but thats the problem- i dont understand how to tell it what conf file to use.

thats my only problem, everything else runs fine.

Read the README. it has what you need.

i did. i dont understand how to input the command though.

Some games do not like to be installed in the base directory, so create a folder on your CD, say STARGUN and place the game's files in it. For the [autoexec] section of your dosbox.conf, use:

1[autoexec]
2cls
3mount c .
4c:
5cd STARGUN
6STARGUN.EXE

Make a batch file with:

1mkdir %TEMP%\GAMES
2copy *.* %TEMP%\GAMES\*.*
3%TEMP%\GAMES\dosbox.exe -conf "%TEMP%\GAMES\dosbox.conf"
4del %TEMP%\GAMES\STARGUN\*.* /q
5rmdir %TEMP%\GAMES\STARGUN /q
6del %TEMP%\GAMES\*.* /q
7rmdir %TEMP%\GAMES /q

Save it as, say "AUTORUN.BAT" and place it in the base of your CD. In your Autorun.inf use:

1[autorun]
2open=AUTORUN.BAT

Note that this will still not work on any computer that has Autorun turned off.

but i ran it on E:\...and it worked. so thats confusing.

It seems in this particular case it is fine to run on E:
I don't know this game but can you save your progress or is it a game you can only finish once you started it?
If it needs saving, you might want to go with writeable media, for example an USB stick.
Otherwise best follow Collectors guide even if you don't quite understand 😉

it runs just fine, i assure you.

it saves and everything.

also, i tried the coding back there, and it seems VERY promising, im going to try testing this on the computer downstairs tomorrow.

If you did it like before and not as Collector wrote, I assure you it doesn't save when really started on the CD/DVD (or it may appear to save but you won't be able to load a save). How should that be possible?
If it worked for you then you did something wrong and it still starts from a writeable medium...

Dominus wrote:

If you did it like before and not as Collector wrote, I assure you it doesn't save when really started on the CD/DVD. How should that be possible?

Perhaps it is being saved to the CDBURN_AREA folder or he is using a CD-RAM drive?

Note that the batch file I gave an example of will temporarily copy the game to the PC's Temp folder to run it from, then delete it after you are through. The purpose of this is to allow the game to write to its own directory when it need to. This temporary folder is the only change that would be made to the host PC and would be undone when you finish playing. The other way would be to do as Dominus suggested of using a thumb drive instead of a CDR. You would keep any save games or preferences that way. In other words, your save games and preferences would also be portable.

nope, it seems that the coding that you gave me does everything except copy the preferances.

I need cycles set to 10000, fullscreen=true.

other than that, everything works fine.

welllll actually the automatic mount and launch dont work either.