MrSega wrote:I understand that there's alot of expectations for the Wii U, but I seriously have a bad feeling about it. That the price tag may not be so attractive and the controller could sink the system, top that with rumors of a PS3.5 and things aren't looking good for the new Wii U.
I respect your opinion HowlingFear, but my hunch is, the more people find out about Wii U, the less excited they'll become about it.
Anyway on topic, the reason why the Super System/FUTURA will most likely be unveiled during AOU 2012 is because its usually where the arcade variant of the console goes on display, Saturn's arcade cousin Model 2 went on display at AOU '94.There's also word that the new board will use 3D stereoscopic processing using NEC Power VR 6, this would make Super System/FUTURA the first new platformer preceeding Xbox BULLDOZER capable of such a feat.
The arcade counterpart to the Sega Saturn (or it's "cousin" as you put it) was the Sega Titan Video system or ST-V, not the Model 2 as you claim. Here are the specs for the ST-V:
Main CPUs : 2 x Hitachi SH-2 @ 28.6364 MHz
Sound CPU : MC68000 @ 11.45456 MHz
Sound chip : SCSP/YMF292-F (315-5687)/"LAKE" @ 11.3MHz, 32 PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) Channels, 44.1 khz Sampling Rate
Secondary CPUs;
SCU DSP : fixed point maths coprocessor, up to 4 parallel instructions.
VDP 1 : 32-bit video display processor : sprite and polygon, dual 256KB frame buffers for rotation and scaling effects, Texture Mapping, Goraud Shading, 512KB cache for textures
VDP 2 : 32-bit background and scroll plane video display processor, 2 Windows for special calculations, transparency, shadowing, background engine, 5 simulataneous scrolling backgrounds, 2 simultaneous rotating playfields, up to 60 frames per second animation
Main RAM : 2 Megabytes (16 megabits)
VRAM : 1.54 Megabytes (12 megabits)
Audio RAM : 512 Kilobytes (4 megabits)
Rendering Speed : 200,000 Texture Mapped Polygons/Second, 500,000 Flat Shaded Polygons/Second
Colours : 24-bit true color graphics, 16. Million Available Colors
Resolution : 320x224, 640x224, and 720x576 horizontal and 240, 448, and 480 vertical
Board composition : Main board + Game cartridge (one or more in the same time)
Game Cartridge Size : Max size = 384mbit (48meg)
Other infos : This board is Jamma and uses a standard resolution monitor
Source: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=711
As you can see from the technical specifications above, the ST-V was almost identical to the Saturn, the main difference being that the ST-V uses cartridges to store games, instead of CD-Roms. While it is true that both ST-V and the MODEL 2 boards were developed around the same time, the MODEL 2 board was actually a development of the previous MODEL 1 board and is radically different to the Saturn/ST-V.