http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14746
--- Comment #18 from rlazur i88gerbils@yahoo.com 2010-07-20 23:05:58 --- Okay. I ran NS with -autoconfig launch option, which reset everything. The issue has to do with opengl rendering on my system.
I can change to software rendering (-soft) or direct3d (-d3d) (lots of debug output on the latter), and this gets me passed the initial screen.
err:ntdll:RtlpWaitForCriticalSection section 0x14976ec "?" wait timed out in thread 0023, blocked by 0024, retrying (60 sec)
This still pops up even in software rendering or Direct3d. So this is probably not the issue.