How fast is your system? Are you using the dynamic core? Try a CVS build (check the development forum for info).

I'm running a 2.4 Ghz celeron and I haven't got a clue what a dynamic core is (I started using dos32a in place of dos4gw as I was getting the same stutter at 3000 cycles with dos4gw)

3000-3500 cycles is probably way too low for any game that uses a DOS extender, but it is possible that it's maxing out your CPU if you're using DOSBox's normal core. Check the DOSBox readme and dosbox.conf (or use D-Fend) to find out about using DOSBox's dynamic core. You might try different output= modes as well if you think it might be your video card or drivers that are the bottleneck.

I did do a check of my processor usage and it starts at about 60% @ 3000 cycles but it hits the roof at around 5-6000 cycles but I've done nothing to dosbox since I installed it so I'm probabily using the standard core.

For extra I'm using a SiS514 (I think I got that right) graphics chip (this is on my motherboard and uses 32MB from my main memory)

(not double post is update)

I've changed to the dynamic core and I can now go to 10000 cycles (with the game running) before my processor hits 100% but I'm still plagued with the sound problems I had before but worse so I'm not sure if my sound setup (realtek AC97) can handle the emulated soundcard or if I need to tweak the dosbox.conf file some more.

You could try increasing the sound buffer settings and/or lowering the sampling rate (Not sure what the default is, but common rates are 48000, 44100, 32000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000).

Also make sure you have the latest Realtek drivers installed from realtek.com.tw. If you have an nForce motherboard you can try using nVidia's sound drivers instead (use the ones included with their chipset platform drivers for the nForce)

I'll try changing the sound settings first (I think the default sampling rate is 22050 but wouldn't you have to turn that up not down)

I've also gone and downloaded the updated realtek drivers as well (you didn't tell me that their server would be that slow for downloads)

You'll want to turn down the sampling rate so that your computer will do less work emulating the sound. The buffer sizes you'll want to increase so that DOSBox can build up a small queue of sound data when it isn't busy with other things and then play longer from the buffer when it's busy with graphics and whatnot.

I've checked the startup settings and the lowest I can put the sampling rate is 22050 (which is the default) and increasing the sound buffer has only made a minor difference but increasing the buffer has started a lag in audio (when I exit the game the audio still plays for about a second or so).

I've also remembered that on the box it states that the reccommended soundblaster soundcard is the AWE32 (which I know dosbox can't emulate)

I've just had a thought...

I've just remembered that I have both soundblaster and gravis ultrasound active and I'm not sure if my sound problems are caused by a conflict between the two as superstardust supports both.

So I'm wondering if I should disable one of the emulated sound cards to see if it fixes the problem.

Couldn't hurt. Also, I'm pretty sure you can go as low as you want - 11025 should definitely work at least. Won't sound very nice though.

I've tryed that and found that with soundblaster only the sound is very weak and stutters more, with gravis ultrasound only the sound is the same as it was with both on but I was able to correct the problem but only slightly.

I found out that stopping the soundblaster mixer from interfering with the dosbox mixer it does stop the sound stuttering but only when the game is not in play (at the title screen only) when the game is in play and above 5000 cycles I end up back at square one with the sound.

Excuse the seriously major necro, but I thought that I'd better update the situation on this game.

I'd actually given up on getting this game to work properly, but I found out that my computer at the time had a few issues so after the problem got to much to handle I got a new set of components (motherboard, processor, RAM and hard drive) and rebuilt the system although I didn't bother installing dosbox at the time, I decided to give it another go on my laptop and it runs with CPU cycles at under 9000 with few visible slowdown issues (I could easily push the CPU cycles well beyond what I could on the old system without it even breaking sweat) and more importantly the problems with the sound are no more.