srecko: that was it! works like a charm, now 😁 any idea what the bug is that i'm tickling? or is the assumption that the original wouldn't have worked if installed into c:\, either?

tkcmd: thanks for the pointer! adding SET DOS4GVM=VIRTUALSIZE#16384 SWAPNAME#c:\DOS4GVM.SWP NODELETESWAP to my batch file definitely changed the bahavior. now it crashes dosbox completly. there's a bunch of stuff about the crash printed to the screen, but i'm not sure how to capture it. adding - …

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/comp_list.php?letter=a&search=psycho+pinball&submit=Search shows that other people have been able to get psycho pinball working. with a default dosbox.conf and dragging and dropping the _p_.exe executable on the dosbox.exe, i don't get beyond the DOS/4GW banner :( …