Posted May 05, 2018
This info is in the forum but I thought it might help someone to consolidate it into one post, with some extra stuff I worked out myself.
This will get Screamer 1 running with a good framerate, stable, and using a 360 or Xbox One joypad (or similar), including being able to change gears on the pad.
(I didn't really try the gears since the automatic black Porsche is enough to beat the game.)
After installing the game, locate dosboxScreamer.conf and load it into a text editor (Notepad will do).
First, something optional, but I like to play these old 4:3 games in a window instead of full-screen, and with mouse-lock off so it's easier to switch between them and other programs. If you want that, find the [sdl] section near the top, and change some of these settings:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=2560x1920
output=overlay
autolock=false
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true
That is for a 4K screen. If you have 1080p, halve the windowresolution values:
windowresolution=1280x960
In the [render] section, change it to this:
[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=none
Now the important/mandatory stuff. Changing the CPU settings is essnetial to a) be able to run setup.exe without it crashing, and b) get a good framerate. This is what I used:
[cpu]
core=normal
cputype=pentium_slow
cycles=150000
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000
You'll need to add the cputype line to the default config, at time of writing. I'm not sure how important it is, though. core=normal is the vital part. Using core=auto makes a lot of games unstable. Not sure why gog do that so often; maybe auto uses less CPU but modern CPUs have no problem running DOSBox with it set to normal, which is more compatible.
The cycles setting seems very high compared to normal but is what I found good on an i7-8700k with medium overclock (4800MHz). The game only uses one thread so any CPU with similarly fast single-threaded perf should work well with that setting. If you find the audio stutters as soon as you start the game, try reducing it slightly until things are good. Going higher than that caused stuttering for me, and also did not seem necessary. You may be able to use "max" instead of a number but I didn't think to try that.
Now scroll down the config for the [joystick] section, and change it to this:
[joystick]
joysticktype=4axis
timed=false
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true
timed=false apparently helps with calibration in this and other games.
joysticktype=4axis will allow you to map up to 2 buttons. If you use 2axis then you can only map two buttons, which isn't enough.
Save your changes to that config file, as we're done editing it now.
OK, next, we need to make sure your joypad is the primary one, else DOSBox won't see it. To do this, push the Windows key and type "USB game controllers" (without the quotes) to find the game controllers control panel. It should list your controller, and maybe some others. Click Advanced and make sure the Preferred Device drop-down is set to the controller you want to use.
Now we set up the joypad in the game. To do this, you need to locate dosboxScreamer_single.conf and edit it in a text editor.
Near the end, change the line starth.exe to setup.exe
Now launch Screamer via the shortcut GOG provided. You should see the setup program launch. It can take a few seconds. If you still have a black or corrupt DOSBox window after 15 seconds or so, make sure you changed the CPU settings as described above; they're essential.
Once in the setup program, you can configure it to use your joystick and map the keys and steering axis there. Follow the instructions in the setup program and it's pretty straightforward.
Unfortunately, DOSBox doesn't give you much choice of which buttons you can map. The main A B X Y buttons will be the only four you can really use. You can use the shoulder buttons as well, but they'll be the same as A and B, so you can't for example use A and B for accelerate and brake and shoulder buttons for gears. But you can use A B and X Y for that.
You can't use the analogue triggers at all, unfortunately, at least without 3rd party mapping software. But it's fine for this game, I think. It doesn't have analogue acceleration anyway, only steering.
BTW, the setup program offers a choice of VGA and SVGA. I'm not sure it makes a difference but I'd leave it at the default VGA. Whether you run startH.exe (h = high res) or startL.exe (l = low res) seems to determine the res the game runs at.
After exiting the setup program, DOSBox should exit. Return to the dosboxScreamer_single.conf file and change setup.exe back to starth.exe
Now you're ready to race!
I found this setup completely stable and with a good framerate, and was able to finish the game without any further crashes. If you do still get crashes on the canyon track, try switching to startL.exe instead of startH.exe as people say it's more stable on that track (but looks worse). But, saying that, I think the CPU settings fix that instability as I never had another crash with them.
Have fun!
