It says on the main page that this game should work with Windows 8 but I cannot get it to run. As soon as I start it up it is freezing on a black screen. Saying "couldn't open drive. Invalid CD-rom drive index".

Which one are you trying to play?

If I remember correctly, each game has two versions: CD-ROM or floppy.
You shouldn't get the problem if you try to run the floppy version at least.
I don't have Windows 8 but on Windows 7 they all ran fine (CD-ROM and floppy).