Dave does your maatsura speak yasnak? Just looked at a bunch of mid 90s maatsura toys and they were all speaking yas, not fanuc - which kinda put me off. Dont know squat about that control type. Likes/dislikes?
Yep its running Yasnac i80, very good control, little more powerful and userfriendly then a similar vintage Fanuc, we call Yasnac controllers "fanuc plus". If you are familiar with Fanuc then Yasnac is cake, because it is damn near the same, just has more options stock.
I've had a few Matsuuras all with Yasnac controls. I like them. Matsuura machines are kickass, the only machines comparable are maybe Yasda and Makino. Mori, okuma and Mazak are in a lower bracket. Not that they are bad machines but they just aren't in the same class.
That said if looking at Yasnac I would stick to i80 or J300. The older MX controls are good, but a bit slow by the standards of today. I had an old MX1 control and MX3 control and they are very reliable just old, I think my MX1 was from 84 or 83. I sold it to a friend and he still uses it. So you can get some serious life out of these controls and the iron for that matter.