very high 😀
i remember crusader wanted a dx2 66
you need a 5+-2 ghz machine to get out of dosbox at the moment 😉

use virtual pc

crusader runs very very well in it.

I built a dos box just a few months ago with some spare parts and a $30 used motherboard/box/Celery CPU (yes I know its Celeron, but Celery is much more accurate- tastes bad and does not do much for you)- had to do this because my old $300 AWE 32 card that I bought with my first box back in 1995 would not fit in a crappy 350 Comcrap box that I had.

Crusader and other dos games run great- I use DOS BOX for the games that require the huge amount of base ram (I.E. sorry, you need more of that 640K that every program wants) to run my other Dos games. Its kind of handy to have that dos machine around because with Win98 on it (for networking purposes) I can run some games that don't run properly on XP- I.E. Disciples Gold Edition (runs ok, but the audio for the introductions fail to play, strange..)

I got Crusader: No Remorse running on my PC just today after bumping into a couple of different articles on this forum. If I understand what's going on, the DOSBox cycles are more valuable than the cycles of a processor on a DOS machine; that is, a 66MHz game does not require DOSBox to be running at 66000 cycles.

My machine is as follows:

Athalon XP 2800+ (barton core)
1 GB RAM (333 MHz)
Windows 2000 SP4
DOSBox v0.63 standard release

I managed to get Crusader: No Remorse running playably with the following configuration. It's not perfect: the sound stutters every once in a while (say, every twenty seconds or so, usually when I just start firing at an enemy) and moving between screens takes a second or two. However, other than the brief music skip, it runs a lot better than it did on the 486/66 SX2 sitting across the room from me. On that machine, scene loads were quite time consuming and changing screens took a few seconds. I guess I just had to play it on the old machine before I could appreciate all of what DOSBox is doing for me. 😉

To get this config to work for you, you're going to have to fiddle with the CPU settings until it runs smoothly. Increase or decrease the number of cycles until it runs cleanly. If you have too few cycles, the game will run more slowly than it should. If you have too many, the game will skip.

Anyway, here's the config I used. I turned off everything that didn't seem essential to the game's operation.

1[sdl]
2fullscreen=true
3fulldouble=false
4fullfixed=false
5fullresolution=0x0
6output=surface
7hwscale=1.00
8autolock=true
9sensitivity=100
10waitonerror=true
11priority=higher,normal
12mapperfile=mapper.txt
13
14[dosbox]
15language=
16machine=vga
17captures=capture
18memsize=32
19
20[render]
21frameskip=4
22aspect=false
23scaler=none
24
25[cpu]
26core=dynamic
27cycles=11000
28cycleup=500
29cycledown=500
30
31[mixer]
32nosound=false
33rate=22050
34blocksize=2048
35prebuffer=10
36
37[midi]
38mpu401=true
39intelligent=true
40device=default
41config=
42
43[sblaster]
44type=sb16
45base=220
46irq=7
47dma=1
48hdma=5
49mixer=true
50oplmode=auto
51oplrate=22050
52
53[gus]
54gus=false
55rate=22050
56base=240
57irq1=5
58irq2=5
59dma1=3
60dma2=3

61ultradir=C:\ULTRASND
62
63[speaker]
64pcspeaker=true
65pcrate=22050
66tandyrate=22050
67disney=false
68
69[bios]
70
71[dos]
72xms=true
73ems=true
74
75[modem]
76modem=false
77comport=2
78listenport=23
79
80[directserial]
81directserial=false
82comport=1
83realport=COM1
84defaultbps=1200
85parity=N
86bytesize=8
87stopbit=1
88
89[ipx]
90ipx=false
91
92[autoexec]
93mount c c:\
94mount f f:\
95mount o o:\
96f:
97cd \static\games\crusader
98mount y f:\static\games\crusader\cd
99crusader.exe
100exit

I don't really understand what the fixation with Crusader is 😀
Other than they obviously recruited an Old Republic Clone Trooper and dipped him in red I don't see why anyone tolerates this controler interface.
I never made it further than the first room and then hope for a miracle 😀
Seriously, at some point in the future, both Crusader games will be supported by Pentagram (see http://pentagram.sf.net). Ultima 8 is already coming along nicely and once it works, support for the Crusader games will slowly creep in. I sincerly hope the interface can be improved upon 😀
As I'm closely affiliated with the pentagram project (I wrote the sucky documentation) I even bought the Playstation version of Crusader. Needless to say the quirky interface prevailed even there 😀

So keep an eye on Pentagram

The fixation with Crusader games has to be put in context. Remember, most of the people wanting to play Crusader aren't people who found it and want to play it today. These are people who found it back in '95 or '96 and want to revel in nostalgia. At the time, the multimedia was impressive and, despite a hokey storyline and poor acting, the game was an enjoyable play. I was in the 8th grade when I first ran into this game and, in comparison to all of the other games I had on my 486/66, this one took the cake.

