Some games refer to the "SET BLASTER" environment variable in your Autoexec.bat file.
Make sure that the parameters defined in your Autoexec.bat file matches your sound card's actual settings.
If the "SET BLASTER" environment variable is not present, just add it.
For an AWE based card, the default parameters are: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
A = base port address
I = irq
D = low DMA channel
H = high DMA channel
P = MIDI port address
T = type of Sound Blaster (this should always be 6 for an AWE32)

Yes, it's exactly like that in mine autoexec.bat aswell.

In fact it works fine with all other games, also others that do not let me set it up in its setup, such as Blake Stone or Commander Keen.

Forgot to add the E620 parameter as well (only applicable to AWE based cards).
This one specifies the port address of the EMU8000 synthesis chip.

Coming back to your error message:
It seems the game doesn't like one of the parameters in your Autoexec.bat file.
You could try (just as a test) to "tweak" the parameters in your Autoexec.bat file.
Try removing H5, E620 & P330. You could also try changing T6 to T3 or T1 (to "tell" the game you have a standard Sound Blaster mono card).

If that doesn't work, then it might be that the game requires the CT-VOICE.drv driver to be specified (usually via the statement: SET SOUND=C:\SB16).
However, this is a very large might, since I don't the game will utilize this driver.
Make sure there is a file called CT-VOICE.DRV in your SB16\DRV folder. However, some games are very picky on the specific file version being used (I know I have one game, Innocent Until Caught, that only works with one particular file version).

Another possibility is perhaps the speed of your PC (not sure what you're running the game on). If it is too fast, it might also have problems initializing the sound card.

Seems this is a known problem.
http://www.rinkworks.com/apogee/s/6.4.2.shtml

Yep, it's because the card is too new. Removing H, E, P, and setting T to 4 works if I remember correctly. Can confirm later today. Hocus Pocus does/can use General MIDI too, mind.

Got it working, then wished I didn't - bit of a dull game really.

The Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 based cards don't support the stereo sound output (for digital voices) of the Sound Blaster Pro or Pro II.
Hence, games that specifically supported the Sound Blaster Pro or Pro II and that provided stereo (digital) sound will only produce mono sound on the Sound Blaster 16/AWE32.
You can try setting it to T4, but you might end up with some static or muffled sounds. Experiment with the T3 setting as well, since the (digital voice) sound output will be mono in either case.
Also remember to select Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster 2.0 in the digital voice section of the game's setup menu and not Sound Blaster Pro or Pro II.

If the game does support General MIDI, then just make sure you have Aweutil loaded with the /EM:GM parameter and that you select General MIDI for music playback (from what it sounds to me, this game doesn't have native AWE32 support and hopefully doesn't use a DOS extender). If this games runs in protected mode (uses a DOS extender like DOS/4GW), then you will have to select Adlib or OPL3 (Sound Blaster Pro) for music playback.

Whenever I use aweutil /EM:GM or GS and I choose "General MIDI" in the music setup, the PC freezes, with any game.

Earlier you wrote:

Elia1995 wrote:

This happens with this game only, others work perfectly with sound effects and music at the same time.

So what were you doing before?

The manual ( http://files.mpoli.fi/drivers_1/SND/AWE64G/WIN95/AWEUTIL.TXT ) suggests you may need to use the /em switch together with the /u switch.

"This happens with this game only" related to the "environment BLASTER" error thing.
But regarding the EM:GM switch in aweutil, that makes anything crash when I choose general MIDI.

Yep, been through this before. This can work on other games as well.

I created a batch file just for Hocus Pocus.
I use General Midi for music. Sounds great to me!

Inside my Hocus directory I created a Hocus.bat file with the following lines.

aweutil /EM:GM
set blaster=a220 i7 d1 h5 t3
hocus.exe
set blaster=a220 i7 d1 h5 p330 e620 t6
aweutil /u
aweutil /s

Starts up with no issues. If i use anything other than the "SetBlaster" parameters listed in the second line, it will freeze.
Then when the game exits, it will set the parameters back to whatever you had them set to.
So basically make sure you have GM and SB ports selected (within game) with your appropriate ports selected. And change whatever you need as obviously your AWE32 settings might be different than what i have written.

