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Sonic 3 A.I.R.

Sonic 3 A.I.R. icon Sonic 3 A.I.R. logo

Overview

Sonic 3 A.I.R. (Angel Island Revisited) is the fan remaster of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles running on RSDKv5. REG-Linux treats it as a ports entry that loads the binary plus your original game ROM.

Quick reference

  • ROM folder: /userdata/roms/sonic3-air
  • Accepted format: .s3air
  • Emulator: sonic3-air
  • System group: ports

ROMs

Place Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin (the merged ROM from the original release) into /userdata/roms/sonic3-air/ and create the marker file:

touch "/userdata/roms/sonic3-air/Sonic 3 - Angel Island Revisited.s3air"

The entry will scrape artwork and launch using that ROM entry. Keep the binary name exact so the port recognizes it.

Shaders

Sonic 3 A.I.R. uses RSDKv5 shaders (e.g., the GLShaders mod) to render filters and cinematic movies correctly. Create the following mod structure inside /userdata/roms/sonic3-air/mods/:

mods/GLShaders/
  ├── mod.ini
  └── Data/
      └── Shaders/

Inside mod.ini, add:

Name=GLShaders
Description=GL3 shaders to enable filters and stuff
Author=Ducky
Version=1.0.0
TargetVersion=5

Copy the original RSDKv5/Shaders folder into mods/GLShaders/Data/ so the filter assets stay with the mod.

Emulators

Sonic3-AIR

REG-Linux runs the Sonic3-AIR executable (sonic3-air). Use the Quick Menu for display, shader toggles, and controller remapping.

Controls

The port is built for gamepads, but keyboard input is also supported. Open the in-game controls menu to bind Grab, Spin Dash, and special moves to your preferred buttons before launching.

Troubleshooting

  • Ensure Sonic_Knuckles_wSonic3.bin remains in the ROM folder and matches the expected filename.
  • If movies or shaders fail to load, double-check the mod structure and the mod.ini entries.