It feels like I'm cheating it's so butter. We are talking absolutely zero lag. Robbie has also experienced this phenomenon, but what does he know? 
Frankly, Robbie's opinions on MAME usability are irrelevant because Robbie is not a MAME player, and to my knowledge has never played a MAME game of Donkey Kong at a world-class level. This is also a mischaracterization of how Robbie feels about platform differences, which is that there are two records: the arcade platform and the MAME platform.
The question then becomes, why? Why does it run this way on an XP machine? Well, I don't know the answer to that, but I am certainly convinced beyond reproach that a few top players used and still use this setup not by accident, but by premeditated design. However, in my mind, it doesn't matter anyway. The genuine article (World Record) will always be held by the person who did it on an arcade machine. Once arcade machines disappear forever, then we can talk different platforms.
I feel like I'm in a unique position to address this because I have some of the highest scores ever achieved on both platforms.
For context, you have publicly made these comments on Twitch:
Ethan, rent a U-Haul and bring Dean a machine. Let's see what he's got.
I don't count Dean's score either.
Reclining in a La-Z-Boy with greasy chips sitting on your belly while playing Donkey Kong should not count.
Smaller muscle groups vs larger muscle groups.
MAME has the advantage all day long.
Reaction time and reflexes.
I have said this before and I'll say it again, Dean knows the secret of all secrets.
Dean's "dinosaur" setup isn't by accident.
Go ask Dean and Jeff Willms, HUGDD.
By a wide margin, the community disagrees with you that MAME is a huge advantage. At a lower level, such as what I've seen you play at, I can understand how mechanical skill might make a difference. However, at 1.1m+ and especially 1.14m+ paces, I would argue that decision-making by far and away trumps mechanical ability as the most important skill needed to avoid pace decay. I think any player who is able to maintain a 61k level average over six or seven levels realizes this as well.
Arcade on CRT should experience even less input lag than 100% speed MAME on a flatscreen regardless of OS. With this in mind, the only thing left is physical endurance and the mechanical delay caused by a joystick (which, as noted above, doesn't actually matter anyway). None of the top MAME players have had any problem with this:
- Jeff Willms won three Kong Offs in a row (we can go ahead and include KO4).
- Dean has scored 1.1m on arcade platform at the drop of a hat and has maintained astronomically higher pace very deep into the game on arcade platform.
- I have performed well at every live event I've ever played at, scoring 1m+ multiple times and taking 3rd overall at KO4. Not to mention the first man 1.1m thing.
The fact of the matter is, every top MAME player has proven their abilities on an arcade cabinet as well. There is no quantifiable evidence I can find to suggest that a top MAME player would struggle on Arcade, or would not be capable of getting the same score on the other platform. I am quite confident that if Dean had access to a cabinet and was grinding on that platform instead of MAME when he was going for his 1.2m, he would've gotten it on Arcade instead. There is little to no evidence that would suggest otherwise.
