Failure to launch and patch

I notice the game's homepage has a dead link to patches and I found one called nevendupdate7 elsewhere, so I used that when installing but it always crashes after the keyboard command set screen. I only changed one default value but that setting is always remembered, even if I un- and re-install and patch.
The distributor has a support page that lists every game they have elsewhere but on the support drop-down list NeverEnd is not shown.
It did let me submit a support request, though but no reply after a week.

How do I find correct patches and get the game to launch and not crash after the initial command key choice screen??

I'm on WinXP Pro.