Gog tech support gave me a few suggestions. Evidently, my problem is that the game won't play .ogv movie files correctly. (I am, however, able to use VLC Media Player to watch the ogv files externally.) When it seemed only the intro movie was the problem, Gog told me to rename the "intro.ogv" file. This fixes the problem by skipping the movie.
However, there are other .ogv movie files that the game tries to play later. Since Gog's suggestions didn't work for me, I had to move the ogvs to another part of my pc so they wouldn't play (takes less time than renaming).
In case other gamers will have more success with Gog's suggestions, here's what they said:
1) Please make sure that you use "Run as Administrator" to install and to start the game (right click on the shortcut or setup file and select "Run as Administrator").
2) Please reinstall the game to a simpler path (like: C:\Games).
3) Install the June 2010 DirectX runtime package, then use the DirectX web installer, as your current DirectX may have become corrupt over time.
You can find the ZIP file containing the 2010 package installation files here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3b170b25-abab-4bc3-ae91-50ceb6d8fa8d You will have to extract the files into some folder, then open that folder and launch the DXSETUP.exe file in order to proceed with the installation.
Afterwards, download the latest DirectX web installer and use it as well:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 4) Please right-click the game's shortcut, go to Properties -> Compatibility and set different compatibility modes before launching the game again.
Please install the Combined Community Codec Pack:
http://www.cccp-project.net/
If if doesn't help please try the K-Lite Codec Pack:
http://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm ---
Finally, Gog said to try this: uninstall any codec packs you have installed. Afterwards, reinstall the game. If that doesn't help, try only installing just the Combined Community Codec Pack.
(I'm not sure uninstalling all of my codecs is something I want to do, so I passed.)
