So far, the trickiest games I came across when trying to make it work on DosBox are the Scramer games, even the tricky Time Commando, which required a very specific way for it to work before the Pure build was around and a few others which required a specific CPU option just to boot. Can anyone get the Screamer games working on DosBox Pure, if you can, tell me how?
I don’t know if it helps any, but both Screamer games did load using the SVN core… but they took a full minute or so each to load (no shaders or anything applied yet). And when they did finally load they were way too choppy/stuttery to be playable. Too bad too because they seem to be quite snappy just playing the stand alone exo set.
I might check Time Commando as well but RA seems to choke up on quite a few of the CD based DOS games I have tried so far. I will just point out, the regular core method uses everything uncompressed so it’s not the compression holding these back, it’s something in RA or a limitation of all the cores.
Oddly enough, there are some CD games that play just fine… then again, a lot of games in this era didn’t really put any game files on the CD. It would only access the CD during a cut scene to play a video file for example. Everything else was installed on the drive.
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Have you created a .conf file or something that I could try here, specially for Screamer 2 which I’m trying first? At least here, DosBox Pure loads the zip files instantly, so games such as Time Commando and other CD-based games doesn’t take long to start at all. Thanks for checking and replying back!
I generally just use the .conf that comes with the exo set. Further inspection of the conf for Screamer 2 reveals that exo did in fact use a version called "Dosbox ECE (more info here, https://yesterplay.net/dosboxece/). It’s basically a community created version with better compatibility for 3dfx (Voodoo) and Roland MT32 midi sound (exactly what this game is set up for). Now using Soundblaster for the sound should not affect performance at all but I can totally see a game not running well without a 3dfx card during this era. I also have to assume that if exo could have gotten it to run well in vanilla Dosbox, then he probably would have.
I tried deleting out the Voodoo lines in the conf but loading was exactly the same. I have a feeling that the core will just ignore any values that it doesn’t support and just use defaults anyway.
To make things even more confusing for me, the first Screamer is set to just use Dosbox 0.74! This is what the base core is based off of and it doesn’t load/play any better that part 2. So I really don’t have any idea what is going on with this particular series.
Sorry, wish I could be more help but I thought I’d share my thoughts anyway. Maybe it will send you down the right path somehow LOL.
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Screamer works for me in Pure.
Try using the game from the ExoDOS pack.
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I just tried it, you mean, the original game? Loading the .zip directly won’t start the game.
It does load for me so it’s probably not the core at fault here but the core settings.
Make sure you load the “run.bat” from the list.
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I’m using the stock config for Pure, also tried installing from inside the files list, which usually isn’t necessary for this core. Launching from the .bat files or .exe files only flashes the screen, getting me back to the files list. 3DFX for the second and third game won’t load too, I’m sure it’s probably on my end, but loading the .conf files from the SVN core runs these games smoothly, that is, once you use the CPU fine tuning settings, the defaults are way too slow for them to even start. I also had issues with Atlantis: The Lost Tales, a game requiring 4 CDs, while it does start in Pure, this game seems really sensitive to CPU type and clock speeds, to the point where your cursor won’t even move if the performance is too fast. Maybe it’s something I’m not doing right on Pure, but again, on the SVN branch, all these games work smoothly.
Although the first game works fine for me, i couldn’t make Screamer 2 work. I wasted more than an hour trying, testing all options, running the setup, even installing it… It won’t work.
Edit: Same with Screamer Rally. Same exact errors and files as Screamer 2.
It complains it can’t find “C:\SR\data\GAME.dat” even though this file exists.
Did it work when you Loaded GAME.bat?
I got it to work but have to Extract the CD Image and Install it from There
Had no sound but that just me. Going to Bed Now as 11pm in Australia is
Just as an update to this rather old thread, since I opened it, I just checked the batch files here and indeed this setup is launching Screamer 2 and Rally using DOSBOX SVN, they work pretty smoothly too, but I wonder why it’s difficult to get them to work with pure, there are more complex games, as far as setting them up go, which works flawlessly.
I haven’t tried them again with Pure, but I might and see if the Exo pack ones launch fine with the latest updates of the core.
IF not run try Installing from CD Image
No, nothing worked.
But i managed to make it work in a different way.
I use the eXoDOS packs. The zip for Screamer 2 contains a main root folder named “Screamr2” and inside that folder there are all the other subfolders and files. What i did was to make a new zip without the main folder. And now it works. I did the same for Screamer Rally and it works. No need to install anything and it also plays the CD music.
Not sure why it needed this fix. All eXoDOS packs have a root folder in the archives. I tested a lot of games with no issues and only in Screamer 2 and Screamer Rally i needed to do this. Screamer 1 worked either way.
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Pure has a setting which allows for the use of the .conf file inside these exo pack zips, I wonder if this option could possibly make these games work without changing the zip like you did?
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I didn’t try that tbh. Might do now.
Edit: Seems like it doesn’t work.
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So, you tried that with an unmodified zip from the Exo pack?
Screamer, an extraordinary PC game that went under the table for being too much of a copy of everything.
“it is not recommended to use exodos with PURE”.
there are many reasons, but I’m bored of repeating them.
For the installation you need the disk image because it has audio tracks on CD.
Start the installation from install.bat, when it completes it goes straight to setup, it will not work.
Select in the menu Emulated Performance 486 (13400) and in system options - cpu type 486 (slow), restart and run the setup, configure everything you want, this wonderful game supports Roland and GUS.
When finished set the options back to auto, reboot and you are done.
The high version works fine but you can install a 3dfx patch (which I can’t get) and it works better.
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No, it’s cool, I got all games working fine for like a year or so, the only reason for wanting the Pure core is that it usually runs games from within zipped games, otherwise it’s fine.
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I thought you were going to say “thank you! I have 15 months trying to make this game work”… I am very innocent, that was in my day. 
Yeah, it’s cool in DOSBox, but you’re trying to make it work in PURE. what part of "with PURE " didn’t I explain right? 
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