Corrupt dump or damaged disc maybe?
Mine doesn't do that.
Try and find another copy.

Some of the comments regarding file attributes in this old thread may be relevant to your issue.

Thanks for the replies. I've compared md5sums of the quake.exe and pak files to known good files on another machine and the sums match. I also compared the quake.exe with the one included on the mission pack #2 cd. I've been doing some more tests and it works correctly in DOSBox-X with the same flash drive directory mounted as C: After making a working save file in -X, if I load the same game in 0.74 it works; and if I save again from in 0.74 (either overwriting the same file or making a new one) it's messed up again. This suggests to me that my files are okay but something is wrong with my dosbox settings or environment.

I've compared my configs for 0.74 and -X and the main difference (other than the many hardware settings unique to -X) is -X running an autoexec.bat. It just sets the path= , blaster= , the reported dos version, and fakeshar. Back in 0.74 I've tried loading fakeshar, setting the dos version, and finally copying the whole autoexec.bat. Still no joy.

Attached is the .conf file I am loading 0.74 with
feda, is your game version 1.01 patched to 1.06 and 1.08?
akula65, I looked at the thread you shared. Unfortunately, my problem is not attributes or read-only files.

not a dosbox problem. This is a quake bug when the progs.dat differs between save games, all the modelindexes will be wrong.

Thanks, leileilol. That's interesting 🤔 Modelindexes sounds like what I was trying to describe.
I can say I'm a bit relieved it's not a dosbox problem. But how can that file be different in the same dosbox session when I start a new game, save to an empty slot (even on the intro map), close quake and immediately reload? And if that is what's happening here is there a fix or workaround?

Dracolich wrote on 2025-10-12, 16:22:

I've been doing some more tests and it works correctly in DOSBox-X

That's odd. Definitely suggests you're doing something funky in your .74-3 conf.
Try a clean default conf with only your mount command and core=dynamic.
Also post your md5sums and I'll compare to mine.
I've got unpatched 1.01 running in official .74-3.

Thanks, feda. Here are my md5sums.
quake.exe version 1.08 = e3e7fcc920610a5fa66c1dd030939fac
quake.exe version 1.01 = 9a7a48d1414154f7ac6cef4fa7ec9c11
pak0.pak = 85fc9cee2035b66290da1e33be2ac86b
pak1.pak = d76b3e5678f0b64ac74ce5e340e6a685

I discovered something interesting today. Raspberry pi runs a version of Debian linux and my main pc at home runs Slackware linux. Today, using my Windows 10 laptop with my same dosbox environment running from a usb drive quake saves worked fine, both the 1.08 game I'm playing and a clean 1.01 install. Both windows and slackware are using dosbox 0.74-3, the executables running from the same folder, mounting the same folder as c drive, and sharing the same config. Raspberry pi installs its dosbox (and other emulators) to a specific location but I still mount the same folder as c drive. Also, while the staging and -x forks of dosbox work on a pc, they are not available for the pi.

In windows I copied a working save from the 1.01 to the 1.08 and it loaded without a problem. I plugged the usb drive back into the raspberry pi, launched quake with qdos.exe and the save loaded without a problem. I launched quake again with quake.exe and the save loaded with things messed up.

Now the issue seems to be narrowed to vanilla quake.exe in vanilla dosbox in a linux os. The first idea I come up with, based on leileilol's reply, is since linux is a case-sensitive os it might be reading data incorrectly from the pak files. It wouldn't be the first time I've run into case-sensitive issues.

v1.08's not really a quake patch release but a slight EXE update coming from mission pack #2 to give new quakec built-ins to support that, as well as inventory bar changes. No ID1 pak differences on v1.08

only PAK0.PAK matters in the differences between 1.01 and 1.06 because that's where the progs.dat resides.

Dracolich wrote on 2025-10-13, 20:52:

quake.exe version 1.01 = 9a7a48d1414154f7ac6cef4fa7ec9c11
pak0.pak = 85fc9cee2035b66290da1e33be2ac86b
pak1.pak = d76b3e5678f0b64ac74ce5e340e6a685

Same here.