Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic 3 A.I.R. · originally by Sonic Team
Angel Island Revisited: a fan-made remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles that runs the game from your Steam copy's ROM with widescreen, a remastered soundtrack and deep modding.
- Source
- Eukaryot/sonic3air
- Site
- sonic3air.org
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Stars
- 663
About
Sonic 3 A.I.R. (Angel Island Revisited) is a non-profit fan remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It is built on the author's own Oxygen Engine, which emulates the aspects of Sega Genesis hardware the game needs while the game logic itself runs as scripts in the project's lemonscript language, so almost everything can be modded. Pause and act-select menus, options, Ghost Sync online features and a dev mode for mod development are all part of the stable release.
The project is not affiliated with SEGA or Sonic Team and makes no money; any commercial use without SEGA's consent is prohibited. The engine, scripts and tools are GPL-3.0.
No game content is included. A.I.R. needs the Sonic 3 & Knuckles ROM, and the file it looks for is the one that ships with the Steam release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- Widescreen, 60 fps and a remastered soundtrack
- Reads the ROM straight from the Steam copy of Sonic 3 & Knuckles
- Extensive mod support with an in-game mod browser
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and web builds
- Game logic in scripts, so even the menus are moddable
What you need
The port contains none of the game. These come from your own copy and stay on your machine.
Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin from the Steam release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles
The Sonic 3 & Knuckles ROM as shipped in the Steam release (the file named Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin, 4 MB). A.I.R. checks the file's size and its own checksum before it will start. If Sonic 3 & Knuckles is installed through Steam, A.I.R. can find the file itself.
Upstream checks the ROM with a 64-bit checksum of its own rather than a standard hash, so there is no MD5 or SHA-256 to compare here. The expected size is 4,194,304 bytes. Source of these fingerprints
Setup
- 1
Install Sonic 3 & Knuckles from Steam, or have the ROM file from it ready.
- 2
Extract the downloaded archive into a folder of your choosing (on macOS, open the disk image).
- 3
Run Sonic 3 A.I.R. On first start it looks for the Steam copy; if it cannot find it, point it at your Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin.
- 4
Play. Mods can be dropped into the mods folder or installed from the in-game mod menu.
Questions people ask
- Is the Sonic 3 A.I.R. download safe?
- Yes, as far as provenance and integrity can be proven. The download on this page is Sonic 3 A.I.R.'s own GitHub release (v26.03.28.0-stable), pinned to a SHA-256 in Recompiled's public lockfile, so you can confirm the file you received is byte for byte what the project published. Sonic 3 A.I.R. is open source, so anyone can read what the program does. Hash the file on the Verify page before you run it.
- Is Sonic 3 A.I.R. legal?
- Yes. Sonic 3 A.I.R. is an open-source reimplementation of the game's engine, and the download contains none of Sonic 3 & Knuckles: it reads the game from a copy you already own. What is not legal is obtaining a ROM or disc image you do not own, and Recompiled never hosts or links to one.
- Do I need the original game to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles with Sonic 3 A.I.R.?
- Yes. Sonic 3 A.I.R. contains none of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, so you need a copy you already own: Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin from the Steam release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The What you need section says exactly what to supply. Nothing you supply leaves your machine.