Timeline
From the first showing in 2002 to the shutdown in November 2006. Dates come from Sammy's and SNK's own notices, AW-NET's news pages and Arcadia; where a source only gives a month, so does this list.
- 2002
- September 2002
Atomiswave is shown
Sammy presents its new arcade board at the AM Show in Tokyo.
- 2003
- February 2003
First games at AOU
Sammy shows Atomiswave games at the AOU show.
- Spring 2003
Atomiswave goes on sale
Sammy's 2004 business report dates the release to April 2003; trade-press chronologies put the rollout in late June.
- 1 September 2003
AW GGX Mobile launches
A Guilty Gear phone service with wallpapers, ringtones and a card game, reported at ¥300 a month.
- September 2003
AW-NET is announced
At the AM Show, Sammy shows AW cards, the card reader and plans for Guilty Gear Isuka, Salaryman Kintaro and Force Five. A demo of the AW-NET website runs until 17 September.
- 17 December 2003
AW-NET opens
The service goes live with Guilty Gear Isuka. Sammy expects about 1,000 arcades.
- 2004
- 31 January 2004
Isuka EX characters
EX versions of all 20 Isuka fighters go on sale.
- 8 March 2004
More Isuka colours
Two more EX colours for each fighter.
- 13–15 March 2004
First outage
The website and phone content servers go down on 13–14 March and come back on 15 March.
- 26 March 2004
Kintaro location test; Isuka faction tally
Salaryman Kintaro starts testing in arcades. Isuka's site adds the running Holy Order versus Bounty tally.
- 28 April 2004
The website is redesigned
Every page of awnet.jp is renewed, and the Spring Campaign starts. All Isuka EX colours are now on sale.
- June 2004
1,500-point sign-up offer
New members who register a card by the end of June get 1,500 points. An early release of Kintaro's commercial version starts on 23 June.
- 8 July 2004
Server fault
From 10:50, Isuka and Kintaro are offline.
- 27 July 2004
KOF NEOWAVE released
SNK's first Atomiswave King of Fighters reaches arcades.
- 5 August 2004
NEOWAVE joins AW-NET
NEOWAVE's network features switch on at 10:00.
- September 2004
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum announced
SNK shows the game at the 2004 AM Show.
- 4 October 2004
Kintaro visitor site
A public site for Salaryman Kintaro explains its records, rankings and shop.
- November 2004 – February 2005
NEOWAVE events
Three Fight Money events and three Ring Battles. Geese Howard goes on sale for 3,500 points in late October or early November.
- November 2004 – January 2005
Victory Furlong location tests
Three rounds: 19–23 November at GiGO arcades and Regno Kawagoe, 17–26 December with ¥100 test cards, and a wider test on 14–23 January 2005.
- December 2004
Sega takes over sales
Sega begins selling Sammy's arcade machines in Japan. Sammy's arcade division is due to move into Sega in April 2005.
- 2005
- 24 March 2005
Victory Furlong released
The horse-racing game brings network races and server-side stables.
- 28–29 April 2005
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum network test
At Club Sega Shinjuku West and Club Sega Akihabara.
- 27 July 2005
NeoGeo Battle Coliseum released
The fifth and last AW-NET game. Any AW card unlocks Athena and Mars People.
- August–September 2005
Bosses go on sale
Mizuchi on 25 August, Shishioh on 1 September and NEO-DIO on 15 September.
- 2006
- 8 September 2006
Closure announced
SNK posts the notice that AW-NET will end.
- 2 October 2006
Thank-you campaign
A last campaign for members, run with Sega's mobile service.
- 30 November 2006
AW-NET ends
Online features, the website and the phone service close for all five games. Cards keep working with one game each.
- 2009
- 2009
The last Atomiswave game
Sega Bass Fishing Challenge, on a Sega-made cartridge, is the last game released for the board.