Just to let you know, guys. I was picking some old games for a notebook, and found my old Half-Life GOTY disc... Works perfectly at widescreen. You just need to make a shortcut and add -w -h in the target line... "...hl.exe -w 1280 -h 800" made it work flawless 1280x800 in my case. So, good luck in getting your old non-steam HL look nice at your widescreen.
I've just tried this (fully patched edition of the game, v.1.1.1.0, as included with
Half-Life: Generation), and it didn't work -- whatever 16:10 resolution I put in (I've tried your 1280x800 and my monitor's native 1920x1200), it just defaults back to 400x300. Ecch! Although when I first tried 1280x800, it appeared in a non-bordered window on my desktop, albeit at 1280x960 (a 4:3 resolution, so maybe it was trying the nearest match?).
I'm using a 7900GS with Forceware 93.71 drivers, in WinXP Home, and this is also my first post at this mighty forum :oops: