Having run this game recently (I'm playing on an EverDrive N8), I frequently experienced the game crashing on me. In all kinds of ways too, to say the least, haha!

As I found out today (with help from skateman222), apparently it had to do with firmware issues (possibly certain mappers). It turned out that as soon as I downgraded (to v1.16 in my case), it solved the problem. So I'm not sure if this was already known before, but for those running the game who have had similar issues, this might help.