I'll definitely grant that the controls could use an overhaul, especially since the engine doesn't always respond intelligently to your moves. But I had a delightful nostalgia trip when Extraction Specialist Look-How-Cool-I-Am-With-My-Technobabble-And-Hair Reaves told me where to find the exit to the first level. 😀

ok, that explains it a bit 😀
I first came upon this on a CD from a friend with a lot of games cramped on it (back in '98 or '97), couldn't get it to work good (no wonder since the video was ripped off it). Then when pentagram got born I looked closer at it. Wasted time to get it to work on VirtualPC, then Dosbox and eventually hunted down legal copies of the games.
And now I'm mesmerized the likeness tot he Star Wars clone troopers 😀

Yeah I played the Crusader games when they first came out. Haven't played 'em since tho. Dunno what the big deal about the controls is....I never had an issue with 'em. Guess I'll load it back up to see what all the control complaints are about....people complaining are probly the same people who can't use a computer without a GUI. 🙄 😉

That config pretty much sum's it up. Near perfect gameplay. Sound/music is a little jittery though. I cannot seem to get any of the In-Game video's to play. The sound skips severely until i hit a button to "skip" it. anyone ever get the in-game movies to work?

That's a game I have the curiosity to play.

Unfortunately the sound is stuttering a little bit and it's sounding scratchy sometimes. Other than that the gameplay runs smoothly. Does it sound scratchy for you sometimes too?

My specs:

P4 3.2 Ghz
512MB (400Mhz)
WinXp SP2
Creative Audigy 2
DOSBox 0.63 Standard

1[sdl] 
2fullscreen=true 
3fulldouble=true
4fullfixed=false 
5fullresolution=1024x768
6output=surface 
7hwscale=1.00 
8autolock=true 
9sensitivity=100 
10waitonerror=true 
11priority=higher,normal 
12mapperfile=mapper.txt 
13
14[dosbox] 
15language= 
16machine=vga 
17captures=capture 
18memsize=16
19
20[render] 
21frameskip=0
22aspect=false 
23scaler=normal2x 
24
25[cpu] 
26core=normal 
27cycles=20000 
28cycleup=500 
29cycledown=500 
30
31[mixer] 
32nosound=false 
33rate=22050 
34blocksize=2048 
35prebuffer=10 
36
37[midi] 
38mpu401=true 
39intelligent=true 
40device=default 
41config= 
42
43[sblaster] 
44type=sb16 
45base=220 
46irq=5
47dma=1 
48hdma=5 
49mixer=true 
50oplmode=auto 
51oplrate=22050 
52
53(...)

core= dynamic
output=opengl if not available direct3d or overlay
frameskip=1 or higher if neede and acceptable

use latest cvs for example from daums cafe

DOSBox SVN Builds

memsize=63

use the timesynch function

core=dynamic
cycles=200000
cycleup=2000
cycledown=2000
timesynched=true
showcycles=true

Perhaps you have to use a cracked version or crack the game. I have my game already cracked and it seems to work fine, just a bit of slow down in some places but overall the speed is smooth.

I'm desperately trying to squeeze a decent performance outta DosBox... I tried with tvynr's config-file, and when that failed to produce much of an improvement, I modified it according to the Guest's suggestion, adding timesync and increasing the cycles to 20000 (I really hope that last 0 is an error, 'cuz if you follow that, things go to hell in a handbasket. 😜 ) and got a bit of improvement out of that...

But the sound still stutters every time I move, shoot, or just basically do much of anything. In a full-on gunfight, movement becomes stuttery as well... still, it's the best performance I've seen so far. For 'bout 5 minutes, at which point DosBox crashed without a word. 😢

My system specs are the same as tvynr's (which is why I used his suggested file) 'cept for that I've only got 512 MB of ram.

If you've got any suggestions on how to A: Squeeze the last bit of performance out of the Box so that I can avoid all that stuttering B: prevent DosBox from crashing after 5 minutes of play, please don't hesitate to share 'em...

cycles are dependent upon processor speed. You cannot use someone's suggestion to use a specific cycles setting for your game unless they have the exact same processor that you do. You need to monitor your Task manager and make sure that your not exceeding 90-95% processor usage....otherwise the game will run more slowly.

Well, that's the thing... I DO have the exact same CPU as tvynr, and therefore I assumed I could use his settings... apparently not, since it ran better with 20000 than 11000...

Did you actually try with 200000?

Yup. 😜 So-so-som-om-om-omw-wha-wha-hat-at-at Am-am-amu-mu-mu-mus-us-us-usi-si-si-sing. 😁

You need a cvs version with timesync support for this to function. See the development forum. A cvs version is recommended anyway since it's faster than 0.63