The main issues is the black boxes and the ridiculous low resolution. I have tried the sticky, but the links are down. Thanks

The original runs at 512x384 and there is no way to increase that except by using the fanmade high resolution patch, which is discussed in the sticky. You can find download links that actually work in this other forum thread:

http://planet-adelpha.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=824#824

Make sure to read the sticky for installation instructions. Note that you will probably still want to use a 4:3 resolution because the widescreen ones will cut off part of the image. If you set your scaling correctly you'll have black bars on the sides but not the top and bottom.

Just in case you want to try playing without the high res patch: How big are the black bars on your screen? Most monitors can't go lower than 640x480, but if yours can do 640x480 then the black bars shouldn't be too big. If the game is running in an extremely tiny window in the center of your screen then you might look into the scaling options for your graphics card and / or monitor. That can at least get the game to fill a good portion of your screen.

Have you tried removing cinemascope and framed options? No patch or anything, just install the game, open it and beofre launching it go to options and remove cinemascope and framed options.

Worked both on my and my gf's PC.