http://www.bjsyouth.cn/viewthread.php?tid=36578 Google Translate: Other than the fact there's at least one in the wild and that it seems to do with... terminals, does anybody know anything else about this?
The maximum the Mega Drive can do in serial mode is 4800 anyways, so don't expect much really. Also, I'm not sure if this is using the modem or not - if it does then I'd expect 2400 to be the cap since that's what the modem does. And I still have no clear pics of the Ten Keypad (stumbled upon this looking for that... some kanji is too blurry even in the best pics available).
oh look, someone was kind enough to save some pictures from an auction it went for 53,000 yen, which is about £400, $650 USD that was considered "cheap"
That's the pic I have been using, but sadly the kanji is way too blurry to be usable. I've been literally trying to guess off the simplest kanji and then looking for something that somewhat matched the shape, but I can't find anything for the top left and top right buttons because of the blurriness. Considering the quote I posted originally said 250,000 yen, yes, that's cheap. At least now we're sure it exists... EDIT: better question, what makes use of this? I don't see any cartridge there...
Except absolutely none of that software knows anything at all about terminals... though yes, mentioning bps implies serial mode, so the hardware interface is pretty much a given. Now the thing is the software-side protocol. I don't know about a single ROM that knows about the Mega Terminal at all though, so I guess that means there's at least one more ROM to find out about.
I read somewhere that there's an "ISDN" setting on the Mega Modem (which presumably this connects to in some way). don't know if that's true. I know next to nothing about this bit of hardware.
Got bored and started looking around for no reason... http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~fa2k-smz/megax06.html Sansan uses the Mega Terminal?! Apparently, Sansan had two ways to connect two players on-line: through the servers (for which MD support has been shut down by now) and by connecting two systems directly through ISDN terminals (which doesn't require subscription anywhere so it still should work). In other words, it was being used like it was the equivalent of LAN for Mega Drive.
Sik just found these http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tatunama/16708269.html http://www.vgdiy.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=196 Apparently only Sansan and Go Net use the (quite massive) thing... there's probably more information heere but it needs to be translated
More from Sik http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tatunama/GALLERY/show_image.html?id=16708269&no=3 ...Sunsoft? (or rather the parent company Sun Electronics but still)
Yes, those pics were in the first link you dropped above, and yes it is Sun Electronics (literally Sun Denshi Kabushiki Kaisa on the serial sticker, but, you know, same company). Also, it is the 76th unit of its production run and it was made in 1990, so release date should be either 1990 or very early 1991.