Can't play SEV

[Escaflowne]

I played SEV many moons (and patches) ago, then I stopped. Now I'm trying it again and I can't get it to play correctly.

I've uninstalled and re-installed off the CD with no errors. Then I applied the 1.66 patch, then I added the Balance Mod patch.

I click on the desktop icon and I get the opening menu, where you can setup video options, start the game, various other otions. These buttons work.

As soon as I press "New Game" my screen goes blank. If I run in windowed mode I can close the screen, if I leave it as any resolution at all then I can't close it, Task Manager won't come up, I can't kill the process, and all I can do is reboot the computer.

I've tried so many combinations of video options I've completely forgotten what the default settings are. Also for some reason I've never been asked to input the CD-Key.

I've checked for new drivers but no change in result. I've uninstalled the game again, installed off the CD again and am using the base 1.00 version of the game with the same result. Anyone have an answer?

Thanks!