I have my batch file this way, so i don't have to mess with my config.sys and autoexec.bat files at all. Works well for me, with no lock ups.

The only difference I have with you is I have the SBAWE32 sb3780 version that is not plug and play(maybe part of your issue?).
Maybe this will help you. Good luck!

Blades

Thank you, Blades, I'll try that when I go to my father where that DOS PC with the CT3670 is (I don't have any issue on the CT2950 on my Olivetti here though, it's happening only on the CT3670).

Also just read the link provided by another user above and the info towards the bottom of the page. And the FAQ suggested pretty much what I did about a year ago to make the game work for me as listed in the above post.

Good luck!

Elia1995 wrote:

Thank you, Blades, I'll try that when I go to my father where that DOS PC with the CT3670 is (I don't have any issue on the CT2950 on my Olivetti here though, it's happening only on the CT3670).

No problem!

Good luck. I enjoyed the game when it came out decades ago(never will forget downloading Shareware on a 2400BPS modem) and also re-played it a few months ago. Still fun! Works great with the Gravis pad!

This trick can work on other older games that use General Midi as music. It sure stopped the lock ups for me anyways.

Blades.

Ok, I tried that and it does work, but when I exit the game the parameters don't go back to their original ones, I always have to reboot.
And yes, I did add them after the hocus.exe line, but the batch file doesn't execute the command 😐

Elia1995 wrote:

when I exit the game the parameters don't go back to their original ones, I always have to reboot.

You can always type the line in manually. Rebooting is excessive.

Are you running the .bat file directly from the DOS prompt, or are you using some kind of menu program?

What happens if you use

1aweutil /EM:GM
2set blaster=a220 i7 d1 h5 t3
3hocus.exe
4pause
5set blaster=a220 i7 d1 h5 p330 e620 t6
6aweutil /u
7aweutil /s

Happens that the blaster settings remain the first one I specify in the batch file. :\

And of course that I'm executing the batch file from DOS.

Ah and also, with those settings, I only hear the music without sound effects.

Elia1995 wrote:

Happens that the blaster settings remain the first one I specify in the batch file. :\

So it doesn't ask you to press any key to continue? That means that batch file is halting after running hocus.exe. What if you use the line "call hocus.exe" ?

Ah and also, with those settings, I only hear the music without sound effects.

Well, can you get music and sound effects with other programs?

You mean other games ? Yeah, I get both sounds and music, but in this one, only the music if I use that batch file.
I haven't tried to use the "call" command to load hocus.exe yet, I'll try it tomorrow when I get to work on that PC (hopefully I'm about to complete the works so I can bring it to this home soon and can experiment whenever I want...).

Ah and before you ask, obviously I checked in the options menu and the sound effects are on and it's enabled in the setup, eh 🤣

From the "Apogee FAQ:"
"Note on Hocus Pocus: This game was made when there were only four possible
parameters for the BLASTER environment variable (A, I, D, and T). Due to the
way the game parses the variable, the game probably won't work correctly
unless the BLASTER environment variable ONLY has those four parameters and
no others. One way to work around this conveniently is to write a batch file
for the game that sets the BLASTER variable so it only contains these four
parameters, runs the game, and then restores the settings afterward."

So try this batch file: (this is the one that's worked for me)

@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3
HOCUS
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T6 P330 E620
CLS

That should do the trick; set the sound effects to Sound Blaster, 8-bit, 4 voices. The other batch file probably wasn't working because it might have had the wrong IRQ setting.

Elia1995 wrote:

Whenever I use aweutil /EM:GM or GS and I choose "General MIDI" in the music setup, the PC freezes, with any game.

Unfortunately there's no way to get around this.