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Sonic 3D Blast

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original port of the Sega Saturn version. For the emulated re-release of the Genesis version, see Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis).

Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic 3D Blast cover
Developers
Sonic Team
Traveller's Tales
Publishers
Sega
Release dates
Windows September 9, 1997
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Series Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic 3D Blast on IGDB
Sonic 3D Blast guide on StrategyWiki
Sonic 3D Blast on MobyGames
Sonic 3D Blast on Wikipedia
Sonic 3D Blast
Subseries of Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic 3D Blast 1997
Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis) 2010

Key points

Based on the Sega Saturn version, including enhanced graphics and sound quality over the emulated Genesis version.
Some reprints of the game are missing the music.
Despite being based off the Sega Saturn version, the PC version is missing some of its visual effects.
Released as Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island in Europe.

General information

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

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Disc check; Remove with Sega PC Reloaded.
Windows
A demo is available.

Essential improvements

Sega PC Reloaded

Korama's Sega PC Reloaded is an application that makes a selection of legacy Sega PC games playable on modern systems.
Adds more configuration options than what the game originally shipped with.
Using Sega PC Reloaded[1]
  1. Download the newest version of Sega PC Reloaded.
  2. Run SegaPCReloaded.exe, click the "Install Game" radio button, and click the Sonic 3D Blast button.
  3. Put your game disc into your cd drive. Click "Select source" and select the cd drive with the disc in it. Select a folder to install the game to.
  4. Open Windows Media Player. Click on "Sonic 3D Blast ([cd drive])", then click the check box for every music track and click "Rip CD".
  5. Locate the folder where the music was ripped to. Select every file and move them to a new folder <path-to-game>\MUSIC.
  6. For each music file, add 1 to the number in the file name. Your files should look something like this:
    1. 02 Title Theme.mp3
    2. 03 Game Over.mp3
    3. ...
    4. 24 Success 4.mp3
    5. 25 My Hero.mp3
  7. In your Sega PC Reloaded window, type MUSIC in the "Music folder" text box.
  8. Finally, click the "Launch!" button.

Notes

Use the ddwrapper method for a simpler modern PC fix at the cost of additional features.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\PCSONIC.ini[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\pcsonic.sav[Note 1]

Video

Default options menu.
Default options menu.
Sega PC Reloaded options menu.
Sega PC Reloaded options menu.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Use Sega PC Reloaded.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Use Sega PC Reloaded; V-sync method can either be normal or reversed.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Max is 60. Use Sega PC Reloaded, and in the in-game options menu, select Game > Desired Speed > Motion Smoothing.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
Use Sega PC Reloaded to play music from hard disk instead.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Polish
Local retail only.

Issues fixed

Poor frame rate

Newer versions of Windows have minimal support for games that use DirectDraw, thus poor frame rate. A custom DLL file may help.
Use Sega PC Reloaded[citation needed]
Use ddwrapper[2]
  1. Download ddwrapper from the creator's site.
  2. Place the downloaded ddraw.dll and aqrit.cfg file in the installation folder.
  3. Change this line in your aqrit.cfg file to "1": ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 1
  4. Save the file and run the game.

Motion Smoothing always disabled at launch

Edit the executable with a Hex editor
  1. Open "PCSONIC.EXE" in HxD.
  2. Find "89 15 6c 59 a0 00".
  3. Replace with "90 90 90 90 90 90".
  4. Save.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DirectDraw
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 95
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium class processor, 75 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) SVGA, supports 16 bit high color (256 colors req.)


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References