Sonic's Schoolhouse

Sonic's Schoolhouse

Developers
	BAP Interactive
	Orion Interactive
Publishers
	Sega
Re-release	Expert Software
Engines
	I3D
Release dates
Windows 3.x (Win32s)	October 18, 1996
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.

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 a CD.

Version differences

The 1997 Expert Software re-release is version 1.1. There are currently two known differences from the original version 1.0 release:

• A newer <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE is included, with a build date of November 6, 1996.
• The configuration/save filename has been changed from SONIC.INI to SONICSH.INI. It is now the filename expected by <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE when loading game data.

Demo

A demo version of the game was distributed on various Sega PC sampler discs between 1996 and 1997.

A single room titled "Demo Room" is available in the schoolhouse, covering addition/multiplication, subtraction/division, and spelling. It is accessed through the blue door usually reserved for addition/multiplication only in the full version.

All other rooms, as well as the playground mini-game doors and the school bus, are blocked off with a sign that reads, "Sorry, not in demo". As a result, playground passes and field trips collected from rooms cannot be used.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\SONIC.INI %WINDIR%\SONICSH.INI

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%WINDIR%\SONIC.INI %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/blackened UI elements and incorrect window scaling.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
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		Must be toggled in the in-game options.
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
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, Hot seat, Versus Shared keyboard; player one uses ↑+↓+←+→+↵ Enter, player two uses W+A+S+D+Ctrl.
LAN play
Online play
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues fixed

Unable to install on 64-bit systems

Both installers on the game CD are 16-bit, making them incompatible with 64-bit versions of Windows.

See Run without a CD

Use winevdm
Download the latest release from GitHub. Extract the files and run the Install shortcut. On the game CD, run AUTORUN.EXE or INSTALL95\SETUP32.EXE and install the game normally.

Game window does not scale to screen

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

"Unable to initialize sound system"

Results in missing in-game music/sounds.

Enable the following compatibility settings for <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE: Compatibility mode (Windows 95) or Compatibility mode (Windows 98 / Windows Me)

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 the compatibility fix from PCGamimgWiki Files 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 from PCGamingWiki Files. 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 a CD

Copy files from the CD
Go to the CD directory. Copy SONIC\SONIC.INI (version 1.0) or SONIC\SONICSH.INI (version 1.1) to %WINDIR%. Copy DRIVERS\WING\WING32.DLL to %WINDIR%\SysWOW64. Either copy the entirety of SONIC to any location, or leave it on the CD. This folder is the <path-to-game>. Run the game with <path-to-game>\SONIC.EXE.

System requirements

Windows 3.x

Windows

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 compatible
Other	2x CD-ROM drive	4x CD-ROM drive