False - properly configured MAME will be the closest to the originals you can possibly get. The whole point of the MAME project is to be as accurate as possible. OTOH I found the earlier AL cabinets to have a fair bit of lag - they don't do any optimization to fix that. Maybe the newer ones are better but MAME is definitely the most accurate.

What version of MAME was in your cabinet? Some cabs are based around much older versions and those may show issues. I'm curious which games you found inaccurate, as most popular boardsets and titles are pretty spot-on with current MAME releases.

3rd statement is just untrue, ALL Arcade Legends cabs have noticeable lag, which is absolutely NOT true to the originals. Not to mention they're displayed on an LCD, which looks nothing like the original CRTs. (did older AL cabs come with CRTs?) MAME can be configured to eliminate the lag, and for me that is the #1 reason to use it. I do agree on the bootleg/licensed issue - if you want to be legal, AL is the way to go. It's also plug and play, whereas MAME can be very fiddly.

Yeah I just checked their site and they show LCD, but I could have sworn I played a CRT version back in the day, thanks for the confirmation. It still had lag but at least it looked correct - they did the proper progressive resolutions and didn't just hardware scale everything to 640x480.

Yeah for plug n play you definitely can't beat em. I've got PCs, arcadeVGA cards and a couple d9200 CRTs, but haven't found the time to put 'em all together in a couple good cabs. Bench-test playing is as close as I've gotten, but at least it's damn accurate bench-testing

I don't think you were trying to mislead anyone... the AL games appear to be pretty good at first glance and they run fine for the most part. But, you did claim they were more accurate than MAME and that is simply not true:

I don't know what else to say except that, aside from licensing, the above statement is false. Nothing against you personally.

Not sure which AL, but it was a CRT model. Whatever Watsons in Cincinnati was stocking around 6 years ago, so probably an AL3? I know it was towards the end of CRTs because I was pleasantly surprised to see it had one and not an LCD. Also can't remember what games I tried but it was several and all had some lag. They did play properly otherwise and looked good thanks to the CRT.

I do want to point out, I am very sensitive to videogame lag. I played consoles from Atari and NES through Dreamcast on CRTs, but stopped playing at PS2 thanks to getting into pinball, so I never experienced any gameplay on an LCD. I played PC games on a P990 CRT through 2014 or so, then pretty much switched to pinball. When I got back into PC games, I had to get a gsync card and 144hz monitor with 1ms response, otherwise the LCD lag and blur drove me nuts. It's still not as good as CRT but the P990 is a bit large for the desk.

I'm pretty sure whatever emulator AL3 uses had both vsync and buffering enabled. The buffering helps maintain a smooth framerate, but at the expense of 1-2 frames of lag. Most people won't notice but it's there and I do notice.

I also agree MAME is fiddly as hell and ALs are good for most players. And yes, if you build a MAME, limit the games to the ones you want instead of dumping the whole romset in it.