Maybe you need to run the ESSCFG in DOS to set the card IRQ to 5 ?? Did you try this: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=616
The few docs found for that DOS game do not list the system requirements but it should be Sound Blaster compatible which the ES1688 is afaik.

AHA I believe what you explained did the trick. I downloaded the drivers (or configuration utilities, whatever it should be called) and I added these lines to my autoexec from one of the readme files and edited them like this:

C:\AUDIO\ESSCFG.EXE /M:e /B:330
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 P330

And yep, Super Frog now has audio! The readme said this chip defaults to IRQ7. So why is that, is there any reason for it? I also previously noticed Duke Nukem 2 in attract mode always crashed in level 4 in Windows mode. However now when I changed my sound config to IRQ5, it just runs all the time without crashes, even in Windows mode. So I have no idea why it was implemented like that. Also I have another related question- ESS1688 readme file said "ESSCFG.EXE /M:e /B:330" activates MPU401. I believe this is MIDI but correct me if I'm wrong. So after I go to Duke Nukem 3D setup, I can set music card to Sound Blaster and after I test it, the music sounds sort of like MIDI, however it sounds the same as Sound Blaster 16 in game... So what is the purpose of enabling it? Can I hear MIDI music in games in any shape or form? Otherwise what does this setting even do???

Great ! Glad you got it working....

Also I ran into another issue. Right now the ESSCFG enables those setting I put in the autoexec, however right now it also adds these 2 lines at the end. I believe this didn't happen before:

run-time error R6001
- null pointer assignment

I have no idea but either this or something else just fucks my system and now, some games don't have certain SB16 sounds or some games just don't even start now in Windows mode. The Incredible Machine doesn't start because it throws an exception saying it was trying to perform an illegal operation... what is going on here??? Did anyone encounter something like this?? Well, maybe the solution is to use only MS-DOS mode for DOS games and quit using Windows 98... after all they all still run very well in pure DOS mode

There are ways to boot to Win9x DOS mode and have different Config.sys/Autoexec.bat for DOS than Windows. Sorry is 98f in the yard and just got done doing some outdoor chores and am overheating,
If no one else explains it will be back tomorrow with some simple methods I know of. grr I hate the heat :p

This is one of solutions but holy crap, is there any way to legitimately repair Windoze?? This is very hard to find anything useful regarding that error message. One big reason I want to have Windows 98 fully functional with DOS games is because I can set up a virtual CD under Winblows very easily for DOS CD games. Maybe I will do another clean install on another CF card...

While I keep working on reinstalling Windows 98 and experiment with different compact flash cards I have another question- is there any way to load a CD-ROM image with a DOS game in Daemon Tools under Windows 98 and have audio CD playing on a Thinkpad 560E? I loaded Shadow Warrior this way on my Thinkpad T23 and surprisingly it played with audio CD music right away without any hassle! However once I tried it on 560E, Shadow Warrior played but without audio CD music. Well, I believe I can just run DOS CD games like that on my T23 because they are new enough but ***probably*** I will need this sort of functionality to work under my 560E one day.

I was going to suggest you REM out the new Autoexec.bat lines and see if Win 98 works as it should. You could always make a game.bat or some other name.bat file with those lines
C:\AUDIO\ESSCFG.EXE /M:e /B:330
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 P330
in it and call on it after booting to DOS and before you play a game. Then just reboot to go back into Windows...just a thought.

Huh 🤣 but this is exactly what I was doing! Well, reinstallation and different Windows 98 versions didn't help and I still get that stupid run-time error. It appears to appear at random whenever I install or change something in Winblows. However I must say this error never appears in DOS mode. Strange...

However I managed to figure out what broke audio functionality in DOS games under Windows... it was those stupid obnoxious Windows 98 Plus theme sounds LOL2!!! If you disable them or at least disable the most unnecessary and obnoxious ones like menu confirmation, application start and end then all of those DOS games that are supposed to run under Windoze work again. Well, all is left is that weird run-time error. Maybe I will disable this line or just ignore it

Hey, is there any way to create another config.sys file and run it in DOS mode on demand? I know it's possible for batch files but I never experimented with .sys files, if that's even possible

You can load some device driver.sys files using one of utils listed here:
How to load DOS device drivers from the command line?