So I launch I-War, the logo movies play, and then I'm dumped to a mostly black screen - the screen-border shows but not the logos. Also, there's been no "intro movie" - does that happen only once you get past the training missions? Or is my system simply not playing the videos?

The intro should have played before you reached the menu screen. Perhaps the user "Ravenger" can help you pinpoint the problem, as he was one of the original developers at Particle Systems.

Hmm - the problem may be that the videos are simply not in the videos folder? Where are they normally located? It's worth noting that I'm using the CD release rather than the GOG one, and had to install it on a seperate computer since it uses a 16-bit installer and then drag files over. Sigh.

Edit: Figured it out. The installer only installs one CD, but the videos are apparently on the second and third CDs - there was no prompt to install these or put them in during play. Hopefully if I copy those files to hard drive all will be well.

Well, now I fixed the menu videos not playing, but still no intro. If I can't figure it out I'll ask in Ravager's topic.

The intro is only played through a button on the launcher, or just playing the relevant .avi, it never actually plays in game.

Tried running the main game exe separately from the launcher?

Create a shortcut to the iwar.exe game executable and add the command line options -b -16