Huh, not sure then. If you haven't tried installing the SDL stuff through apt like OP did, then it's probably that; otherwise, manually setting up the DOS version in DOSBox (or a fork) is your best bet for now, sorry :(
Yeah, I just installed dosbox manually and the game ran great. A bit of a pain to type in the path and everything, but at least it's something! I tried installing libsdl and it said it was already installed.