reinstall it (deleting everything) and NEVER choose the dynamic core always use the normal core where it works fine.

You might also want to consider running D1X rather than Descent under DOSBox. http://d1x.warpcore.org/

There should be some .tex file in the descent directory
with 0 bytes, just delete it.

yeah. It sometimes shows up. It's an unnecessary file. Do what WD said and Descent will work prefectly fine. Not sure what's causing it.
(I have an Original Descent 1 install CD thanks to some guys back in 95 that provided full versions of several DOS programs in one of their DEMO cds in their magazines.)

The file is like descent.tex. Delete it and it should be just fine.

EDIT:

I Found it only happens in DYNAMIC mode.
If you switch to NORMAL mode and DELETE the DESCENT.TEX file it never gets created again.
If you switch to DYNAMIC Mode it gets created on load up and then causes the above error message and won't let you run DESCENT in Normal or Dynamic Mode until you Delete DESCENT.TEX.
Not sure why.
Anybody have any more thoughts on why?

EDIT2:

Seems to be an issue with the DOS4/GW that was shipped and linked to DESCENTR.EXE
When I replaced the stub with DOS32A.EXE with the SB replacement tool provided I could run DESCENT 1 in DYNAMIC Mode and it ran extremely smooth. 😀

/Ieremiou

page faults seem to be not precise enough using
dynamic core