Gorky 17 is yet another game where the programmers were sloppy and on launch the code attempts at least one illegal memory access - add it to your DEP exception list if you're using DEP (which you really should be, trust me).

Thank you a bunch!
Haven't run into DEP issues for so long, I had forgotten all about it. (That might be a compliment to someone or -thing)
Off to see if there are any other surprises to find!

That solved my problem. Thanks a lot!