Mednafen remains the only way I can comfortably speedrun ANYTHING for PS1. I used Mednafen v 1.27

I did Glimmer Gem Lamps 1 & 2 over doing Colossus Spirit Statues and Mystic Marsh Pencil. Really, I just didn't want to do Spirit Statues anymore, even if my route isn't actively hurt by doing it.

This still took a few tries beforehand.