Usurper Board

I've been reading the forums pretty closely, but still haven't heard is there any fix or remedy for the slow down in Windows 98. I run a synchronet BBS and have no problem getting the thing running as long as I use vers 17 or below. Once I hit vers 18 the game just never initializes. I'm sure that as I've read if I gave it enough time it would finally play, but who wants to wait that long. What is the difference between 17 and 18-20...it's got to be found in there.

Thanks