Nova. I just thought you might like to know that most (if not all) Arcade PCBs have volume pontentiometers on them, those control the volume. They sometimes look like little white circles that have little arrows pointing to either side, and you turn them like a dial for a radio. Sometimes they are little slide from left to right thingys, like on my Neo Geo 2-Slot MVS Board. I personally think the internal speaker is kinda pointless, but since it's there you might as well get the most out of it.



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"A moment of realization is worth a thousand prayers."

The only question I have is how long from the time you ordered the Nova did it take to get to you?

Jeff

Hey, that's great that you like the SuperNOVA so much. That was going to be my first choice when looking for a Super Gun setup, but when I emailed both MAS and GW Trading, MAS never bothered to reply to my emails while GW answered all of my questions in a very timely manner.

So, I'd add a customer service category to that review. In my case it's...
MAS = 0
GW = 9

As for the HGA controls, yes, they are stiff at first, but they become looser in time. I really didn't like the HGA sticks at first, but now that I've broken them in, I think they're great.

Still, it looks like if MAS decides you're worthy enough to give them your money, the SuperNOVA is the Super Gun to get. However, I think the HGA is a nice setup too. But if the AES 2 ever comes out and is a reasonable price, that might be the best one of all to get, especially for Neo fans.

Everyone is saying how great the AES2 will be, and it may turn out to br great, but I have my doubts. First as a super gun, it may have a jamma harness, but what about the extra button connectors? Will it have them? And even if it does, are they going to make a stick that has more then 4 buttons to play the games that require the extra button harness?

I don't present these questions because I expect to get answers. Ray young apparently doesn't think the people in this forum are worth his time to give answers to. I'm just throwing these questions out there to make the people who are waiting for the AES2 think a bit more about it before they wait X ammount of months/years to get a product of which nothing is known about. (I don't think that is a run-on sentence...) Just my thoughts,

Matt