Sonic's Schoolhouse

Sonic's Schoolhouse

Developers
	BAP Interactive
	Orion Interactive
Publishers
	Sega Entertainment
Re-release	Expert Software
Engines
	I3D
Release dates
Windows	October 18, 1996
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control, Point and select
Genres	Educational
Art styles	Cartoon, Pre-rendered graphics
Series	Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic's Schoolhouse is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person educational game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series developed by BAP Interactive and Orion Interactive and published by Sega Entertainment.

The game was released for Windows on October 18, 1996.

Sonic's Schoolhouse suffers from various compatibility issues on modern systems. Most issues can be resolved with compatibility settings and third-party programs.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		See Run without the CD.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\SONICSH.INI

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\SONICSH.INI

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		640x480 only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Prone to multiple graphical issues, such as disappearing/black UI elements and incorrect window scaling.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers		DirectInput controllers are supported.
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		On/off toggle for music only.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Co-op, Versus
LAN play
Online play
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues fixed

Unable to install on 64-bit systems

Both installers on the game CD are 16-bit.

Use winevdm
Download and install the latest release. On the game CD, run AUTORUN.EXE or INSTALL95\SETUP32.EXE and install the game normally.

Copy over required files from the CD
Copy DRIVERS\WING\WING32.DLL to %WINDIR%\SysWOW64. Copy SONIC\SONICSH.INI to %WINDIR%. Note The SONIC folder contains all game contents, allowing the game to be run directly from the CD or copied to any other location.

Game window does not scale to screen

Enable the Run in 640x480 screen resolution compatibility setting for <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE

"Unable to initialize sound system"

Results in missing in-game music/sounds.

Set the compatibility mode of <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE to Windows 95 or Windows 98 / Windows Me
These compatibility modes include the CorrectSoundDeviceId compatibility fix, which resolves the error.

Apply the CorrectSoundDeviceId compatibility fix to <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE in Compatibility Administrator

Download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). Run the ADK setup. On the feature selection screen of the setup, toggle the Application Compatibility Tools option before beginning the installation. After the ADK is installed, download this compatibility database and open it in the 32-bit version of Compatibility Administrator. Right-click on the database and click Install on the drop-down menu.

"ERROR: Specified System Has Not Been Initialized"

Often occurs after resolving "Unable to initialize sound system".

Use CoolSoft MIDIMapper
Download and install CoolSoft MIDIMapper. Run the configuration program and select a default MIDI device.

"Video not available, cannot find 'vids:IV32' decompressor"

Occurs upon entering the field trip school bus.

Enable the Indeo Video 3.2 codec for Windows
Download the Indeo codec restoration patch for iv32. Run the .reg file.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
WinG

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Human Machine Interface (HMI) audio drivers

Run without the CD

By default, the installer copies minimal game assets to the system. The rest are fetched from the CD using paths defined in the configuration file.

Copy over assets from the CD
Open SONIC on the CD. Copy ART, AVI, MAP, MIDI, TEX, and WAV to <path-to-game>. Copy SONICSH.INI to %WINDIR%.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	3.1, 95
Processor (CPU)	Intel i486DX2 66 MHz	Intel Pentium 60 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	2 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA
Sound (audio device)	Sound Blaster 16 or compatible
Other	2x CD-ROM drive	4x CD-ROM drive