Fightcade is a matchmaking client that includes an emulator and allows people to play each other online using the very well respected GGPO netcode. It currently supports nearly 200 classic arcade titles, including many fighting games. Each game has its own room where players can challenge each other, spectate matches, or just hang out and chat.
Why should you check it out?
For many of the games supported on Fightcade, it is the best way to play them online on PC. There are other online capable emulators, but they do not offer a comparable netcode to GGPO, have active communities, or have the benefit of being extremely easy to set up. And in some cases, even the official releases aren’t as good as playing on Fightcade.
What is so good about GGPO?
GGPO used to be a service like Fightcade, but now it is just a great rollback netcode. While I can’t explain the technical side of how a rollback netcode work, I can say that this one tends to offer the best online experience and is considered to be the gold standard of fighting game netcodes. The devs for Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat XL used GGPO as their inspiration when creating their netcodes, and as a result the online play in those games is amazing. Skullgirls uses GGPO, and GGPO has become a popular choice for official ports of classic arcade games on consoles and Steam.
*How active is it? *
The easiest way to answer this question is with this link. I will say that the most active games at the time of writing this are KOF 02’, KOF 98’, SFIII: 3rd Strike, Super SFII Turbo, and SF Alpha 3.
*How much does it cost and how do I get started? *
Fightcade is 100% free*. Just register a new account and download Fightcade from here. You will need the games to play, but this is not the place to discuss that. My recommendation is to go into a room in Fightcade and ask the good people there for help. Or you can PM me about it.
Why are you telling me this? *
I just think it’s a great service that anyone who enjoys classic fighting games and other arcade games should be checking out.
Fightcade is better than nothing but the input issues can be tough to swallow sometimes.
There’s a Chinese client called Xzone that’s better on that front and uses rollback netcode to better effect than FC does. It has more compatibility than FC1 also. If anyone wants, I can post a tutorial on how to get it and set up an account.
Do you have any info about Xzone? A google search doesn’t turn up anything. I guess the big questions are, is everyone using it in Asia, does it support 3rd Strike, and is the actual emulation better than FBA?
As far as game quantity goes, FC2 is nearly out and will support something like 3500 games, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue anymore.
Im new to this fightcade and ggpo things. But last time I checked on google, fightcade is back. Has anyone tried it?.
I like fightcade, but sadly the error of the ports 6000-6009 doesn’t allow me to play most of the challenges. Though it’s not fighcade’s fault. My router won’t allow me to open the ports.
I’d like to try it since it claims you don’t need to open the ports 6000-6009 (by installing another program) but im not too sure either, maybe there is barely ppl playing in there, or the page might even be fake
Xzone has a pretty large amount of games available, including PSP, single player, tons of Asian fighters we dont really play over here in addition to the standards like third strike, ST, vsav, and Samurai Shodown 5 Special. The draw of it, to me anyway, is that the netcode is tons better than fightcade and while it’s still online, it plays a bit more like offline than fightcade does in part because the input management is a lot better and the connections are just straight up better. I have a German friend who has a terrible connection, and while it’s not perfect, we can actually play on xzone whereas we can’t for long on fightcade. The difference is extremely noticeable. The emulation is better, the client is better,it even keeps a record of your wins and losses for each particular game.
Thanks! I’ll set that up when I get time and give it a shot.
When FC2 comes out of beta you should check it out and see how it compares to Xzone. It uses a much newer version of FBA, keeps track of wins/loss per game, and has a ranking system and other new features. But right now the beta needs work so I’d hold off on it.
I’ve played on the beta and from what I can gather they’ve just worked on compatibility and UI stuff, not really the netcode. Xzone still feels better to me although their most recent update doesn’t impress me much, though I do like some of the improvements.
If you want to jump on and try it out sometime let me know.