In the early hours of March 29, a unintentional, cooking-related fire in Westminster, California claimed the life of 63-year-old Reynalda Lynn Nguyen. Her husband, Thao Nguyen, survived in a critical condition for two weeks before also passing away on April 13. They leave behind two children, Anthony and Alexandria Kristen Nguyen, who are accept donations so that they can afford to bury their parents.
You may not know the Nguyens by name, but if you’re already familiar with fighting games, you might be aware of their legacy. 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. While the United States moved away from arcades in favor of home consoles, the Nguyens’ custom arcade sticks supported the competitive fighting game community in an increasingly indifferent gaming culture.
While nowadays anyone with a few hundred dollars can grab a decent arcade stick from companies like Mad Catz, Razer or Qanba, that was not the case for American players in the 1990s and early years. And even if you had the time and money to import a controller from Japan, what you would get would be a long way from what you were used to in arcades, both in terms of parts used and overall build caliber. At the time, American players were even more comfortable with the elongated bat-top joysticks common in the West – this was long before the spread of the now standard, Japanese-style ball-tops – and early manufacturers were still figuring out how to produce quality controllers for the mass market.
That’s what made MAS so special for fighters in the United States. The family’s huge, heavy, multi-system controllers – these beauties were meant to be placed on floors or tables, not on people’s laps – almost perfectly replicated the American arcade experience, allowing players to practice at home and, when the scene unfolded. started moving exclusively on consoles, compete in prestigious tournaments such as the Evolution Championship Series without having to play on a simple 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 joke that at the time it felt like you went to the secret blacksmith who forges your weapon when you are included in the fighting game community,” Timberline told Studio programmer and designer Nathaniel Chapman. Kotaku via private message. Reynalda usually watched their kids in the back while Thao worked. Thao loved to talk to you while he was working, and in my experience he talked a lot about how crappy other controllers were. He was obsessed with quality; he soldered everything by hand and ran several consoles past his workstation to test inputs before giving you back your stick. “
After hearing of the passing of Thao and Reynalda Lynn, social media was inundated with now bittersweet reminders of the impact the Nguyens had on fighting games in both casual play and serious competition. Many belonged to people who still participate in the fighting game community, but have also established themselves as game developers.
‘If I didn’t get a MAS stick, where would I be? Would I still play fighting games? fighting game legend Justin Wong continued his Twitch stream while raising money for the Nguyen family earlier this week. He too mentioned that he used a MAS during his infamous Evo 2004 competition with Daigo Umehara, which has since become one of the most important moments in fighting game history.
“Thanks for helping shape our community,” said Mark Julio, an integral member of the fighting game community who helped Mad Catz enter the arcade stick market around the release of Street Fighter IV in 2009.
“Thao and Lynn are absolute legends of the fighting game community,” longtime competitor Scott “saber” Bender wrote on Twitter.
[Thao’s] passion for making arcade-perfect fighting sticks in the ’90s is how the early fighting game community could train at home, ”added Alex Valle, a Southern California tournament organizer and fighting game veteran. referred to Thao as “the original FGC blacksmith.”
Patrick Miller, another classic car currently working a League of Legends fighting game at Riot Games, wrote that MAS arcade sticks “defined an early era of home fighting games.
Supergiant Games creative director Greg Kasavin left a particularly moving comment the family donation page“When I first came into contact with it [the Nguyens’] work, I was just a miserable teenager who could never hope to explain to a normal person the importance of a MAS Systems stick, ”the Hades said writer. “These remain some of the best things I’ve ever paid for. I remember thinking that Thao and Lynn were real artists, creating these real pieces of the arcade experience that people like me could have at home. “
A common sentiment among those who remember the deceased is the hope that Thao and Reynalda Lynn understood the importance of their work to the various people who formed (and still make up) the fighting game community. As Justin Wong noted, he might not even be there today if an MAS controller hadn’t eased his transition from arcade to home console competition. Thao, Reynalda Lynn and the small business they cultivated in Southern California touched so many lives that their memory will live on forever in the hearts of fighters and the passion of the competitive community.
Thank you, Thao and Reynalda Lynn, for every push of a button, every pop-off, every salty backlash over the past two decades. Rest in peace.