How can I run old games that insist on a lower resolution (say, 640×480 or 800×600) when my display refuses to run at those resolutions?
Most such games will run windowed, with works, but is a bit of a shame. It would be nifty to get it scaled up to full screen, with columnboxing if necessary.
More seriously, some games simply refuse to cope. Sam & Max Season 1 will run windowed, but wedges when I try to open the options. So because it doesn't like my display, I can't change the audio mix.
My searches so far have only turned up GameCompanion. It's not clear that it will work, and the unusual distribution channels (Bethesda RPG mod sites and Facebook) make me a big uncomfortable.
Edited to add: I have an Nvidia card, and it turns out that it will let my add "custom" resolutions. 800×600 worked, 640×480 didn't. It's documented here, but the current interface looks different: http://www.nvidia.com/object/custom_resolutions.html Unfortunately this isn't a general solution; it didn't work for 640×480, and I don't know if it works for other video cards.
Best Answer
You could try setting your monitor scaling mode to 'No-Scaling' via your GPU control panel (this option at least exists within Nvidia Control Panel, not sure about AMD personally), which would mean that when you run a program at a particular resolution your screen would render it is if it were native, and the program in question would be in-set in a smaller window with black borders. This might get around your problem, or at least let you access the options menus in-game.
Alternatively, if it is only a problem with changing the resolution, have a hunt around for the configuration files for the game (e.g. in your My Documents folder), as mostly these are human readable so you can modify settings without needing the options in-game.