You might want to check out a frontend such as D-Fend that will let you use a GUI to handle much of the configuration and setup.

First off, are you sure Charlie-the-Duck is DOS?

I checked here - http://www.games-for-pc.com/ACTION/Charlie-the-Duck.htm and it says it is for Win95/98/Me/ (although that might mean XP won't install it, and DosBox MIGHT be able to help then.

Do you have the game on your HD or on a floppy somewhere? (and where is it).

See http://www.abandonia.com/main.php?nav=index&FAQ=1

DOSBox Guides

The Newbie's Pictorial Guide To DOSBox

60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox

About the only true DOS commands you would need to know are:

CD - Change directory - CD Games for example

CD\ - returns to top level directory.

CD . . - Moves up one level in directory tree

mount - Installs a drive or directory

gamename.com, gamename.bat, gamename.exe - launches the game where gamename is something like F117A, CHDUCK (guessing), FALCON3, etc.

Exit - ends DosBox

Post back if you need more help.

I just tried the Charlie the Duck demo. While the installer is a Windows program, the actual game is a DOS program.

Instructions how to run Charlie the Duck on a modern computer with DOSBox.
1) Install Charlie the Duck into C:\GAMES\CHARLIE
2) Start DOSBox
3) Type MOUNT C C:\GAMES
4) Type C:
5) Type CD CHARLIE
6) Type CHARLIE

And the game should run. Press CTRL+F12 until you're up to 7000 cycles and go into options in the game and set the background as "Static".

You can use the "Parallax" background if you want, as it looks slightly better but require more resources so you have to raise the cycles even more and maybe you don't have the CPU power enough to do so. But you can try. Also, with no background you can use less cycles if 7000 is too much to handle, but I doubt that.

Also note that you shouldn't install the game into the default path, as DOS is restricted to names 8 characters long and a folder named "Charlie the Duck" is too long.