Hardware notes

Detailed research notes. Quoted source text may be machine-translated.

Notes on AW cards, card readers, cabinets and network hardware. Three Sammy patent applications from late 2003 describe a similar card-and-network system, but none of them names AW-NET or Atomiswave, so they are treated here as related designs only.

Period motherboard manual

See the preserved English manual and page-specific notes. Printed pages 22–23 show tournament counters and an optional network menu. Neither establishes which AW-NET game supplied a feature. The Japanese SD cabinet manual independently describes a local four-cabinet harness and points to its separate manual; that harness is not Internet multiplayer.

MAME's modern hardware observations

Source: MAME Atomiswave driver, pinned revision. Its BSD-3-Clause licensing header remains intact. These are preservation notes, not Sammy's period service specification.

The driver identifies the AW-NET board as Sammy AM3AJG-01, LAN PCB, 2003, SAMLAN Rev. D, with an RTL8139CL+ Ethernet controller. It describes a separate Sega board required to boot Extreme Hunting 2 Tournament Edition, even without a live network connection. That is not evidence that Extreme Hunting 2 belonged to Japan's AW-NET member service.

The notes report a filled, unique value in Japanese cartridges and an FF-filled field in English cartridges, where AW-NET features are unused. This is a cartridge/customer identifier; it should not be confused with the 16-digit AW-card serial or the member-created PC AWID. The comments are examples concerning NGBC/NEOWAVE, not an exhaustive regional feature audit.

Public hardware discussion: wiring and conflicting storage claims

Source: Arcade-Projects hardware catalog thread, posts dated 2020–2025. Direct HTML and three selected image requests returned 403 in the earlier pass. Ordinary browser viewing and asset export succeeded on 9 October 2026. The separately preserved arcadeprojects-web-tool-reading.json remains a web tool's text rendering, not original HTML. Browser-exported original photograph responses and English image notes are in the hardware photo gallery.

In October 2020, MetalliC describes a Victory Furlong setup with communication cartridge, a touchscreen using the DB9 connector and a Maxell ME-MA21 or ME-MR21 reader on CN3. The post describes inserting a new card and sending player data to the server. This is modern technical testimony; the exact released enrollment screens are not recovered.

The June 2024 replies disagree about card storage. One calls it only an identifier; MetalliC replies that it also retained profile/progress backup for offline cabinets. Preserve both claims alongside the recovered period FAQ. It shows a modern physical display, not a successful network session, the enrollment sequence or an authenticated member page. The neighboring image is Extreme Hunting 2 Tournament Edition equipment; it is not evidence for Japanese AW-NET membership.

Public Maxell reader-family exhibits, filed after AW-NET closure

The public FCC exhibit index dates these exhibits to 14 December 2006, after AW-NET's shutdown. The manufacturer manual, PDF pages 4, 6 and 8, identifies modules supplied to Sega through Kaga Devices. ME-MA21 uses UART/CMOS; ME-MR21 uses RS232C. Compatible ME-Y2000 chips have 1/2/4 Kbyte capacities. Radio communication is 13.56 MHz at 212 kbps. Host serial rates are nominally 19,200 or 38,400 bps (actual 18,750/37,500), with eight data bits, one stop bit and even parity; power-on default is nominal 19,200.

These are reader-family specifications. They do not identify the AW card's actual chip/capacity, record structure, server protocol or installed reader revision. The modern forum's model identification is the link to Atomiswave. The index's separate public installation manual explicitly concerns SEGA NETWORK CASINO CLUB, so its character/accessory storage examples are not AW-NET evidence.

The two separately preserved external-photo exhibits label the pictured variants ME-MA21-A-SNT and ME-MR21-A-SG.

Still needed

The existing nosuke router diary, specifically 7 April 2021 within that multi-day response, identifies the branded red router as apparently a NetGenesis SuperOPT100. English reading: the owner could reach authentication using Internet Explorer but could not log in with the manufacturer's default; a factory reset restored access, followed by a firmware update. These are later preservation actions. Inference: settings/screens seen after that reset cannot establish Sammy's original service configuration. This does not recover its original credentials, routes, server addresses or installer procedure. The unchanged router photographs are already included in the main translation gallery; the new search did not create an independent hardware witness.

A further dated primary source is now available in the recovered service-page FAQ reading.

The Japanese AW-NET installation/service manuals, AW-specific reader configuration, separate multiplayer-system manual, and evidence of actual card fields remain priorities. The new public Maxell document describes the generic reader family only. Generic motherboard menus, modern emulator comments and forum testimony cannot fill the missing mobile payment screens.

It adds hardware photographs but does not recover the separately referenced multiplayer-system manual or create a second independent textual witness.

Its first-edition date is 1 December 2002 with a separate 2003 copyright; it does not move AW-NET’s December 2003 commercial launch backward. The Latin American kit list’s communication cover is distinct from an installed communication peripheral.

A further public-manual mirror check verified the DIY Retro Arcade Shopify response is byte-identical to the preserved supaTurbo 27-page scan. The Arcade Museum PDF extraction identifies the same scan credit, but direct byte retrieval returned 403, so its hash identity remains unverified. See oct09_manual_mirror_audit.json. Visual review of the Japanese SD cabinet manual’s PDF page 62 independently confirms its first edition was 1 October 2003; the October contact-information date is no longer the only dating evidence. This does not recover the separate multiplayer/network installation manuals.

Public manual-cover photographs

Two unchanged cover photographs and English readings identify distinct Sammy documents: AW Multiplayer System — Supplementary Instruction Manual and ATOMISWAVE SD CABINET — Parts List. The first printed title supplies a more precise name than the seller’s “VS multiplayer” title. This is consistent with the cabinet manual’s reference to a separate multiplayer-system manual, but the cover alone does not prove which internal configuration/revision it describes. No interior, wiring diagram, installer/card-reader procedure, date or part number was recovered. Both source listings show a single cover photograph; additional Shopify sizing URLs are the same photographs.