kennyrh wrote:

but when I go back into dos

What does that mean?

The error is stated in the thread's title, namely: can't open game.dat

Are you mounting everything correctly? Please write down all mounting commands used.

Okay . . .here's the full details.

I can install from my CD drive within dosbox and I can set the game up from my games folder in c: drive so I assume everything is mounted okay within dosbox.

After setup of sound card etc, I quit out of setup and go back to dos command line within dosbox. I type in "sr" to start the game and the "can't open game dat" error comes up.

Exactly the same thing happens with Screamer 2 and I remember that these games were a bitch to get going even on my ancient PC of 7 years ago . . . 😕

Let us try one more time:

eL_PuSHeR wrote:

Are you mounting everything correctly? Please write down all mounting commands used.

Sorry to sound a bit thick . . .but I'm not sure i understand the question.

Do you mean what commands did I use to mount my games folder and cd drive in dosbox . . .??

I think he is asking for what you have typed inside dosbox.
from the start till the point the game crashed back with that error.

Exactly.

Okay . . .I used this tip from another forum which said to add this to my config file in dosbox

loadfix -64
mount e e:\ -t cdrom
mount c c:\Games

So within dosbox all I have to do is type c: to access my games folder or e: to access my cd drive.

So with Screamer Rally, i went into dosbox and typed e: to access the cd drive.

I then installed the game to my c:\games folder

I changed to c: drive in dosbox and setup the soundcard etc.

I quit out of setup with "esc" and got returned to my c: drive in dosbox

I type in sr.exe to start the game and then the error occurs . . .as if it can't find my game.dat file.

Hope that explains everything . . .

is your game.dat file in the directory you installed SR to?
And just maybe it doesn'T like the CD-Rom at e:\, so try to mount it to d (e.g. "mount d e:\ -t cdrom")
It's probably not affecting it, but just to make sure.

Dominus is right.

For mounting the CD-ROM drive, first letter is the letter you want under ODSBox while second letter is the drive letter corresponding to the real CD/DVD drive.

For instance, most ms-dos games will just require a hard-disk drive (C drive) and a CD-ROM drive (could be D drive).

My real DVD-ROM drive is H: so, we would change that mounting line to:

mount d h:\ -t cdrom

As for the hard-drive mounting line, folder GAMES must exist (be created) at the root of your real c: drive. If not, it will give you an error when trying to mount it.

Mmmmmm . . .tried mounting d as my e:drive (CD) but no luck . . .

. . .then i thought i would change my dosbox config to mount c: as just the root drive and install screamer rally into the root of c:

Now it gets past the game.dat error but tries to start and then says there's no screamer rally cd in the drive 😕

My cd drive mount is def okay because i installed the game in dosbox from it.

So i seem to have solved one problem just to encounter another.

Tried a couple of no cd cracks but they didn't work either.

If anybody has any other suggestions . . .I'm listening . . . 😠

> My cd drive mount is def okay because i installed the game in dosbox from it.

I would remove the various files and directories you have created so far. Then create a new fresh C:\GAMES directory, redo the mounting and installation of the game inside DOSBox.

also try the -ioctl switch for mounting the CD

Yes that did the trick . . .hooray !!!!

I found a post by somebody else with the same problem and they suggested to try this . . .

. . .anyway thanks for posting it and thanks to everybody else who tried to help.

I guess persistence pays in the end . . . 🤣

So the problem occurs, 'cause you installed the game *outside* DOSBox?

Yes that did the trick . . .hooray !!!!

Just for documentation's sake, which of the proposed ways did help? The next person with this problem might benefit from your newfound knowledge 😀

Well the original problem "can't open game.dat" was solved by installing the game in the root of drive c:

The can't find cd problem was solved by adding the -ioctl switch to the mounting info in dosbox config.

Both Screamer Rally and Screamer 2 I can run now by doing this . . .

I'd like to unearth this one, I'm having the same issue.

I am mostly a newbie when it comes to DOSBox, I tried my best to follow the instructions above and probably failed, seeing that the game doesn't work.

mount c c:/sr (latter is the installation folder)
mount d f:/ -ioctl (latter is the CD drive)

Setup works but the game still can't find the game.dat file 🙁

Follow the 60 seconds guide in the guide sections and use the ioctl switch for mounting the cd. And then install the game from within dosbox