All I get is the initial animation, then it exits and cannot do anything.

What worked for me was turn of High DPI Scaling optimization and turning off internet before launching the game, I know the latter one sounds odd since it's a DRM-Free version but you actually have to do this unfortunately.

I get through to the point of starting a ‘New’ game, a pretty screen with sky blue and flashing computer iconography starts, and then... nothing happens. It doesn’t lock up, it just sits on that screen?