They are several traps when trying to run Running Arctic Baron / Transarctica on DOSBox:
(as hinted by the DOSBox Compatibility List comments)
- When you copy over the files from the CD to HDD (because the Batch installer won’t work), do not forget to remove the read-only attribute to the files!
- The game will freeze randomly in the default setting of the DOSBox config. I do suggest to use a separated config file for the game. There adjust the CPU cycles from “auto” to “max” as suggested here.
- If you use the European version that asks you to pick a language, use the NUM block number field for this input!
- If you want to use a joystick, use a real analog joystick, analog gamepad sticks may not work.
If you need help to win the game, Scenario: how to win in Arctic Baron might help.
There is also an open source remake called “Transarctica Remake”.
Hint: As you cannot setup your details of where the soundblaster is located, it will fall back to PC Speaker if it isn’t where the game expects it to be.
To fix this, set the following values in your DOSBox config file for the game:
sbtype=sb1
sbbase=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=opl12
oplemu=default
oplrate=44100
This will give you ingame music and sfx at the same time! \o/