Screamer

Screamer
Screamer	1995
Screamer 2	1996
Screamer Rally	1997
Screamer 4x4	2000

Screamer is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person racing game in the Screamer series.

All versions of the game suffer from hard crashes in SVGA mode regardless of platform. There is no known fix.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Epic Games Store
GOG.com		Pre-packaged with DOSBox.^[3]
Steam		Pre-packaged with DOSBox.

Demo

A free demo version is available from Archive.org.

Essential improvements

VGA vs SVGA

The game can be run in either VGA 320x200 256 color mode or in SuperVGA (SVGA) 640x480 256 color mode. While SVGA looks better, there are known issues with the game crashing or hanging in this mode. In particular the crashes happen in SVGA mode when letting the game's attract mode run. Or during game play on the 5th track (harbour track) of the championship.

This is a game bug for which no true fix is available, but there are ways to minimise the likelihood of a crash.

Method 1: Careful manoeuvring

The crashes during the 5th track in SVGA mode can be avoided by careful manoeuvring. The downside of this is, that it requires a good knowledge of the track layout and checkpoint locations.

During the first checkpoint at the containers, always take the right lane.

During the second checkpoint at the plane, always take the right lane.

At the last skyscraper on the left, just before the turn to the straight of the finish line, keep on the left.

Credit to grapeli on GitHub.

1st checkpoint - keep right
2nd checkpoint - keep right
last skyscraper - keep left

Method 2: Switching view
It seems this error is far less likely to occur when using a different view during the 5th track. In particular, the view available by pressing `F1` or `F2` (`F3` is default).

Method 3: Use the VGA map file

As the crash does not happen with the VGA version:

Go to <path-to-game>\GFX (retail version) or <path-to-game>\SCREAMER\GFX (digital versions).
Back up the game's SVGA map resource file for the 5th lap, MAP5H.DAT, then delete it.
Copy the VGA map resource file MAP5L.DAT and rename it to MAP5H.DAT.

The downside of this approach is that some scenery will disappear, such as buildings and trees, despite those same elements existing when playing the game in VGA mode.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\CONFIG\
Windows	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}
Linux	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\REPLAYS\
Windows	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}
Linux	<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		For DOSBox toggle with `Alt`+`↵ Enter` (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS		70 FPS cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		For DOSBox change the `priority` background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
General MIDI audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		8
Online play		For DOSBox use DOSBox IPX/modem emulation.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DOS video modes	VGA, SVGA	Also supports S3 ViRGE's S3D API

System requirements

DOS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)	486 DX4 33 MHz	Intel Pentium 90 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB (VGA mode) 16 MB (SVGA mode)	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 MB
Video card (GPU)	VGA	SVGA 2 MB of VRAM

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
Processor (CPU)	1.0 GHz	1.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 7.0 compatible	DirectX 9.0 compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.6.8
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	500 MB	1000 MB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM
Other		Two-button mouse or Apple mouse with secondary button/click enabled

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 16.04
Processor (CPU)	2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL compatible 256 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References

↑ Surprise release: Screamer - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
↑ GOG.com adds Interplay games for Mac OS X - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
↑ List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[DOSBox_mounted-4] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

[1] Surprise release: Screamer - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[2] GOG.com adds Interplay games for Mac OS X - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[3] List of GOG games using DOSBox, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[1]

[2]

[3]

[Note 1]

Developers

	Graffiti
Publishers
Retail	Virgin Interactive
Digital	Interplay Entertainment
Release dates
DOS	October 31, 1995
Windows (DOSBox)	February 13, 2009^[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox)	October 26, 2012^[2]
Linux (DOSBox)	August 31, 2017
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Genres	Racing
Vehicles	Automobile, Street racing
Series	Screamer