You guys read my mind. Just last night I was thinking I needed to get my PCE/TG16 game right! I'm missing out on way too many arcade action games & RPGs, my two favorite genres.
My only real experience so far has been the mednafen module on oXbox. It worked great, but I've migrated over to PC emus.
Does Magic Engine still cost money these days? IIRC, the free DL was a trial and you needed to buy a license ($15ish) for the full emu. If it's really worth it, head & shoulders above the rest, I'll purchase it.
I do like booting directly from the digital file much better in emus. Dameon Tools isn't a deal breaker for me, but I'm not burning CDs in 2017 if at all possible. For games under $60 I'd probably be more tempted to buy a game for my collection (assuming those emus run retail games from the PC tray as well) rather than burn one

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Bookmarking these suggestions for PCE. Thanks gents.
Next on my list is Neo Geo CD emulation. I looked into it some time ago & it involved more CD burning

. Thoughts on NGCD emu these days?