Did you use the search? Duke Nukem 3D Caribbean rings a bell for me.

Why did you post all that? It's hard to figure out what you're asking.

Carribean doesn't work well in DOSBox. The program needs to edit several files when it starts and it restores them when it exits. When run with DOSBox the game files don't get edited. Try running the game in XP. Minimize it then copy the game folder in a running state. The edited files should now work in DOSBox.

Yes, I used the search, but only on this forum. You're right, there's already a post in "DOSBox General": Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach Runetime Error. Tomorrow I'll try what SKARDAVNELNATE suggested.

Ok, I found a well working fix! Wastes a little hard disk space, but who cares about 50 Megs today?

1) Make a new Duke 3D installation (outside DOSBox!), e.g. C:\CARIB (assuming that your previous installation is under C:\DUKE3D)

2) Install Caribbean

3) Activate Caribbean

4) This step you need to do under Windows - DOS won't work. Start Caribbean with carib.exe. Then go to window mode (ALT-ENTER) and kill that window!

5) The Gamer directory and carib.exe can be deleted

6) Now you can start the game in DOSBox with duke3d.exe /gVACATION.GRP

activate caribbean? sorry i don't fully understand that step.

Caribbean has to be activated via the "Gamer" software. That's a tool being installed with Caribbean.

Sheriff Hobbes wrote:

Caribbean has to be activated via the "Gamer" software. That's a tool being installed with Caribbean.

My memory is a bit hazy, but IIRC the 'Gamer' utility was simply something that extracted all of the required files for Caribbean in your DUKE3D directory, and then deleted them after exiting the game. As far as I remember, it didn't really "activate" the addon per-say, but rather did it's little ritual to provide downward compatiility with older versions of Duke 3D.

Again, going from memory here, the older versions of Duke 3D (v1.3 comes to mind) either didn't support (or didn't handle properly) loading in GRP files from the command line... like the newer versions of Duke 3D did (v1.4/v1.5). So's, the developers created the 'Gamer' utility that would extract the files (quite a large a *BUNCH* of files), start Duke 3D with the addon, and then delete them upon exiting the game,

Years ago, I did a similar thing, simply manually compiling all of Caribbean's files to a single GRP (as I have v1.5 of Duke 3D).

BTW, also IIRC, the 'Duke it out in DC' and 'Nuclear Winter' addons did the same type of thing, and I also compiled their resources to single GRP files (did the same thing with the freeware 'Platoon' addon as well).

Anyhooo, I need to get off of my butt and fire up Caribbean again <G>... was just playing the DIOIDC addon the other day 😀 Hehe, I even saved Clinton <LOL>!

EDuke32. It just works.

DosFreak, can you tell me how you got it running with EDuke32?
I tried to load the game with duke3dw 4.0.2.6, but I got this error:

---------------------------
Duke Nukem 3D
---------------------------
FATAL ERROR: Compiled size of CON code exceeds maximum size!
Please notify JonoF so the maximum may be increased in a future release.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Would be best to actually use EDuke and ask on their forums http://www.eduke32.com/ or email NightFright http://hrpupdate.duke4.net/faq.html

You said it works with EDuke32, so I assumed you tested it yourself.

I've tested all of the other addons. I don't have Caribbean. All of the others work and there's an HRP on the above webpage. There wouldn't be an HRP if it didn't work.

Thanks, found it. It's in the download section, not the FAQ: http://hrpupdate.duke4.net/downloads.html
I'll try it out later.

The HRP relies on the addon to be working though.....

Sheriff Hobbes wrote:

can you tell me how you got it running with EDuke32?

I found these instruction a while ago. I don't recall where. Here's the relevant parts.

