Sonic & Knuckles Collection

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This page is for Windows 95 compilation. For the emulated re-release, see Sonic 3 & Knuckles.


⤏ Go to series page
Sonic CD (1996)	1996
Sonic's Schoolhouse	1996
Sonic 3D Blast	1997
Sonic & Knuckles Collection	1997
Sonic R (1998)	1998
Sonic R (2004)	2004
Sonic Adventure (series)
Sonic Heroes	2004
Sonic Mega Collection Plus	2006
Sonic Riders	2006
Sonic Racing (series)
Sonic 3D Blast (2010)	2010
Sonic the Hedgehog	2010
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine	2010
Sonic Spinball	2010
Sonic the Hedgehog 2	2011
Sonic 3 & Knuckles	2011
Sonic Generations	2011
Sonic CD (2012)	2012
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I	2012
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II	2012
Sonic Dash	2014
Sonic Lost World	2015
Sonic Mania	2017
Sonic Forces	2017
Sonic the Hedgehog (Mobile Decompilation)	2021
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mobile Decompilation)	2021
Sonic Colors: Ultimate	2021
Sonic Origins	2022
Sonic Frontiers	2022

Key points

This collection includes Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and the Blue Spheres lock-on game (listed as "Special Stage Mode").

Higher resolutions over other versions.

Allows one the choice of playing Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles standalone, the way they were initially released.

The original Genesis/Mega Drive music has been replaced by synthesized MIDI. Use S&KC Mod Loader to restore the original Genesis/Mega Drive music.

General information

The official developer website

Sonic Retro - A huge fan site for everything Sonic the Hedgehog. Mods for all the games can be found here.

Availability[edit]

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Disc check; see Run without the CD.

This game is not available digitally. This game was also included in Sonic Action Pack, Sonic Action 4 Pack, and Sega PC Mega Pack.^[1]

A demo is available.

Essential improvements[edit]

Sega PC Reloaded[edit]

Simple and easy-to-use launcher with many options and tweaks.

Korama's Sega PC Reloaded is an installer, launcher, and patcher for some of Sega's older PC games. It currently supports Sonic & Knuckles Collection, Sonic CD (1995), Sonic 3D Blast, and Ecco the Dolphin (deprecated). It also fixes issues and/or broken functions of these games and allows them to run on Windows Vista and later along with some added improvements.

Installing the game with Sega PC Reloaded^[2]

Insert the Sonic & Knuckles Collection disc into your CD drive or copy the GAME folder from the disc into your computer.
Download Sega PC Reloaded here, then run the launcher. From the launcher menu, select the Install Game option, and then select Sonic & Knuckles Collection.
Select the Select source option from the menu to install from the disc or the folder containing the game's files, then you will be asked to find the drive letter where the disc is located (e.g. D:\) or the game folder, afterwards the launcher will then ask you to create a new folder to install the game with the patches.

Alternatively, you can install the patches into <path-to-game> by selecting the Already installed option to patch the game.
If the Sega PC Reloaded launcher has detected the game, you can adjust the settings as you see fit, then click Launch! to play the game. You should see "Korama's patches active!" appearing on screen when launching the game.

S&KC Mod Loader[edit]

Installing Sega PC Reloaded first is highly recommended.

Comes with SMPS Player which can restore the original Sega Genesis/Mega Drive music, if desired. SMPS-based fan recreations of the PC-specific music tracks are also offered.

Support for custom music.

The S&KC Mod Loader can allow tweaks and mods to be applied on Sonic & Knuckles Collection.

Use S&KC Mod Loader^[2]

Download S&KC Mod Loader here, then extract its contents to <path-to-game>.
Run the SKCModManager.exe, then check any of the included mods with the file name [SMPS] if you wish to use the original Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version music, or check the MIDI Music mod if you use the synthesized MIDI music. Make sure to not mix the SMPS Player and MIDI music mods together.
Click Install Loader to install the necessary *.dll files.
Select the game mode of your choice (Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic & Knuckles, or Sonic 3), then click Save & Play. You should hear the music of your choice when launching the game.

Run without the CD[edit]

Sega PC Reloaded includes this fix by default.

Create a S3K.INI file^[3]

Create a new text file with a text editor (e.g. Notepad, Notepad++).
Copy and paste the debug configuration file's contents below into the text file.
Set CDCheckEnable to 0.
Save the file as S3K.INI (File → Save or Ctrl+S), then place this file into %WINDIR%. The game should be able to run without the disc.

[Debug]
MukaiDropFrame=0
DebugMode=1
EnableFrameDrop=0
ShowFrameCount=0
EnableFrameCapture=1
UseModeX=1
NoSoundEffect=0
CDCheckEnable=1
SonicGameMode=0

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Sonic3K\^{[Note 1]}

If using Sega PC Reloaded, its settings will be stored in SONIC3K.ini under <path-to-game>.

The SonicGameMode variable changes which game will be played: 0 is Sonic 3 & Knuckles (default), 1 is Sonic & Knuckles, and 2 is Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Save game data location[edit]

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SONIC3K.BIN^{[Note 2]}

Video[edit]

General settings of Sega PC Reloaded launcher.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Upscales from 320x240 (or 640x480 with Sega PC Reloaded). When using Sega PC Reloaded, the game can be either upscaled with nearest neighbor scaling or half-tone stretching, but the latter can cause the game to slow down; the game can also be either be rendered in 4:3 or stretched-to-fit.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		2D game.
Windowed		Toggle with `F4` or set through Sega PC Reloaded.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Sega PC Reloaded runs in borderless fullscreen.^[4]
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Vsync is always on fullscreen mode, for better vsync use Sega PC Reloaded; V-sync method can either be normal or reversed.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Game speed is tied to frame-rate, anything higher than 60 FPS will be unplayable.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input[edit]

Key remapping.

Controller set-up.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		`Esc` is bound to Jump and cannot be changed.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Mouse not used in-game.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Exiting the game requires keyboard or mouse.
Controller remapping		Movement is bound to joystick and Jump buttons are bound to Buttons 1 and 2. Controls cannot be changed.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio[edit]

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Partial with Sega PC Reloaded. Music volume can adjust through a slider while Sound Effects can either be enabled or muted.
Surround sound
Subtitles		No speech.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Japanese				Only in the Japanese version.
Korean				Only in the Korean version.
Spanish

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	2	Co-op, Versus Only Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles have multiplayer. For co-op mode, start a 1 Player game and play as Sonic & Tails; player 1 is Sonic and player 2 is Tails.
LAN play
Online play

Issues fixed[edit]

Game runs too fast[edit]

Use Sega PC Reloaded (recommended)^[2]

Notes

The game may still run too fast, even when using Sega PC Reloaded. Try using Vsync (reverse) in case Vsync (normal) does not work.

Enable Frame-dropping^[2]

See Run without the CD.
Set EnableFrameDrop to 1.
Save the changes.