when I try to load descent or descant2 all I get is a BSOD, tried changing the checksum, had to change the sound card to get sound with D1, and can't seem to download the DXX thing but the servers are not up, all I get is a blue screen and I can hear the back groud sound but there is no picture or control panel so I can't change the to OpenGL, help

I'm thinking I need to dpwnload the game again, I think I have a corruption

Either that, or you have a majorly screwed up driver somewhere.

I know this is really old, but in case any new players come by and search for the same issues (especially since Overload was just released on GOG and nostalgia may inspire you to buy the original Descent games!), I cleared up a similar issue (my screen was green, I'm running under windows 7)

All I had to do was edit the dosboxDescent.conf file in the Descent directory and change the output from "overlay" to
output=opengl

That's it!