I have just purchased the game and patched it, when I change the screen resolution to 1680 x 1050 it displays the main game screen in a 4:3 ratio with black bars either side of the game screen and not in true widescreen, is this normal?
Yes, that's perfectly normal. It's the only way to keep the interface completely consistent between all resolutions and aspect ratios. It looks kind of unsightly having big gaps at one (or both ends) and stretching is even worse. If I was starting development today, I would design for 1920x1080 and use black bars on 4:3 screens, but the interface design on SST began a number of years ago.
PhilSST Many thanks for the response, I wanted to make sure that the game installation was not faulty as it looked odd especially considerimg I could pick a widescreen resolution.