PS: Pro-tip, drive over the front of cars as you pass them in the pro leagues to make them crash without any harm done to you. They'll do the same thing to you! :-)
This will get Screamer 1 running with a good framerate, stable, and using a 360 or Xbox One joypad (or similar), including being able to change gears on the pad.
(I didn't really try the gears since the automatic black Porsche is enough to beat the game.)
After installing the game, locate dosboxScreamer.conf and load it into a text editor (Notepad will do).
First, something optional, but I like to play these old 4:3 games in a window instead of full-screen, and with mouse-lock off so it's easier to switch between them and other programs. If you want that, find the [sdl] section near the top, and change some of these settings:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=original
windowresolution=2560x1920
output=overlay
autolock=false
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true
That is for a 4K screen. If you have 1080p, halve the windowresolution values:
windowresolution=1280x960
In the [render] section, change it to this:
[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=true
scaler=none
Now the important/mandatory stuff. Changing the CPU settings is essnetial to a) be able to run setup.exe without it crashing, and b) get a good framerate. This is what I used:
[cpu]
core=normal
cputype=pentium_slow
cycles=150000
cycleup=1000
cycledown=1000
You'll need to add the cputype line to the default config, at time of writing. I'm not sure how important it is, though. core=normal is the vital part. Using core=auto makes a lot of games unstable. Not sure why gog do that so often; maybe auto uses less CPU but modern CPUs have no problem running DOSBox with it set to normal, which is more compatible.
The cycles setting seems very high compared to normal but is what I found good on an i7-8700k with medium overclock (4800MHz). The game only uses one thread so any CPU with similarly fast single-threaded perf should work well with that setting. If you find the audio stutters as soon as you start the game, try reducing it slightly until things are good. Going higher than that caused stuttering for me, and also did not seem necessary. You may be able to use "max" instead of a number but I didn't think to try that.
Now scroll down the config for the [joystick] section, and change it to this:
[joystick]
joysticktype=4axis
timed=false
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true
timed=false apparently helps with calibration in this and other games.
joysticktype=4axis will allow you to map up to 2 buttons. If you use 2axis then you can only map two buttons, which isn't enough.
Save your changes to that config file, as we're done editing it now.
OK, next, we need to make sure your joypad is the primary one, else DOSBox won't see it. To do this, push the Windows key and type "USB game controllers" (without the quotes) to find the game controllers control panel. It should list your controller, and maybe some others. Click Advanced and make sure the Preferred Device drop-down is set to the controller you want to use.
Now we set up the joypad in the game. To do this, you need to locate dosboxScreamer_single.conf and edit it in a text editor.
Near the end, change the line starth.exe to setup.exe
Now launch Screamer via the shortcut GOG provided. You should see the setup program launch. It can take a few seconds. If you still have a black or corrupt DOSBox window after 15 seconds or so, make sure you changed the CPU settings as described above; they're essential.
Once in the setup program, you can configure it to use your joystick and map the keys and steering axis there. Follow the instructions in the setup program and it's pretty straightforward.
Unfortunately, DOSBox doesn't give you much choice of which buttons you can map. The main A B X Y buttons will be the only four you can really use. You can use the shoulder buttons as well, but they'll be the same as A and B, so you can't for example use A and B for accelerate and brake and shoulder buttons for gears. But you can use A B and X Y for that.
You can't use the analogue triggers at all, unfortunately, at least without 3rd party mapping software. But it's fine for this game, I think. It doesn't have analogue acceleration anyway, only steering.
BTW, the setup program offers a choice of VGA and SVGA. I'm not sure it makes a difference but I'd leave it at the default VGA. Whether you run startH.exe (h = high res) or startL.exe (l = low res) seems to determine the res the game runs at.
After exiting the setup program, DOSBox should exit. Return to the dosboxScreamer_single.conf file and change setup.exe back to starth.exe
Now you're ready to race!
I found this setup completely stable and with a good framerate, and was able to finish the game without any further crashes. If you do still get crashes on the canyon track, try switching to startL.exe instead of startH.exe as people say it's more stable on that track (but looks worse). But, saying that, I think the CPU settings fix that instability as I never had another crash with them.
Have fun!
PS: Pro-tip, drive over the front of cars as you pass them in the pro leagues to make them crash without any harm done to you. They'll do the same thing to you! :-)
Post edited May 06, 2018 by LeoD
