Sorry to hear you bought crossover, and it still would not launch...that's rough.
Again, have you tried installing Alice on XP, then running it in win98 compatibility mode?
I bought Crossover Office for the Shockwave (no kidding) and I bought Crossover Games for various Tomb Raiders and Alice. Alice and two of the TRs being a disappointment. With TRs I have some CD access problem (yes, I have the real, all mine I purchased those on CDs) but when you run in wine things are not so simple. With Alice I am pretty sure it is a screen size hack and their forums are not so newbie friendly as I like - I may get it going yet. A gold rating is pretty good though platinum the best. I should be able to make this work but such a pity everything purrs on this last 98 install.
And nope, it absolutely flops for me in XP in 98 mode. Though I have a new XP build that I am going to try it on before admitting defeat there. But it is a frustrating blue screen or freeze up experience in XP at the least opportune moments, and I am not the only one.
Now getting back to the VM business, I have found several promising links referencing M$'s for well, it was 98 and now it is XP. Again, I think I am two years too late for this boat.