My Dell 24inch WS (2405fpw) displays games like Diablo 2 in the regular 4:3 mode with black bars on the side. I can't remember but I think it's my vid card that does the conversion (6800gt).

I would SOOOO not use an LCD for vintage gaming. Non native resolutions look like utter crap. Just get a decent 19inch CRT for peanuts and you'll be set 😁

Oh and one last thing, if you go widescreen, don't go for anything less than a 24!

I went from a 19 CRT to a 20.1 WS and it just wasn't doing it for me, definately didn't have the 'wow' factor cause it was basically the same visible height as the 19.

Check out places like slick deals and you can get a 24er for ~600 or less (I got mine for $412 back in the day on a steal of a deal)

The utter crap thingy can be fixed by fullfixed=true.

For LCD monitors and vintage gaming, I would get a 1280x1024 monitor. It will give a 5:4 pixel ratio for 320x200 sources, very close to the true ratio of 4:3. For 640x480 sources, a 2x scale will give you 1280x960 and the borders aren't particularly noticeable.

To play Diablo 2, which uses a 640x480 resolution on the 1920x1200 native resolution Dell '2405, is a challenge.

Er, D2:LoD 800x600... it took some getting used to on the 24, but it's bareable now.

Actually, then you could do a 1600x1200 resolution, which is quite bearable. It is the 640x480 games that would concern me on such a screen.

Thanks for the advice. Like I said I rpimarily do video editing and the extra width is useful but I would prefer not killing my good ol' DOS games.
😀

For what it's worth, I found what also works really well for dosbox games on my widescreen monitor is setting the desktop resolution to 1280x720 and using the following setitngs .conf settings

windowresolution=original
aspect=true
scaler=normal3x (or any of the 3x scaler settings)

The window height ends up being perfect taking up the whole screen from top to bottom. I usually end up doing this instead of using dosbox fullscreen.