Fightcade (formerly GGPO) has been a mainstay for playing fighting games online for well over a decade. The newest iteration of it, Fightcade 2, features an overhauled user interface, support for a ton more games, and improved emulation. Give this program a try if you enjoy classic arcade games from the 90s, whether it’s fighters like Street Fighter, Run & Guns like Metal Slug, Beat ’em Ups like Final Fight, or puzzle games like Puzzle Bobble / Bust a Move.

The online multiplayer implementation aims for rollback, rather than delay. With rollback players have lockstep experiences with what each other are seeing. This is accomplished by keeping a buffer of a few frames, which can be “rolled back” if any inconsistencies in the gamestate arise due to network hiccups. To date, this is the most responsive way of playing these games online.

Fightcade features game specific lobbies for players to find opponents, play games, and chat. The chat part is a mixed bag, but mostly a good thing. You never really know what kind of people you’re going to run into, but you can at least mute or block the people who suck.

Best of all, the emulator and front-end are free. All you need to do is download the client, sign up for an account, and join some lobbies. Of course you’ll need to get ROM files for the games you want to play, but this handy JSON pack automatically downloads any missing ROMs whenever you join a new game lobby.

FIghtcade 2 is very actively being developed, with some Patreon-exclusive features like being able to join more than three lobbies and using custom themes. That said, you can have plenty of fun just using the free version before deciding if you want to contribute.