snipped for readability
Pardon my language. I can't believe this s**t.
I want to thank you all. Although your posts did not provide me with the solution, it encouraged me to tinker with it once more, to try once more from the beginning. Without this thread I would not have the drive to try again, so thank you. And I managed to solve it, so now I can play once again
I had followed the exact steps that Jorgen posted more than once, and it didn't work at all. Today, I reinstalled the game from the start and followed those very steps again, and the game would still not start....
Then inspiration struck, and I went to check in the control panel... and saw that Windows Media player is listed as an optional component, and it was not installed. Don't ask me why, as I'm pretty sure I never uninstalled it. Must have happened somehow during a system update. Anyway, I installed it... and BAM now it works. And in fact I can also change the playmovie line in the ini, and movies WILL play...
I would really like to ask WHY. I told the game not to play any movies anyway. Why would installing windows media player solve it?
Because it makes NO sense whatsoever. I mean, is it still checking somehow if the playback program is installed...?
What. The. Hell.
I'll just settle with being happy that I can play again...