From what I see in videos it apparently supposed to run much smoother

Which one are you referring to?

oh! The first one.
I've seen this with other games too though, like F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0.
That trailer runs WAY smoother than the game does

Ah, then yes, it's a known issue unfortunately. The game engine has always had problems handling multiple objects on screen, such as ships and asteroids.

The trick is adjusting dosbox cycles (ctrl+F11 ctrl+F12) manually, depending on the situation. I don't have the Gog version, but something between 6000 cycles (with few ships on screen) and 20000 (dogfight in an asteroid field) should be fine (I'd keep them on the low side to not make the game too hard, but that's just me).

I'll try it out, thank you very much!

A little off-topic - but if you want to hear about how the objects are screen are rendered (which was revolutionary for its time) there is a great podcast about the first WC games here.

The Upper Memory Block also has a long list of episodes about other games as well and goes into the development history.

The problem is that the game was built for the computer speeds available at the time. Roughly a 386DX with 25 MHz. On a faster machine, yes it will pump out more FPS, but also run much faster. Too fast to be played properly.

I play it even slower than the DOSBox default, because the game is easier that way. You do get used to it quite quickly :D

Agreed with phil. I remember playing it as a kid, and it was choppy...but it makes hitting enemies a bit easier :-) I generally fluctuate and mess around with the settings mid-flight, but slow it down during intense fights.