An increasing number of people are opting for widescreen LCDs. Almost all PC games released these days have native support for widescreen resolutions, but a few older ones, which are still popular, do not support them. But there are workarounds to get them working in a widescreen aspect ratio. Here is a list of tweaks to make some of your older computer games widescreen compatible..
America’s Army
This is a realistic computer game that gives you some insight into how the US Army operates. Since it lacks native widescreen support, you’ll need to force the resolution. Open the ArmyOps.ini file present in the System folder inside the America’s Army folder and search for FullscreenViewportX=. You will find a block of commands which you need to change to the following:
FullscreenViewportX=1440
FullscreenViewportY=900
MenuViewportX=1440
MenuViewportY=900
…where 1440 x 900 is the widescreen resolution. You can replace these values with what you need.
Battlefield 1942
Using Wordpad, open the file Video.con present in the Battlefield 1942\Mods\bf1942Settings\Profiles\Customfolder and search for game.setGameDisplayMode. This line should look like the following (on one line): game.setGameDisplayMode 1440 900 32 60 (where 1440 x 900 is the resolution, 32 is the colour depth, and 60 is the refresh rate).
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
This game originally did not support widescreen, but Swordfish Studios have since released an unofficial expanded configuration utility that can be launched to choose the widescreen resolution of your choice. You can download the utility from this link.
Doom 3
One of the most frightening games ever, Doom 3 sported cutting-edge graphics and the most immersive directional sounds at its time. Enabling widescreen requires you to install the patch 1.3. Using Wordpad, open the file DoomConfig.cfg present in the Base directory of the game. Find lines that look something like this:
seta r_customHeight “Y”
seta r_customWidth “X”
and change the Y and X to match your resolution (remember you won’t see numerical values in place of “Y” and “X”). Find the line with seta r_mode and make it seta r_mode –1 Similarly, find the line with seta r_aspectRatio and make it seta r_aspectRatio 2 where 2 is for the 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio. You can also use the above methods for Quake 3, Quake 4, as well as Prey.
F.E.A.R.
In the F.E.A.R. install folder (typically C:\program files\sierra\FEAR), there is a file called Shortcut to User Directory. Click on it to link to a Documents and Settings folder with F.E.A.R. settings files. Edit and save the settings.cfg file with the 1440 x 900 resolution in the ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight entries. Next time you start the game, it will launch in the widescreen resolution.
Do not click on Display after you start the game – this will reset the resolution to a value lower than what you set, and you will also lose the widescreen aspect ratio.
Need for Speed: Carbon,Underground I, Underground II
NFS Carbon needs a third-party patcher called the Universal Widescreen Patcher from HERE to patch the game executable to enable widescreen resolutions. Extract the contents of uniws.zip to a folder, open the file patches.ini using Wordpad, and add the following text in the appropriate sections.
[Apps]
version=1.03
a0=Need For Speed Carbon
[Need For Speed Carbon]
details=Select the 640×480
resolution in game to use your
custom resolution.
checkfile=nfsc.exe
modfile=nfsc.exe
sig=80020000C701E0010000
sigwild=0000110000
xoffset=0
yoffset=6
occur=1
NFS Underground and Underground II do not require changes to patches.ini and can be patched directly. You can later choose the widescreen resolutions from the game control panel.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Warrior Within; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II—The Sith Lords
Use the Universal Widescreen Patcher mentioned above. You can get it from HERE
Unreal Tournament 2004
Go to www.unrealtournament.com to download the UT2004 Mega Pack. The game engine is updated by this service pack, and native support for widescreen resolutions is added. This is a 200 MB download, and the file is named UT2004MegaPack.exe.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Open the Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\WarcraftIII\Video. In the right pane, change the value of resheight to 900 and reswidth to 1440 (both in decimal). This game does not let you change the aspect ratio, but it is surprising that the horizontal stretching is barely noticeable - possibly because this is an RTS with no close-up views. You can also use the same method for Warcraft III: Frozen Throne.
Have fun and enjoy your widescreen gaming experience and If you know any other tips about any other games, do mention them here..
UniWs doesnt work in windows 7 64bit…is there any alternate way to change warrior within resolution?
AWESOME! It works great on the sands of time
I successfully patched nfs carbon..but wen i run it nothing happens, just EA is flashed and full blank after that only a cursor appears……..
i5 2400, radeon hd 6850, 4gb 1333 ddr3,….
remember if you are runing win 7 or urhg vista you need to right clik n run as admin or it will fail to install with an error please close other programs, hope this helps someone
Does anybody know how to play Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom in 1280×800 resolution???
Other people say it’s almost impossible.
Please Help
i have tried the nfs carbon but it doesnt works
i downloaded the universal widescreen patcher and also changed the codes but when i try to patch it, it says cannot patch, please close all other programs !
help please
oh! i have win 7 !
hey ! you must be install the patch in the same directory of the game !! 😀
sorry for my english, i’m argentine.
Zeppelin, you have to right-click the file and run it as administrator
i’m also Argentinian 😛
THANX MAN!!!!!!!
most wanted?
Would you have any idea how to do it on PSO?