I recommend you to read the official FAQ on the DosBox site.
Basic Setup and Installation
Command Line
Z instead of C at the command prompt
Internal Programs (important, especially MOUNT)
Most of the stuff in there is not really needed, but you would do best to familiarize yourself with the specific topics I linked to.
The mounting of your DosBox games directory, switching the promt to the emulated C: drive and clearing the screen from previous commands can all be executed from the [autoexec] section of dosbox.conf, so you won't have to re-type them every time round.
Frontend programs can help running DosBox with varying configurations for different games.

I remember playing this game. Nice graphics and story but buggy as hell, never finished because of the bugs, not to mention the stupidity of having to be in a place in a exact hour. Too much save-reload for my taste.

My friend had this game for Mac, and it wasn't buggy at all. Well I did finish it, and I can recommend it. The game atmosphere is simply great. :max:

I got all sound (music, fx) to work but no dialogue is read. Any suggestions? Does this version not include the read dialogue?

That is possible.

I've seen multiple posts with users saying that after the first nightmare the game goes black but I have seen no replies. I have this same problem. I'd really like to play this game. I know the game is buggy but I should be able to get past the first cutscene.

Try changing the sound configuration - wrong sound config might sometimes result in issues like that.

Hi, I know this games old but i just bought it online b/c i remember when i was little my two older sisters used to always play it and it was scary looking but looked fun but i never knew to play bc i was too little. Then eventually my sisters broke the game bi-accident, and we all forgot about it for a while then out of no where it came to my mind...and now im old enough to play and i really want to. Now after giving you that whole lecture on my past, the problem is that everytime i put the disc in nothing comes up... and so i read the inside and it says, 'Dark Seed must be installed onto a hard disk before it can be played. You will need 500k free on your hard disk to install dark seed.' what does that mean??

I would really appreciate it if someone who knows would answer me back please!!

Thank You and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

What system are you using to run the game? What is the size of your HDD?

I used to have the typical start up problem (black or snowey screen right after the animation scene of the first nightmare). But I solved it!

By the way: I've got the 28 MB CD-Rom version of the game.
This is what I did:

1. Copy the entire content of the CD-Rom to a folder, C:\cdrom (contains an install.exe file, two read-me files, and the folder DarkSeed).

2. Using a text editor application to edit the file C:\cdrom\DarkSeed\CDLETTER. By default it reads the letter D, change to C and save.

3. Start DOSBox (I'm using version 0.65) and type:
mount c c:\cdrom
c:
cd darkseed
ds /m
(the /m command brings up the "Select input device" menu before starting the game).

4. Select [1] Mouse.

5. Skip the intro scenes by pressing space.

6. After the animation of the first nightmare, the screen should be all black. Just press the left mouse button when the curser is in the DOSBox game window. Now the game starts. Enjoy :)

And remember to type Alt+Enter to change from window to full screen mode.