oh, forgot -

Mobo: MSI KT4 Ultra, chipset VIA KT400
CPU : AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (x86, i686)
RAM: 512MB DDR, 333MHz
Graphic: Prolink GeForce 4 Ti4200, 64MB RAM
Sound: Some C-Media onboard
OS: Debian GNU/Linux
Game name: in title, it's Worms 😀
Description in post above.
Reproducibility: For me, always, whenever I run worms 😀
Sound mode ... umm ... default I guess ? ... otherwise, using ALSA from 2.6-test10 kernel
Video mode ... umm .. didn't set anything in dosbox conf either, so have no clue - using closed-source nvidia drivers
Version of emulator: as above, 0.60
Steps I did already: Nothing much, don't have a clue where to start

I don't get passed the dos4gw screen.

edit: I forgot to mount the data directory as CDROM 😀

Okay the game is fine with 0.60-3(unstable as I maintain the package so installed it as well ) So didn't try with 0.60-2
I have NVIDIA drivers -closed source
2.4.23 kernel
futher everything from testing

Does the behaviour improve if you switch to fullscreen ?

Nope - altho I don't do fullscreen like in the way of resizing - am I supposed to ?

(I'm not quite a fan of it, my x is configured a bit weirdly in order to get the best res/refresh ratio)

Well there are 2 possibilites:
1. your copy of worms is weird (unlikely)
2. libsdl and X aren't talking the same language.

why these 2. If a game works in dosbox then your hardware is not relevant.
dosbox emulates everything.

dosbox inturn outputs its own graphics to SDL which does it to X

So either SDL/X is broken
Or the game.
but if you have a copy of the game that works on a other pc with dosbox it works on your pc as well.

broken game is possible ... but then, I'll be sad :\

Anything else sdl-like and x-like works fine for me - and dosbox things, too (A lot of other old games, like xenon2, golden axe etc.😀 ...

well maybe you can find it somewhere. I found it to test it so it isn't that hard.