Have a look at your dosbox.conf file, there you should find the entries
core= as well as cycles=
And who told you to set cycles to max? That's not a valid option in any
dosbox release yet.

someone on another forum. i don't know =/

do you know how to install dos32a? he said i have to replace dos4gw (sp?) with dos32a for it to work smoothly.

Try it without first, the core/cycles have a much higher impact on speed.

If dos4gw.exe is in the game folder, just copy dos32a.exe renaming it to dos4gw.exe (make a backup copy first).

If it's embedded into the executables:

Let's assume you have dos32a in C:\DOS32A

Open a ms-dos window (cmd.exe) and use these commands:

set dos32a=c:\dos32a
c:\dos32a\binw\sb /r <path\name of executable>

E.g. c:\dos32a\binw\sb /r d:\oldgames\mygame\play.exe

Repeat for all executables.

Oh well that won't help anything when he has cycles=3000........