Have you been longing to play Nintendo, Super Nintendo, or Sega Genesis games with your friends as though you were 12 again? Emulators are great, but what if you are living in different cities? Here's how.

1) Download Hamatchi and form a network. Hamatchi is VPN (Virtual Private Network) software that makes it appear as though you are on the same Local Area Network (LAN) as your buds, but over the internet. After you are both on the same network, be sure to take note of your friend's Hamatchi IP address, as you will need it later.

2) Download a stand-alone voice and / or video chat solution such as Mumble, Team Speak, or Skype.

3) Download an emulator that supports network play, such as

ePCSXe  - Sony PlayStation
nullDC - Sega Dreamcast
ZSNES - Super Nintendo
FCE Ultra - Nintendo
MAME - Arcade

4) Agree on a game to play ahead of time, because you will both need to have the appropriate ROM file. 

5) You will need to coordinate ahead of time / over voice chat who has the player one controller, as these consoles / arcade titles are not designed to figure it out like modern online games. Make sure that everything is working for your single player setup before even attempting online play. Set up one person's machine for player two input then connect to one another using the Hamachi IP address for your friend provided from Step 1.

Happy gaming!