1.: Preparations
2For the mention instructions are three programs required. The first two can be located on your Duke3D CD in the directory "goodies/build/". The two programs are called "kgroup.exe" and "kextract.exe". 
3
4The third one can be downloaded from JonoF's site. The program's called "unpackssi". (Click here to download this same tool from this website if you can't do it from JonoF's site.) You do not need this tool for Nuclear Winter and Duke!Zone.
5
6Copy these three files to the map where you have Duke3D installed. 
7
8----------------------------------------
9
10.: Duke Nukem in Caribbean; Life's a beach
111. Go hunt down your CD of the add-on and copy the file "VACA15.SSI" from the directory "CARIBBEA/VACATION/" to a new directory in your Duke3D-folder. (Folder must be empty!) 
12
132. Copy the program "unpackssi.exe" to the same folder where you have placed the .ssi-file. 
14
153. Make a shortcut of the program "unpackssi.exe" and right-click on the icon, go to "Properties". 
16
174. Open the tab "Shortcut" and add at the end of the field value of "Target" the parameter "-unpackssi vaca15.ssi *.*". 
18
195. Run the program and it should unpack all files inside vaca15.ssi. 
20
216. Run "Carib.exe" and choose "Single player". 
22
23The program will rename all files to their correct file-extension but won't launch since you don't have Duke3D installed in this map. 
24
256. Delete "Carib.exe". It's useless now. 
26
277. Copy the program "kextract.exe" to the directory where all of the Caribbean-files are. 
28
298. Make a shortcut of the program "kextract.exe" and right-click on the icon, go to "Properties" (Just keep the shortcut in your current folder). 
30
319. Open the tab "Program" and add at the end of the field value of "Commandline" the parameters "kextract vacation.grp *.*". 
32
3310. Run the program and it should unpack all files inside vacation.grp. 
34
3511. Move "kextract.exe" out of the folder since it shouldn't be packed into the .grp you're gonna make now. Don't forget to move out vacation.grp as well, you don't wanna have a double sized .grp-file, right? 
36
37Now you'll be needing "kgroup.exe" to pack all Caribbean-files back into one .grp-file. The files needed are the ones you've just took out of the vacation.grp and the other ones such as .con, .scp, and .dmo-files. 
38
3912. Make a shortcut of "kgroup.exe", keep it in the same folder as the program. 
40
4113. Give it the parameter "kgroup caribbean.grp *.*". Detailed instructions about this were given in step 3. But of course you can give the new .grp-file any other name you like. 
42
4314. Start up the shortcut and it should start assembling the new .grp-file. It will probably just take a couple of seconds. 
44
4515. Move this new .grp-file to the directory where your jfDuke3D has been installed. 
46
4716. Make a shortcut of "duke3d.exe" and place it anywhere you like (desktop for example). 
48
4917. Give the shortcut the parameter "/gcaribbean.grp", assuming that your new .grp-file for Duke Nukem in Caribbean is called "caribbean.grp" like in step 13. 
50
5118. You're done. Make sure you read the last paragraph of this page called "Final notes". 
52
53----------------------------------------
54
55.: Final notes
56Now that you've got a single .grp-file for each of the mentioned add-ons it's important to know that none of them will really work unless you don't have a "user.con"-file in your default Duke3D-directory. Just rename the file to something like "use.con" and the game will not make use of the standard user.con-file but the specific ones you need inside their .grp-file.
57
58Also, with this method it is not possible to play the add-ons online. When Duke3D will be more played online this guide will probably be edited for this. 
59
60Running these add-ons with the High Resolution Pack could give trouble when the add-on replaces textures in Duke3D. 

I got it running with the Hi-Res pack. Unfortunately, none of the monsters have hi-res skins. Same with Nuclear Winter.

The next build/version of Eduke32 should contain numerous changes including easier ability to use custom GRP files. Also, there is no duke3dw 4.0.2.6 that comes with eduke o_o.

Duke DC (which is by the same creators) uses prefetch tricks in their installer. They have a patch on their website that removes them. Perharps Caribbean has the same.

you just need the GRP file for Caribbean + the duke nukem 3D v1.5 GRP + eduke32...

game works fine, you don't need any external CON, ART, VOC files.