Well, here's a little diagnostic tip: Is it simply failing to launch, is it throwing an error, does it not show information if you point a terminal at it?

Well, it just vanishes after playing the intro and the cover image

Hm. Now, if this wasn't Windows, I'd tell you to launch a terminal and watch the output, but alas.

Wait! you're going too fast for me! what terminal?

Sorry, that was me speaking hypothetically.

See, in the wonderful world of Linux, it is possible to launch things from a "command line" and observe what the thing is doing while it is doing, that way you can more easily catch errors and such things.

plea-ea-ease, you gotta help me! they're after me! and I haven't had my fix of mayoral simulation in years!

Well, alright. https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/SimCity_4

Scroll down to "launcher" and have a looksee there.