just tried Glidos too, also likes dying in that. that, and im flying somewhere in the visinity of mach 8

I've just played through the game some days ago (DOSBox 0.70, AEP build). I also used to have a lot of crashes, and then switched to "Soundblaster Compatible" for sound (and "General MIDI" for music). After that, the game worked very well. Still the occasional crash, but nothing serious.

Some other hints: don't use the DOS32/A extender. I had graphical glitches after every completed level (or every time i went from the menu back into the game), and switched back to DOS4GW. If you're not playing the "Magic Carpet Plus" version (the one that includes the "Hidden Worlds" addon), you should install the official update, because you can't win the game with the original version (bug). The game has 50 levels, and gets _very_ hard after about level 35. My hand still hurts from shooting them fireballs (;

This game is really worth playing. With GM music, and a decent soundfont (i'm using a 256MB one, glad i kept that SB Live), the game sounds awesome. In my opinion, MC is one of the best and most atmospheric games ever.

Magic Carpet did a cd check as a simple copy protection when you first hit the Enter key. It would crash if you didn't have the cd. I would check that you have the cd mounted properly in DOSBox. I have played with the original cd or an iso using imgmount.

my onboard sound is fried and i am yet to get a new one. so i have the sound settings on "none" in bos box i mount c as c:\ and d:\ as d:\ (cd drive) or i mount it as the directory i copied the cd to (c:\d\)

also, what do you mean be the DOS32/A extender. im not familiar with that term.

Try following the mounting instructions here:

60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox

Pay attention to the various mount-options (-t cdrom).

Setting "nosound=true" in dosbox.conf disables sound output, but not sound emulation. So, if you have selected "SB 16" in the Magic Carpet setup, you will still have troubles, because the soundcard is active during emulation (even though you won't hear anything).

Nevermind the "DOS extender" stuff. That would only apply if you had replaced DOS4GW.EXE with DOS32A.EXE, which you obviously didn't do. DOS32/A is a replacement for DOS4GW, and can give more speed and/or stability with certain games. But, as i wrote, it doesn't work very well with MC.

Xian97 wrote about MC's copy protection, but i'd say that's not your problem - in your original post, you were writing that the game crashes at random, not the first time you press return.

yes. it seems to crash when i press any of the buttons that will take me into the spells menu. (1-9, enter, both mouse buttons) but this occurs at random, sometimes can go for 5 mins ok, othertimes dies first time.
next thing im triing is loading a REAL version of dos onto my hdd and triing it on that. too bad xp doesnt have a dos mode like 98. cause the prompt is quite crappy and creating a dos startup disk....well, it would be nice if i could change directories for a start!

Aj, i can't understand why you're completely ignoring all the hints that have been given to you in this thread. I mean, several people tried to help you, and you are just ignoring all of them.

If you want to solve the problem yourself, then don't post in this forum, so we don't have to waste our time trying to help you. What you are doing is very impolite.

As i already wrote, i played through the game some days ago. It works (nearly) perfectly in DOSBox v0.70, if you know how to run it. All the info you need to get MC to work is in this thread.

It isn't just the Enter key, but whenever you went into the spell menu via whichever method would trigger the cd check. I still would suggest checking that the cd is mounted properly, not just copied to a directory.
Mount the cd with a line like
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
where d: is your cd rom drive

ADDICT. i am not ignoring everyone here, or even a single one of you.
I have done what is suggested to the letter and it is still stuffing up. so i have no idea how you came to that conclusion.
just because it works for you when you do it the way im being told doesnt mean it will work for me, even though it should.
i open dosbox.
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
mount c c:\c (dir were i have carpet.cd folder)
then change to d: and enter carpet
game loads. then SAME THING HAPPENS.

now, if there is something else i am doing wrong, or not doing, then please tell me, this is the first time ive used dosbox.
other then that, i have done everything suggested in this topic and i am still getting the problem.
and my cd is not scatched. it is in almost new condition.

Did you install it within dosbox?

i did, and to make sure, i tried installing it through dosbox again, to a different directory. changed spells afew times, and it died

Try mounting with -t cdrom -ioctl and be sure you always have the
exactly same mounting.

i tried everything on the page Minimax linked, and the rest. and i tried adding
-ioctl too
so i dont know whats happening

Hmmmm, that's really odd... I had the same problem, and fixed it by selecting "Sound Blaster Compatible" in MC's setup program. How is your soundcard configuration in dosbox.conf, and what are you selecting in MC's setup prog (after launching MC)? Maybe you should post your dosbox.conf in this thread. I had some troubles when the cycles where set too high. My machine is an aging P4/2.3Ghz, and i run MC with 45.000 cycles, dynamic core, no frameskip. This gives me "normal flying speed" in VGA mode.

Are you using the "official" v0.70? If you do, you could try the AEP build, or ykhwong's. I used the latest AEP build for playing through the game.

i havent changed the config settings in dosbox, they are as it came.
i downloaded the 0.7 version from the dosbox site.
i run magic carpet at 10% processor, or 16% depending on if im using high quality or low quality.
only problem is when i put it on high quality, it goes slower so i put the cycles up. but when i do that it reduces the laggynes but everything moves faster then in low res mode. maybe 1.5 times or there abouts. i think thats just because of the way the game is tied in with cpu cycles, like most older games. too bad they didnt do it the way they have it now, would make things much easier 😒 heheh

Let me inform you that there is a working solution.
I found a Stereo3D patch for magic carpet 1 (june '95). This patch also solves the spell change crash.

Good luck !