had a similar problem - installed everything(the 1.2 crack) into right place, just would not start-eventually downloaded new nvidia drivers(41.09 i think)and hey presto it worked.
btw.i am running xp pro and u should uninstall all old nvidia drivers b4 installing 41.09
hope this helps somebody
forgot to mention that prior to 1.2 everything else worked fine (1.0 crack and 1.1 crack and patch)for some reason i had to update my nvidia drivers for 1.2.
Prior to driver update i used to click to play but remain on the desktop.