this looks like some windows based lotus ?
I've only ran 123r4 on DOSBox and that worked as far as I can remember.

I think he's running it in the command prompt in Windows 98SE under Vmware Server.

I have tried windows 95 dos mode, and in a all out attempt to go as native as possible, i spun up a dos 5.0 vm instance. Unfortunately it did the same thing. At this point I'm nearly convinced it probably has to do something with the hardware, virtual as it may be.

Text Display: Universal Text Display
Graphics Display: (None)

What options are available? How do you run the app in dosbox?

Text display drivers:
CGA with B&W Monitor
CGA with Color Monitor
Compaq VGA 132X25
Compaq VGA 132X28, 43, 50, 60
EGA 80X25
EGA 80X43
GRiDCase Series
Hercules Card (80X25) Mono
Hercules Graphics Card+ (90x25)
Hercules Graphics Card+ (90x38)
IBM 3270, Mono
IBM Monochrome Display
Multi-Color Graphics (MCGA) Color
Multi-Color Graphics (MCGA) Mono
Toshiba 11000 Plus and 1200 LCD
Toshiba 3100, 3200, 5100 (80X25)
Toshiba 3100, 3200, 5100 (80X50)
Toshiba 5200 (80X25)
Univ. Text Display ASCII No LICS
Universal Text Display
VGA 80X25
VGA 80x43
VGA 80x50
VGA Plasma Display (80x25)

Graphics Display Driver:

AT&T 6300 Hi-Res monochrome
EGA Black background
EGA White background
GRiDCase Series
Hercules Card (80X25) Mono
Hercules Card (90X38) Mono
Hercules Graphics Card+ (90x25)
Hercules Graphics Card+ (90x38)
IBM 3270-PC Hi-Res
IBM 3270-PC Med-Res
IBM 3270-PC/GX Hi-Res
IBM 3270-PC/GX Med-Res
IBM Color Monitor Med-Res
IBM/Compaq Hi-Res
Multi-Color Graphics (MCGA) Mono
Toshiba 11000 Plus and 1200 LCD
Toshiba 3100, 3200, 5100
Toshiba 5200
VGA Black background
VGA Plasma Display
VGA White background

I run the app in dosbox by simply mounting the 123r24 folder and running lotus.exe.

vga 80x25 might be nice one

I am having the same problem. I have DOSBox 0.73, Lotus 123 R4. The correct screen colors come up briefly, but then switch this greyed out verion. I have Windows 7 Professional. I've tried many different settings: DOSBox cga, VGAonly, SVGA_s3 with no luck. Any ideas or tips for debugging? BTW: I'm helping an older gentleman in my community - he has these lotus spreadsheets that he's been using for 15+ years and wants to keep using them but his Windows 98ME machine is dying... I'm about to go out and buy him an old W95 machine, but thought I could get this to work!

ldgfxrom? boot dos in dosbox?

Besides hal's recommendation i'd start off with 0.74.

Do you absolutely need to use 123 ?
open office (its free) has a spreadsheet

I have an old Family Tree program CTREE, more precisely Cumberland Tree - Version 3.1 from 1991, which runs well under DOS and also on my old Windows 98 computer. I have installed DOSBox 0.74 on my HP Pavilion dv6 with Windows 7, and it runs fine with my old basic-programs, MSword 5 and other oldies. However have problems running CTREE. The program file ctree.exe and the datafiles, fx. individ.dat, are all installed in the same directory c:\ctree. When starting the program the program halts and an error-box pops up telling: "CLARION Version 2.0 Batch 2000; c:\\individ.dat; ERROR CODE:45 INVALID FILENAME; DOS ERROR : 0". Apparently the problem is the two backslashes before "individ.dat" in stead of one. As the program functions well in a genuine DOS-environment the problem must be about the definition of directory in DOSBox. What can I do?

Since you get the same thing in a VM as well, you simply installed it wrong
or forgot some integration step of that application. Check the app's docs.

Thankyou, but what is "a VM"?

Oh sorry, I didn't see you're not the original poster.

You may want to try a VM (virtual machine) like vmware, vpc, virtualbox
if you can't get it working in dosbox using the regular installation of both apps.

I never tired c:\\something
as path. Not sure how dosbox will react.
Have you tried mounting c c:\ctree ?

Following your first advice I actually found a bug (in relation to DOSBox, anyway) in the program's configuration file ctree.cfg, where "c:\\" should be changed to "c:\". But now the program halts with a new error-message box saying: "CLARION Version 2.0 Batch 2000; C:\CTREE.CFG; ERROR CODE:8 INSUFFICIENT MEMORY; DOS ERROR : 0". Can I make some change in DOSBox' configuration file dosbox-0.74.conf, which solves the problem ?

try loadfix

I tried in the command line (before running ctree):
loadfix
loadfix -f
set dos ems=off
memsize=32
But nothing worked. Would it make a difference instead to include the commands in the DOSBox configuration file? When writing the command MEM I get a reply like:
633 Kb free conventional memory
63 Kb free upper memory in 1 blocks (UMB 63) ?
15168 Kb free extended memory
15168 Kb free expanded memory

If you want to try turning off/on UMB,XMS or EMS then you need to type in :

umb false
ems false
xms false

at the DOSBox CLI

Also check the memory configuration of the working computers. Check config.sys for any odd emm386 values and also check the amount of used/free memory.