Arcade IC Cards
Modern arcade games are generally connected over the internet to enabled various important features which are expected by players in other game platforms. These features often include saving player scores and data, accessing bought content and enabling multiplayer. There have been many systems over the years, each with different ways to access them.
Active Services
Amusement IC
Amusement IC (AICC for short) is a unified standard for accessing arcade game content on arcade cabinets created by a joint venture of Konami and SEGA. Currently the AICC service is used by four major arcade vendors from Japan on their arcade cabinets; Konami, Sega, Bandai Namco and Taito. This does not mean all their games automatically work with an AICC formatted card, as only card readers which can read FeliCa Lite or FeliCa LiteS cards are compatible[1]. Prior to the Amusement IC unification, all these cards were originally their own service. Compatible cards feature the Amusement IC logo somewhere on the card. A list of arcade rhythm games which are currently compatible with AICC can be found in this category. Besides many popular rhythm games, AICC can also be used for many other non-rhythm games by these publishers.
Konami e-amusement Pass
Konami's e-amusement service was one of the first arcade live cloud services, as it started operation on August 30, 2002. Originally e-amusement was only for tracking high-scores and viewing online ranking boards using an Entry Card. These Entry Cards worked for a single game, meaning you had to buy multiple for each individual game. In November of 2005, the e-amusement pass which worked for multiple games was introduced, using the ISO/IEC 15693 standard. Almost every modern Konami released arcade game is linked to the e-amusement cloud, and by extension almost all of these games use an e-amusement pass. Cards which use the FeliCa LiteS specification work with AICC starting October 25th, 2018.
SEGA aime
aime is the cloud network for dedicated cabinets by SEGA. This service got its own dedicated card on September 9th, 2010. For cloud distribution of games, SEGA uses ALL.net. Both of these services allow you to keep track of player data with AICC starting October 25th, 2018, and AICC-supported aime cards were launched shortly after.
Bandai Namco Banapass
Bandai Namco Banapass (also known as Bandai namco Passport) is the card used for Bandai Namco's online service arcade games since around 2013. The modern versions of these cards work with AICC starting October 25th, 2018.
Taito NESiCA
NESiCAxLive is the digital distribution system by Taito under Square Enix. It uses the NESiCA card system to keep track of player data for a few of the games on this service. Cards work with AICC starting October February 14th, 2019.
Andamiro AM.Pass
Andamiro has its own card system for Pump It Up and Chrono Circle, introduced in January of 2017 with the launch of Pump it Up Prime 2. Entries prior to Pump It Up Phoenix (2023) allowed tracking player data using USB devices, and this feature has been deprecated in support of the AM.Pass.
Because AM.Pass uses the same card standard as the old e-amusement cards, specifically ISO/IEC 15693, these cards can interfere with logging in on Konami cabinets when both are scanned at the same time, like by holding up your wallet to the card reader. This generally simply throws an error.
Online service for Chrono Circle ended in January 1st 2025, and will no longer support online card functions.
Retired Services
Pentavision Platinum Crew ID
Pentavision (Now known as Neowiz) used to have its own card system for use with the DJMax Technika games starting December 31, 2008. There were variants released that worked with the first two games and a newer variant that could only be used with the third entry in the series. Various limited editions of these cards were released until the end of online services on December 31st, 2013.
Notes & References
- ↑ Amusment IC Specification Breakdown on Sega Arcade Docs BSNK
External Links
- Konami e-amusement list of games incompatible with AICC.
- SEGA AiMe game compatibility list.
- Bandai Namco Banapass game compatibility list.
- Taito NESiCA game compatibility list.
- Andamiro AM.Pass website.