I downloaded the game using my sons thingy that lets you transfer dvds to regular pcs.
I don't really know what kind of "thingy" you're talking about. Is it an external DVD drive that plugs into your laptop's USB slot? Or are you transferring the contents of the game disc over your network connection?
You may be being blocked by the game's copy "protection." In that case, a No-DVD might help. Google for
"chronicles of mystery" "tree of life" nocd
It's also possible your laptop's graphics don't meet the game's requirements.
You need an Nvidia GeForce or ATI Radeon card that is DirectX 9 compatible
and has 64 MB of
discrete video RAM (not shared).