Credit for this fix goes to Steam user julioleostos. I'm just posting this guide for easier visibility.

When you start Hocus Pocus, do the opening screens look like this?



This is what they should look like:



The image distortion is caused by a bug in the 2015-01-25 version of the Daum DOSBox emulator, which is included with the game on Steam.

In order to fix it, all that needs to be done is to revert the emulator to the 2014-01-27 build. This will not negatively affect the game in any way.

You will need 7-Zip, or some other way of opening .7z archives (most archive software can).
Get it here: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html.

7-Zip is open-source freeware and has been in active development for over 15 years. It is completely safe to use and contains no malware or adware of any kind.


1) Go to the "older builds" section of the Daum developer site, here:
http://ykhwong.x-y.net/subpages/old.php

2) Download the 20140127 archive for your OS. You don't need the DLL files.

3) Open the 20140127.7z archive and extract dosbox.exe and dosbox.conf. Then copy those two files to the DOSBox folder for Hocus Pocus.
(The default location is \steamapps\common\Hocus Pocus\Hocus Pocus\Dosbox)

Confirm overwrite when asked.

4) Hocus Pocus is now ready to play. Please post a comment here if these steps do not work for you.