Yeah... so just to close this off. Still not running on the Pi 2 or 1, but since I need to build 6 of these I just ordered a bunch of 3's. Was hoping to use up this older hardware. I appreciate the help @Dragu and @voljega. Most of the other emulators worked on at least the pi 2, except some problems with mame that I quickly gave up on. So for the future people's who may come across this: Never got Dos emulation working on pi 1 or 2, so if you're trying on one and find this post... get at least a 3 I guess.

So if i rename dosbox.bat on the pi2 it still just pops open for a second then goes away. Basically the exact same thing as with all the other changes. It does behave the way you are saying on the pi 3 however.

So the mapper file change on the pi 2 didn't work.

I just set up the pi3 though and it worked as expected. Just put the same folder and a .bat with just oregon.exe. so the only difference I can see is which version of the pi I used. Is there some inherent difference in the installs for each of the versions?

@Dragu Yup. i've even redownloaded each version just to make sure i was getting a good solid copy for each

I'll give that a try. I'm also trying another pi, I have a 1 a 2 and a 3, i tried the 1 and the 2, now I'm trying the 3.

@Dragu only has oregon.exe in it now. still same result. Dosbox logo, then pops back to menu

same result. Dosbox logo, then back to menu.

i like the way you think

unfortunately... no change

I'll take a look. Do you happen to know what the rights should be?

also just as a note. I can run this install of oregon trail on dosbox on my pc. it's the folder from my PC that i copied over to the Pi.