Could this be the problem + fix ...
Command and Conquer Demos and Descent Errors (VMM Errors)

I actually fixed this bug.

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 -noconsole to the dosbox call put the following in stdout.txt:
CONFIG:Loading settings from config file dosbox.conf
MIDI:Opened device:win32
Exit to error: Pagefault didn't correct page

Qbix: think you can try firing this game up on your system and see if your latest version works before i try and figure out how to get CVS and compile?

Have you tried running game in a subdirectory inside dosbox?
e.g if your game is in c:\games\psycho

(run dosbox)
mount c: c:\games
cd psycho
_p_ (or psycho.bat)

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?

odd. I was quite sure i fixed this bug before the release of 0.61
Well. I got psycho Pinball. So I'll take a look at it in the future.

Hmm... The problem still not fixed in last CVS 🙁

well it's a bug in psycho pinball.
it doesn't like to be started from the root of the directory structure.

(e.g. c:\)
int's fine when started from a directory.
c:\pinbal\

Thanks for testing Qbix. This was driving me crazy too. 😎