After an update this morning I attempted to play. The screen was black and seemed to hang for a little over a minute. Hitting the keyboard and mouse did not seem to affect it. The retro screen started up but while I did not wait too long it occurred that the few seconds I saw it; it also appeared somewhat slower.

I selected the old guy with the beard. I kept everything else as is as far as settings with the exception of selecting islands.

When the game world opened up the entire world was fog at first which lasted maybe 30 seconds after which time the book appeared. I closed the book and two separate people appeared on the land separated by an empty space.

Before any action could be taken the game exited out to windows.

I could not get dropbox to work well so I used my blog at myouterspace.com

 http://myouterspace.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&Itemid=103