https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48457
--- Comment #17 from Chris Wyatt wyattmeister@gmail.com --- Yes, that jumped out at me. I did try installing 'gdiplus' and 'gdiplus_winxp' with winetricks, but this did not make any difference and the error was still the same.
Yes, it probably is 16-bit. A lot of these old installers are 16-bit, even if the things they install are 32-bit. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with very old installers in WINE. This is a very early game that came out around 97.
Just to clarify, this is from rc5 (I've been jumping between versions). I accidentally built rc5 again when I thought I'd build rc6. I'm in the middle of building rc6 at the moment, but nothing in the changelogs jumps out at me, as being able to solve this problem.
I do at least have a workaround, which is the newer version that Louis Lenders linked to. It appears to be running perfectly, but I still need to spend some more time to be sure.
I'm particularly dippy today, because I've got the flu, so bear with me if I make any more silly mistakes!