Has anyone been able to play this game on a recent system?
I haven't played it since it was first released. I played it on two computers, both with Windows 2000 and single core Athlon processors. Could some of your problems be due to hyperthreading or a dual core processor?
In the game, hot spots and a mouse right click give a "menu" too small to use with pointer action nowhere near the obvious choices.
Are you using a widescreen monitor? What happens if you decrease the monitor's resolution before starting the game? The "too small menu" sounds like the game was made for a lower resolution, or that it's using a default desktop font that's too small on a high resolution monitor.