If you are running it in DOSBox, try mounting the cd with the -ioctl switch.

If you are trying to run it in XP command prompt, you probably need to use SAPUCDEX.

I'm upping this topic because I tried to run Screamer 2 again. I installed it from DosBox, assigning the letter E to the virtual CD drive (the same as the real CD drive which is installed in my computer), with the -ioctl parameter. From DosBox it ran fine. Then I decided to try the 3DFX version, with the latest version of VDMSound (which includes SAPUCDEX) and dgVoodoo. dgVoodoo was already configured correctly, so I only configured VDMSound.
I explicitly selected MSCDEX compatibility in the Compatibility tab, but I still get the message "Please insert Screamer 2 disc". I wonder: is it because the program (S2_3DFX.exe) looks for a CD in drive D: while the CD is actually in drive E: ?
I got this doubt because at no time, when the executable is started, the CD drive is actually used.

EDIT:
Well, what do you know? I used a crack (the same crack I mentioned in the previous message) and now Screamer 2 works! W00T!!!

However, I noticed that running programs with this version of VDMSound makes them perform worse than running them with the previous version (graphics are not as smooth and the audio sounds choppy sometimes). What options can I modify in VDMSound to increase the performance?

screamer 2 is a win95 game
use a glide wrapper

I no longer use vdmsound, so I can't offer any help there.

Have you tried one of the versions of DOSBox that use glide emulation?

Davros wrote:

screamer 2 is a win95 game
use a glide wrapper

Just for the record: that's not correct. Tech specs don't even mention Win95, though these could be incorrect. AKAICR, the game was DOS only.

from the back of the cd case

getting started section :

select my computer icon on the desktop to open the my computer folder
select the cd drive icon in the my computer folder to open the screamer 2 folder
ect.......

to run screamer 2 from windows 95 select the s2 icon

iirc it was a dos game designed to run in win95, but the glide version was win95

<Sigh>... (; I've just checked out the original CD (Original version, not the Re-Release), and the game is a DOS-only game.

There's an autorun.inf on the CD, which starts a Windows-Launcher (to install the game), but the actual installer is a DOS program. The 3DFX-patch (available via patches-scrolls) is a DOS executable, too. I didn't bother to install the game yet (maybe i'll have the time to test it later), but i bet the "s2 icon" mentioned on the box is just a shortcut to the DOS executable, or will exit Win95 and start the game in "pure" DOS mode.

According to MobyGames, the game was released in 1996, which explains why it has been coded as a DOS game. If you consider how long it takes to develop a game, the development of S2 probably had already started way before Win95 was available. At that time, it was not forseeable that Win95 would be a good OS to run games on (Win3.1, for example, never was, even with extensions like WinG). I guess the devs just built upon the codebase of S1, which was a pure DOS game, too.

Back on topic: some time ago, i've made some tests with VDMSound, and quickly decided for myself that it's not a feasible alternative to DOSBox. With the few games i tested, i had compatibility and performance problems en masse. I don't think there's any way to make VDMSound perform better. I'd use DOSBox for the game, though i'm not sure if the 3DFX patch will work in DOSBox.

EDIT: game works fine in DOSBox, both software and 3DFX versions. Performance is not very good, but i didn't look into it yet, might be my crappy gaming PC. I've been using Gulizoka's latest build.

so if he has a win98 system why doesnt he just double click on the s2 shortcut
instead of messing around with dosbox and vdmsound

Because he doesn't want to run it there? Read his posting.

well why bloody not 😉

Uhm because he doesn't want to boot up that thing every time he wants
to play that, or for some unimportant other reason.

so if he has a win98 system why doesnt he just double click on the s2 shortcut
instead of messing around with dosbox and vdmsound

Sure, I could do just that, if I didn't mind the hassle of booting up the damn thing every time I want to play that game (as opposed to having ONE computer to run ALL my games), if I didn't want to run the game at higher resolutions than those it originally supported, and if didn't want to play it in stereoscopy (another thing it did not support originally) through the use of dgVoodoo and a Z800 3D visor.
Only by running it on a modern system, I can do things (namely, playing it at high resolutions and in stereoscopy) which I could not do by running it on a Windows 98 machine.

I dunno, I run it on WinXP with dgVoodoo and VDMSound and it's fine, though does require some tinkering. And if I recall correctly, whenever you open Setup it drops back to Windows to moan it wants to connect to web or something, and it's rare you can get back into the Setup program (hence why I saved my settings files!)