I've been trying for 3 days now to get an original wwp
to run on under win2003 server.
Each time when trying to start up the game, getting the same
hateful BLACK SCREEN, flickering a bit for 2 secs, and then returning to
my desktop.

I read all the threads on the forums which relate to this problem when running
the game on XP. And tried all the offered solutions - none of which
helped (Compatability mode, WWP patches, win patches, driver patches,
Codec problem speculations and so on...).

I wonder if this game could ever run, and has ever run on windows 2003 server.
So what I'm asking is for one good example of this program ever running
past the black screen on a win2003 server.
(Please don't ask me if I have enough virtual memory - I have 1gb RAM).

Thanx.

This is a good question! I'm also interested. :)

First install DirectX 9.0c Windows 2003 server has DirectX acceleration options disabled by default. Make sure you enable full hardware acceleration for both video and audio card (by moving the sliders to the right).
For video this means -> rightclick on desktop, goto Properties, click the Advanced button on the Settings tab, then goto the Troubleshooting tab and move the slider to full.
For audio this means -> goto control panel, click on Sounds and Audio Devices, enable the Windows Sound system if you didn't already do so, then click on the Advanced button right next to the Speaker Volume... button. Acceleration can be set under the Performance tab.

Next, click on the start button, and type dxdiag at the Run command.
Follow the Next button and enable DirectDraw acceleration on the Display tab. Also test the functionality to make sure it works fine.

Worms should now run. Tested Windows 2003 Server Enterprise with Service Pack 1, running on Pentium4 1.5 with 640Mb ram, nvidia 93.71 and Worms Armageddon 3.6.28.0 <-> I hope it won't make difference with WWP :)