Just realized that i should find myself a 640x480 monitor to see if that cheers up games such as privateer 2 and others
maybe a small led would suffice too...
Anyone experience with small screens and how the graphics look on those? First thing that comes to mind is a 2d or 3d hand laptop for those practices but i belief the keyboard will be the largest drawback.

How do you get by ? or what would you recommend for a fairly modern day setup suited for older games

( don't go talking about how your 90's setup still works like a charm plz, thank you :) )

Why a small screen?

Would a small window not do?

Yeah, I am wondering as well. Why can't you play them on modern monitors. or TVs for that matter?

Playing Ultima 1 on a 80" 8K HDTV is sooooo sweet, with turbo ultra surround sounds and bright OLED colors. If I had played it like that as a toddler, I would have crapped my diapers! In fact, I did crap them quite a few times.

funny you should ask but i have some easthetic problem with a small window, not to mention how small of a window 640 is on a HD screen some games translate great, others not so good,

Well, your going to need a truck to deliver, and a barn to store it. Plus some sort of power generator to power it. Not to mention practical things such as the old crts not having modern connectors, possible drivers not working etc.
Your just going to create a lot of work for yourself. Dosbox and other emulators should be able to provide multiple renders for these type of games, stretch, upscale etc. Plus engine reimplements or graphics packs etc.

go to your local thrift shop, goodwill or check craigslist. there will surly be a monitor with such a small resolution at one of thos places.

Buy a bigger monitor then, until the 640x480 window size seems about right.

I have a working 17" CRT monitor at my basement, if you are interested. Or at least it worked fine 10 years ago or so when I last used it. But you'll have to come get it. I think it handled up to 1024x768 resolution fine, at least.

SMALL LED <---- THAT WAS WHAT I WAS THINKING OF, ALSO ON A DUTCH HARDWARE SELLING GROUP ON FACEBOOK I NOTICED USED LAPTOPS, 4TH GEN INTEL FOR EXAMPLE OFFERED FOR AS LOW AS 100 EURO'S

Well... I have a 15" 1024x768 LCD screen that is still working. I don't know how long.
What problem are you noticing on your games?

ALRIGHT THEN!

What about Integer Display Scaling?
AMD and nVidia offer this option in theirs newer cards.

That is a nice suggestion indeed, i forfeited this in a couple of games because i prefered the slightly stretched full screen option ( such as in fantasy general and command and conquer ) but this is all in all a far better option then playing windowed since you can't move across the window border with mouse.

All in all it would almost be the same as playing on a smaller screen but i guess i am looking for a 1280 option at maybe 16 or 17" which would be i guess more or less perfect for those older games. If i remember correct eith integer scaling i belief i had trouble with setting dosbox to a larger window then the game offers

There are a few older titles that let you select resolution you can manually select 16:9 16:10(my personal favorite) and 4:3 (Fishbowl)

gave privateer 2 another try , added the community update, the one that get rid of the stripes while watching the video, activated integer scaling and i have to say it works quite nicely

game started out easy enough but with my first action as newcomer in the universe i was shot down while exporting some food to a world who'se foodproduction experienced some kind of disaster ( enemy freighters everywhere and i lost the tactic to get rid of them, stupid guns, probably need to find the blind spot of the turret and kill off those buggers from there )

Nice! Glad it worked out for you. :)