I'm playing on original hardware using opl via a USB stick, so it might be a user problem, but I've been having a really bad experience with this. Constant freezing, bugs, crashes, and etc. I've been trying to play sf 3 third strike via this collection and it's been a terrible experience.
Is this normal?
I use OPL on PS2 for years so I've witnessed how OPL went from problematic to "decent" anymore. But I don't have particular experience or any report I heard about that game. While not impossible if the compatibility of the game is that bad, still there are ways to manage it.
It depends on the game file itself, your PS2 (IDK if it's a hardware problem), your OPL version, your OPL settings, your USB stick itself, et cetera tons of other things that would be too long to troubleshoot here.
All you can do is ensure everything is right and updated then try it.
I don't even know which game you mean as I don't know much about Street Fighter, but I'm curious to test it. Your game's region can matter too, then your PS2 region can matter too. If you can find the game on this website please share its link so I can download and try it on my machine. If it still happens on my machine and I cannot stop it from happening then we can get a really fast answer here lol.
Then I do need specific details for bug testing. If playing the game normally for a while makes it obvious that the game is problematic, it's so far enough to have a way to test the game.
Lastly what I can say is OPL versions are a complex mess, some newer forks can cause many problems in tons of unexpected ways. So it's even hard to say "just find a recent OPL" lol.