I recalled that there was a half-decent solution where you would be able to run the game in widescreen but the in-game will be in 1024x768 resolution (internal sort of) but I never got that patch to work so I did some searching.

According to this thread: Resolution patches at Steam the user Darkain posts a solution, a downloadable file you can get there.

1) Change the rangers.exe after installation from the Darkain's file
2) Now run the resolution patch 1.3 with your chosen resolution

Start the game with the "RangersNewRes.exe" and it should work.

This is obviously not as good as acquiring the new HD version here but it's likely that will take time, even if at all.

Darkain's zipped file also contain the revised translation from Russia-to-English, don't forget to back up your older "eng.dat" before overwriting.

NOTE: The patch got a hit with latest update of Avast for me, I would say it's a false-positive but it's hard to say. Here's a VirusTotal link if anyone cares: Space Rangers High Res Zip Virus Check

Mirror for the needed files: MediaFire