the game itself is not compatible with win8 i suppose... i tried and got the 'windie.exe cannot be started' error. got it working with Xtended mod.

You CAN get it working on Win8.1 without Xtended by running it in Win95 or Win98 compatibility mode, and selecting to run the game in 3dfx mode. However, in my experience, the mouse doesn't work properly within the game, though it does work on the main menu. Since this makes Mouse VSIM impossible, it kinda sucks. Moreover, why would you want to play the game without Xtended, at this point:? Xtended is a must-have, unless you are playing this on an old 90's PC.

open gog folder click die by the sword open windie directly, works for me