ThirteenAG/WidescreenFixesPack: ASI Plugins That Fix Widescreen Support in Old PC Games

What WidescreenFixesPack actually solves for legacy PC games

Old PC games were built around 4:3 monitors. When you run them on a modern 16:9 or 21:9 display, the result is often a stretched image, black bars, or a field of view that cuts off the sides. WidescreenFixesPack is a collection of plugins that hook into those games and change how they handle resolution and aspect ratio. The README describes the project as "Plugins to make or improve widescreen resolutions support in PC games, add more features and fix bugs." The audience is narrow and specific: people replaying PC titles from the 2000s on current hardware, plus users of emulators such as PCSX2F, PPSSPP, CXBXR and DOLPHIN, which the release badges call out. It is not a general display utility. Each plugin targets one game, and the fix only exists because someone reverse engineered that game's rendering path.

How the ASI plugins hook into a game

The output of each project is a .asi file. ASI is a Windows plugin format loaded into a process at runtime, commonly through an ASI loader. The README points users to Ultimate ASI Loader and notes that plugins usually ship with it, and that the loader is capable of generating crash dumps and crash logs. That tells you the basic data flow: the loader injects the plugin into the game process, the plugin patches the game's resolution and aspect ratio handling in memory, and the game renders at the new dimensions. Because the plugin lives in the game's process, it can also fix related bugs and add features, which is why the project describes itself as doing more than aspect ratio correction. The trade-off is that everything depends on the exact executable. A game patch, a different regional build, or a store re-release can move the code the plugin expects to patch, and the fix stops working or crashes.

Installing a widescreen fix: copy files, keep the originals

The README states the usage plainly: insert the files into the game's root directory, and uninstalling is as simple as deleting the files. There is no installer step required for the end user. The practical sequence is to download the release that matches your game, then copy its contents into the game folder. The plugin file lands next to the game executable, and the bundled ASI loader handles injection when the game starts. If you want to reverse the change, delete the files you copied. Because the README says uninstalling is just deletion, keeping a copy of the original archive or a list of the files you added is the only rollback path documented. The README does not describe a restore command or a backup utility.

For people building from source rather than downloading a release, the requirements are Premake 5 (a pre-built executable is in the repository root) and Visual Studio. The documented command is:

premake5 vs2022

That generates the Visual Studio project files. A project deploys its built .asi into the game folder named by keys in a .env file in the repository root, so machine-specific paths stay out of the repository. The README gives this example:

BULLY_SCHOLARSHIP_EDITION_DIR=Z:\Games\Bully Scholarship Edition

The build copies the plugin into the scripts folder of that game (or plugins where the game has one) and starts the game from there when debugging. Only a plugin that is already installed is replaced, and a game the .env file does not name is simply not deployed. The keys are listed in the .env file of a working copy, and a key is the name of the game folder in upper case. If you only want to play, the release archive is the shorter path; the build instructions matter if you are modifying a plugin.

Where WidescreenFixesPack is the wrong tool

The pack is a set of per-game plugins, not a universal fixer. If your game is not in the release list, there is nothing here to install, and no generic mode that will help. The README does not document a way to request or generate a fix for an unlisted title. Second, the platform matters. The release badges separate Windows, PCSX2F, PPSSPP, CXBXR and DOLPHIN, so a plugin built for one target will not serve another. Third, the project is Windows-centric in its tooling: the build requirements are Visual Studio and Premake 5, and the deployment example uses a Windows path. If you play on Linux through Proton or a similar layer, the README offers no guidance, and you would be relying on the loader behaving under that environment. Finally, the README is thin on failure handling. It asks users to send a .dmp crash dump when a game crashes, which tells you crashes are a known outcome, but it does not list which game versions are supported or how to diagnose a plugin that loads without effect.

WidescreenFixesPack compared with per-game mod patches

The realistic alternative is a game-specific mod or patch distributed by that game's own community. The difference is scope and maintenance. A dedicated patch usually bundles the widescreen change with other fixes for one title, and its author tracks that title's releases. WidescreenFixesPack takes the opposite approach: one repository, many games, shared build infrastructure through Premake and a .env deployment map, and a common ASI loader. That structure is efficient for the maintainer and consistent for users who own several of the supported games. It also means each plugin inherits the same assumptions about how injection works. If a game-specific patch exists and is current for your build, it may cover more ground than a plugin whose job is resolution and aspect ratio. If no such patch exists, or it has gone stale, the WidescreenFixesPack plugin is often the only option. The choice comes down to whether you want one tool with a uniform install story or a patch tuned to a single executable.

Maintenance, licensing and what the releases tell you

The repository is not archived, and its last push was on 2026-09-23, so the codebase is being touched. That says nothing about any individual plugin. The three most recent releases listed are xrd (XboxRainDroplets Plugins) on 2023-07-03, usm (Ultimate Spider-Man Widescreen Fix) on 2017-07-18, and truecrimesola (True Crime Streets of LA Widescreen Fix) on 2016-04-24. Those dates are old, and they show that release cadence varies widely by game. Before you install, check the release date for your specific title rather than the repository's overall activity. The license is MIT, which is permissive and permits reuse and redistribution with the license text; that is a summary of the license identifier, not legal advice, and anyone redistributing a build should read the license file. Upgrade cost is low in practice: the README's install model is copy and delete, so moving to a newer plugin build means replacing files. The exception is a game with a plugins folder, where the README notes the build copies into plugins instead of scripts.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt it if you play a specific legacy PC game that has a matching plugin in the release list and you are comfortable copying files into a game directory. Do not adopt it if you need one installer for every game, if your title is not in the release list, or if you expect documentation beyond the README. Before installing, verify the release matches your game and platform (Windows, PCSX2F, PPSSPP, CXBXR or DOLPHIN), and keep the original files so you can reverse the copy. The repository's last push was on 2026-09-23, and the README does not document rollback.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: MIT
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. ThirteenAG/WidescreenFixesPack on GitHub