Joining and AW cards

Anyone could play with an AW card. To get the website, the shop and cross-game records, you had to join AW-NET on your phone, and register your card.

Three levels of player

	No card	AW card only	AW card and membership
Play the game	Yes	Yes	Yes
Records saved	No	On the card, for one game	On the card and the server, for every game
National rankings	No	Some games	Yes
AW points	No	No	Yes
Website and shop	No	No	Yes

Kintaro's visitor site spells this out: a card was enough to save your records and appear in the national rankings, while members also got detailed statistics, rival search, the shop and event entry.

Signing up, step by step

Buy an AW card at an arcade with AW-NET cabinets, and play a supported game with it. The early instructions say the card had to have been used before you could register it.
Find AW-NET Mobile in your carrier's menu and subscribe. The routes Sammy gave at launch:
- i-mode: iMenu → Menu list → Games → Games 2 → Variety → AW-NET
- EZweb: Category search → Games → General → AW-NET
- Vodafone live!: Menu list → Mobile games → Game applications → Variety → AW-NET
Register the card by typing in the 16-digit access code printed on its back.
Make a website login. On the phone, go to Account management → Register/change PC login ID, and choose an AWID and password.
Log in to awnet.jp with the AWID and password.

There was no way to sign up on the website itself. The membership guide also warned that if you didn't open AW-NET Mobile for over a month, the website login could stop working.

The three numbers

Three different numbers come up, and they're easy to confuse:

AWID: your website login name, chosen on your phone. One AWID covered every game.
Access code: the 16 digits on the back of your card. It identified the physical card on your account.
Customer ID: a number stored on Japanese cartridges of AW-NET games, different on every cartridge, and shown in the cabinet's network settings. Players never dealt with it. See Cartridges.

Cost

The May 2004 guide gives ¥315 a month, tax included (¥300 before tax). Cards were sold at the arcade: Arcadia's February 2004 guide to joining gives the standard price as ¥500. Playing still cost whatever the arcade charged. Victory Furlong's December 2004 location-test cards sold for ¥100.

One card, several games

Early adverts said one card worked with every AW-NET game. That was true for members. A non-member's card held data for one game only, and a July 2004 notice warned that a card already used in one game couldn't be used in another without joining. One person could register only one card at a time.

Card use limits and replacement

Each card was good for a fixed number of plays. The Outlive Encyclopedia gives 500 for a Guilty Gear Isuka card. When a card hit zero at an online cabinet, the game offered to transfer your data onto a fresh card on the spot. If a card was lost or damaged, members could buy a new one, log in on the website or phone, choose card transfer and type in the new card's number. The old card stopped working once the transfer went through.

The transfer guide warned against a few sequences that could lose data, such as playing offline right after a web transfer, which could reset your total results.

Changing phones

Changing handsets but keeping the same number kept your account. Changing your number didn't. A March 2005 FAQ added that switching between DoCoMo's older mova phones and its newer FOMA phones also counted as a new number, even if the number stayed the same.

Compatible phones

Each carrier kept a list of handsets that could run AW-NET Mobile. These are the lists as the site published them.

Carrier	As of	Handsets
DoCoMo / i-mode	2004-04-28	D503iS, D503i, SO503iS, SO503i, N503iS, N503i, P503iS, F503iS, F503i, P504iS, P504i, SO504i, N504iS, N504i, F504iS, F504i, D504i, F505iGPS, SH505iS, SO505iS, N505iS, P505iS, D505iS, P505i, F505i, N505i, SH505i, SO505i, D505i, N252i, P252i, SH252i, D252i, N2051, F2051, N2102V, F2102V, P2102V, N2701, N900i, SH900i, P900i, F900i · source
DoCoMo / i-mode	2004-05-27	D503iS, D503i, SO503iS, SO503i, N503iS, N503i, P503iS, F503iS, F503i, P504iS, P504i, SO504i, N504iS, N504i, F504iS, F504i, D504i, F505iGPS, SH505iS, SO505iS, N505iS, P505iS, D505iS, P505i, F505i, N505i, SH505i, SO505i, D505i, N2701, N2051, F2051, N2102V, F2102V, P2102V, N900i, SH900i, P900i, F900i · source
DoCoMo / i-mode	2005-01-26	P213i, SO213i, SO213iS, D251iS, N251i, N251iS, P251iS, D252i, N252i, P252i, SH252i, D253i, D253iWM, P253i, D503i, D503iS, F503i, F503iS, N503i, N503iS, P503iS, SO503i, SO503iS, 504 (i , iS) シリーズ, 505 (i , iS , iGPS) シリーズ, D506i, F506i, N506i, P506iC, SH506iC, F2051, N2051, F2102V, N2102V, P2102V, N2701, D900i, F900i, F900iC, F900iT, N900i, N900iS, P900i, P900iV, SH900i, F901iC, N901iC · source
Vodafone live!	2004-04-28	V601N, V601SH, V801SA · source
Vodafone live!	2004-05-27	V801SA, V601SH, V601N · source
Vodafone live!	2004-09-24	V801SH, V801SA, V602SH, V601T, V601SH, V601N · source
au / EZweb	2004-04-28	A5401CA, A5402S, A5305K, A5303H II, A5303H, A5302CA, A5301T, C5001T, A3015SA, A3014S, A3013T, A3012CA, A3011SA, C3003P, C3002K, C3001H, W11K, W11H · source
au / EZweb	2004-05-27	A5401CA, A5402S, A5305K, A5303H II, A5303H, A5302CA, A5301T, C5001T, A3015SA, A3014S, A3013T, A3012CA, A3011SA, C3003P, C3002K, C3001H, W11K, W11H · source
au / EZweb	2005-01-25	W22SA, W21T, W21SA, W21S, W21K, W21H, W11K, W11H, INFOBAR, talby, A5506T, A5504T, A5503SA, A5502K, A5501T, A5407CA, A5406CA, A5405SA, A5404S, A5403CA, A5402S, A5401CA, A5305K, A5303H II, A5303H, A5302CA, A5301T, C5001T, A3015SA, A3014S, A3013T, A3012CA, A3011SA, C3003P, C3002K, C3001H, A1403K, A1401K, A1304T · source