I'm a diehard Atomiswave collector and fan. About three years ago I started really digging into AW-Net. I scraped all the Arcadia magazines for anything Atomiswave or AW-Net, the Wayback machine, old Japanese forums, etc. for as much info as I could find. While I was poking around I figured I'd try to see what it would take to reimplement one of the game servers. Well one thing lead to another and I ended up starting the AW-Net restoration project.
What I needed to do:
I've been quietly working on this for a few years and here's what I've done so far (it's still very much a work in progress):
I got lucky and saw the domain was free so I registered it. https://www.awnet.jp now hosts a recreation of the original site from 2004 plus an additional archive of all the stuff I came across in my search. The website might get me a C&D but it's almost completely 1:1 from back in the day for now. Recreating the site was one of the most difficult parts of the project.
AWID registration works (though is currently closed)
All game servers are functional (except Salaryman Kintaro). Victory Furlong has the rolling horse unlock system, admin organized tournaments, prize boxes, and nearly everything from the original servers. Those statuses are actual health checks reported by the servers.
The AW-Net infra is setup including AW common point tracking and in-game unlocks.
Victory Furlong's main game loop has been nearly finished in English. I don't speak Japanese so pardon the wonky english, it was all Google Translate and I took it at face value. There's still a lot that needs to be translated but it's quite playable now.
I have a working card reader (currently a usb card reader, to a raspberry pi, to a USB->Serial converter) and I patched the Victory Furlong rom and added a joystick controlled cursor. I'm working on a smaller version of the reader using an ESP32 or similar since an RPi is way too expensive now.
I still have quite a bit more testing to do but I hope to open them up to everyone soon. My main goal is supporting actual hardware but I hope to support Flycast users as well eventually.
What I needed to do:
- The awnet.jp website
- The game servers
- kofnw.awnet.jp
- ggxgw.awnet.jp
- ngbc.awnet.jp
- nskeiba.awnet.jp
- nskin.awnet.jp
- The network server
- The games
- Localizing Victory Furlong and Salaryman Kintaro
- The hardware
- Card reader
- Touchscreen
I've been quietly working on this for a few years and here's what I've done so far (it's still very much a work in progress):
I got lucky and saw the domain was free so I registered it. https://www.awnet.jp now hosts a recreation of the original site from 2004 plus an additional archive of all the stuff I came across in my search. The website might get me a C&D but it's almost completely 1:1 from back in the day for now. Recreating the site was one of the most difficult parts of the project.
AWID registration works (though is currently closed)
All game servers are functional (except Salaryman Kintaro). Victory Furlong has the rolling horse unlock system, admin organized tournaments, prize boxes, and nearly everything from the original servers. Those statuses are actual health checks reported by the servers.
The AW-Net infra is setup including AW common point tracking and in-game unlocks.
Victory Furlong's main game loop has been nearly finished in English. I don't speak Japanese so pardon the wonky english, it was all Google Translate and I took it at face value. There's still a lot that needs to be translated but it's quite playable now.
I have a working card reader (currently a usb card reader, to a raspberry pi, to a USB->Serial converter) and I patched the Victory Furlong rom and added a joystick controlled cursor. I'm working on a smaller version of the reader using an ESP32 or similar since an RPi is way too expensive now.
I still have quite a bit more testing to do but I hope to open them up to everyone soon. My main goal is supporting actual hardware but I hope to support Flycast users as well eventually.
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