# Sonic R won't launch properly on Win2000 - need answer fast! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 14, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093 "2008-12-14T04:54:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/1 "2008-12-14T04:54:05Z")
Hi, hoping you gamers will come to the aid of a mini gamer. She’s off for another bout of hysterical sobbing in her room while we wait. The story so far: maggenkid loves her some platform games and has recently discovered the retro goodness of Sonic the Hedgehog. Because there was a Santa type event today, she magically received Sonic R for PC. It says on the box that it’s compatible with Windows 95, 98, ME, and XP. I was so very sure we were running XP, but it turns out we’re on Windows 2000. The game installed with no warnings or error messages, but when we startup, it either gets stuck on the (green) Sonic R title page, or gives us a blank screen a few seconds into the game. Are there any fixes? Please? I’m happy to buy a newer game, but can’t afford either the game or heartbroken kid through to Wednesday. Any help gratefully accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/2 "2008-12-14T05:00:57Z")
Just a total stab in the dark, but does Windows 2000 allow you to right click on a program and select a backwards compatibility mode? (Right click the icon, go to Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, select “Run this program in compatibility mode for”, and then choose an option from the drop-down menu and hit OK). You may want to try doing so. Though I find it hard to imagine a game that would normally run well on both 95 and XP without also normally running fine on 2000, so the problem might well be something else. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/3 "2008-12-14T05:08:14Z")
Okay, thanks. When I right click on the launch icon, this does not come up as an option - is there another place I should try it? I’m currently trawling through windows help, but any quicker suggestions humbly and gratefully accepted. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/4 "2008-12-14T05:17:54Z")
If you go into the folder where the program is actually installed and right click on the .exe file that runs the program and go to Properties, you ought to be, er, able to enable Compatibility Mode via the above process. If you aren’t, at what step is the problem arising? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/5 "2008-12-14T05:18:51Z")
According to [this](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279792), compatibility mode is not exposed by default on Windows 2000. If you follow the instructions in “Enable Compatibility Mode Properties”, you should then be able to give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/6 "2008-12-14T05:19:11Z")
Trawling through Help has yielded no help. I’ve gone through the files to the MS-DOS based .exe file. I get properties, but no ‘program’ option within that (where I should go on to advanced and select the PIF settings). The compatibility options don’t come up on any of the 'properties options I can get to. Do’h! She’s stopped crying, but is now hanging over the back of the couch, watching as I type. This is _not_ an improvement as far as I’m concerned! ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/7 "2008-12-14T05:33:15Z")
Aw. It is cute, though. How old is she? Would she settle for some videos of monkeys playing tricks on dogs (in the circles I travel in, that’s a panacea for childhood troubles)? You may already know this, but Googling around I find that there are apparently a lot of compatibility issues with the game. It seems like some have been fixed by running in compatibility mode, so going through the process of activating it might be worthwhile, but I can’t find a mention of your specific error anywhere. So, not that helpful, I know. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/8 "2008-12-14T06:30:23Z")
Ah well, two for two, then. I got her ‘Lights Camera Pants’ (spongebob) last year and we had problems with that CD too. I tried ‘related topics’ on the compatibility entry (which only gives the instructions I’ve already tried) and got an error message to the effect that there are no such entries. She’s almost 10 and cute videos just don’t cut it anymore. This is a kid who beat the rest of her gifted class to beating Poptropica. Her own solution, when she got bored with hovering and weeping? She’s found a couple of online Sonic games. We’re on dial-up so they’re not going to be a practical long term solution as I usually have to prize her hand off the arrow keys after several hours gameplay, much like she has to prize me away from the Dope. Ah well, it’ll have to do until payday. Thanks for your suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/9 "2008-12-14T06:32:33Z")
Did you try going to Run and entering “regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll” (where %SystemRoot% is the drive and folder in which Windows is installed) to enable compatibility mode? [Apologies for bringing it up again if you did; just want to make sure] ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/10 "2008-12-14T07:10:27Z")
Thanks for coming back with that,\*\* Indis\*\*, I had missed it completely and it has brought up the compatibility option in the right menu. I’m about to try running the game again. Wish me luck! ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/11 "2008-12-14T07:16:47Z")
I don’t have anything to add, but am rooting for you and the maggenkid! ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/12 "2008-12-14T07:38:09Z")
Ran into the same problem so I’ve uninstalled, run Ccleaner, Malwarebytes and Diskeeper Lite (eh, can’t hurt), I’m about to reinstall the game and try again. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/13 "2008-12-14T07:59:50Z")
Nope nope nope. Thankfully the kid has gone to bed and when she wakes up, we’ll be only 48 hours away from ‘play day’. Thanks again for all the suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/14 "2008-12-14T14:50:17Z")
Just out of curiosity, are you familiar with the gameplay of Sonic R? It’s not a platformer. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sonic-r-wont-launch-properly-on-win2000-need-answer-fast/477093/15 "2008-12-14T19:47:52Z")
Nope. Not familiar with the game at all. The name brings back memories of Kong, Mario and Crash Bandicoot ( all of which are also listed as acceptable replacements by maggenkid - any game with those names on), but this particular one seems more of a racing game. She’s into all sorts of stuff - she’d be happy with anything that works. Other favourites include [cloud](http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/) and something where you get points for crashing into police cars while racing through the streets. And Cribbage, the kid’s a natural card counter.