The old compilers optimized the switch/case, just not as well as something from 2022, and there were lots of edge cases too. And limited registers, and small ca

The old compilers optimized the switch/case, just not as well as something from 2022, and there were lots of edge cases too. And limited registers, and small caches and so forth. Plus, these were CPUs that were at the boundary of what could be done in terms of emulation of another CPU and everything else about the device being emulated too. Today we have the advantage of far more advanced compiler technology and far more advanced CPU technology that runs crazy fast, and a greater understanding of how to emulate the machines and best practices for creating those emulators. 25 years ago, not so much. The PS2 and the XBOX were the first consoles where you could just take MAME or the 2600 VCS emulator I wrote and compile it to the target console and "it just worked." I ported MAME to the PS2 and ran six different games on a tumbling cube, and then MAME to the XBOX shortly afterwards, and Dolphin emulator on XBOX and PS2 as well - though again, smacking up against what that generation of consoles could realistically emulate.