mac mini display resolutions

Hi all,

Just bought a new mac mini 🙂 (with Yosemite)

I'm using it to connect to my old projector as it's predecessor did. The projector is old, but handled my 2006 mac mini on 1024 x 768 screen resolution (no laughing now! hehe). The new mini comes with hdmi, and the thunderbolts. I used a thunderbolt to vga connector to try the screen out. It works but the resolution is very limited in display options (very disappointing - despite using old tech, the new tech should easily support such an old res). So my questions are:

Do the screen res options / settings differ from the output port i.e. will I gain more resolution options on hdmi, as opposed to the thunderbolt?

Can more screen resolutions be accessed (I know there is an app which can be downloaded, but I was hoping there was a way to do it free (albeit it a low cost, which may not necessarily solve my problem).

At the moment I can watch films in 800 x 600 (but the text on general use is like learning to read for 5 year olds), or a much fuzzier 'stretched' res (can't remember the details off hand).

I hope someone can help!

Cheers