I've tried nearly everything to get this game to work and all I've gotten so far is a load screen that crashes immediately after it appears. I'm on windows 10.
It essentially loads a black screen and then either the loading screens appear (if I change my resolution to 1024) and then it turns into a small black box in the upper left corner and then crashes or if my resolution isn't changed it doesn't show the load screens it just becomes a small black box and crashes.

I've played just Zeus on this laptop before and it was fine so it's 100% Poseidon fucking with me (appropriate really)
I've tried:
All compatibility modes
Changing my res down to 1024 (the only thing that changed anything)
running as admin
re-downloading direct x
launching from galaxy
reinstalling

The only thing I haven't tried is this "widescreen mod" people talked about in earlier threads, I can't find a good link to it anywhere so that's pretty much my last resort before a refund.

Figured out a fix it's pretty brute force though.
Downloaded bink video and deleted in the Binks folder JUST the Zeus_IntroHQ file. I guess it just doesn't run the title intro (which honestly I prefer it's tedious and I skip it anyway)
Should work without downloading bink video codex if you just delete the file. Anyway the game seems stable even in the background, i guess modern computers just don't like running bink files. oh and it's still in 1024 resolution.

WOW deleting the BINKS folder in general is what finally enabled the game to launch for me. I had the same problem as you. Running WIndows 10. Left the resolution at 1920 x 1080 and it runs great.

Am I doing something wrong? Game was worked for me on laptop only (resolution 1920x1080). Then I have plugged big screen with same resolution and game did not running anymore:
- black screen in fullscreen,
- black screen in smaller screen part,
- black screen in smallest screen part
- the end.

I have tried remove the whole folder, but it didn't help. Should I restart gog galaxy or reinstall game or something else?

Try right clicking on the .EXE, Properties
"Run as Admin" + "Windows98/XP Compatibility" (+ "Disable Scaling" + "Color Rendering 16bit")

When the Game starts for the 1st time, it tries to run in full screen (not windowed) mode at a resolution of 800x600.
Some modern graphics cards and monitors don't like this.
(now often the minimum supported native resolution is 1024x768)
You can change these settings only from the Menu, but it does not reach it.

The Game saves all settings in the .INF binary file.
There are special .INF sets for changing Game settings bypassing the Menu.
"Display option patcher scripts"
www.nexusmods.com/zeusmasterofolympus/mods/1

To run Windowed Mode, it is very important:
1) Color Rendering equal 16bit;
2) Scaling equal 100%;

During game development, Color Rendering was 16bit (Today 32bit);
(the eye of an ordinary person almost does not see the difference)

If you have a laptop or 4K monitor or TV.
Scaling over 100% (125% or 150%) is often used at high screen resolutions.
(this is to make the elements larger and the text to be readable)
Because of this, the picture or buttons are displaced, the mouse click does not fall.

For Windows 10, it is possible to set options only for the Game
(to avoid changes to the entire System)
Right click on the .EXE
Properties =>Compatibility =>LowColorMode =>16bit
Properties =>Compatibility =>HighDPISettings
check the box OverrideScalingBehaviour and "Application"

For Windows 7, you will have to set options of the entire System
Start =>ControlPanel =>Screen =>Resolution =>AdvancedSettings =>Monitor =>Color Quality =>16bit
Start =>ControlPanel =>Screen =>EaseScreenReader =>Small-100%

Overlays are known to interfere with the Game
(we are not talking about overlay-filters from the Game)
Disable overlays or close these programs:
- AMD GPU (delete GPU gaming profile)
- Nvidia GPU (GeForce Experience, Shadowplay as Share)
- AfterBurner, RivaTuner
- Origin
- Discord, Skype
- Windows Xbox
- Steam? (Steam overlay doesn't seem to interfere)
- other
Shadowplay, known as Share, must be disabled in the GeForce Experience Settings Panel.
Closing the process in Task Manager will not disable Shadowplay!

Try renaming the "/BINKS" folder
Sometimes the Game works, but it crashes when try to play Video.
Sometimes the Game works but crashes when trying to play a Video.
This is due to the fact that the Video briefly changes the screen resolution to fit, which may not be available for your monitor.

Need to install DirectX 9.0c on the system
DirectX 9.0 with Runtime Pack (June 2010)
www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=8109

Jamming sound, jerking
Turned off "3D sound", in-game Menu =>Options =>Audio

Looping audio problem
When you have more than 2 speakers (2.1 or 5.1 or 7.1 sound)
Older games don't know what surround sound is.
Also, modern sound cards can work in surround sound emulation mode.
Download, unpack and copy-paste with replace to game folder.
www.indirectsound.com/downloads.html
Try v12 (EAX=ON) or v14 (EAX=OFF) or v15 (noX3DAudio)
This dsound.dll replaces the native one from DirectX, like a wrapper, reconciles the old with the new.

Spaces and Unicode (umlauts, cyrillic, hieroglyphs) in the path to the Games folder can lead to missing sounds.


Windowed Mode with DXWnd
www.gog.com/forum/caesar_series/caesar_3_wont_launch/post5
www.reddit.com/r/impressionsgames/comments/5kwbzx/how_to_get_caesar_iii_to_run_in_windowed_mode_on/
This method allows you to bypass some of the rules:
- removes window frame, which is so annoying for many in native windowed mode;
- drag the Game Window to another Monitor (mouse dont stops working);
- bypass "noWindowed" bug in widescreen patches;
- bypass NOT 16bit in Windows 7;
- (maybe, Scaling NOT equal 100%;)

More
steamcommunity . com/app/566050/discussions/0/3191366986199956251/