You guys are nerds of the best possible kind, and I need your help

Hi. I'm Niels, a bloke whose parents got the game 20-ish years ago and wasn't able to put it down ever since. I didn't think up until today that there could be a fairly active bunch of redditors discussing a fairly under-the-radar game, but I'm extremely happy to have been proven wrong. It's like finding a 5k ruble bill in your winter coat :D

Now, if you were to indulge me for a wee bit, I have an issue with my steam launcher of EE/Tale of the Dragon version: it refuses to load. More specifically, it displays a very unfortunate message any time I would try and boot up the game. Naturally, the steam client itself is running, so I'm not sure why this might take place. If anyone knows how to fix it, please advise