I'd like to start the discussion about adding Duckstation as a viable emulator for running this game. Duckstation is a modern emulator compared to ePSXe and is also considered to be the most hardware accurate emulator.

For comparison, I've finished a run on Duckstation using the same rules used in Spyro 2 speedrunning ("All enhancements disabled": enabled, "Enable Cheats": disabled, "Show settings": enabled). This run should demonstrate that Duckstation is accurate enough towards the hardware to be considered a viable run. I've flashed the settings at ~8 mins and the finished run starts at around ~58 mins.

if the VOD expires, I'll upload the video to youtube

Personally, I'd vouch for this too. Although I'm thankfully not having to run on emulator any more, ePSXe is very outdated, 1.9.0 especially. The fact we still require this right now is a relic of the past and is partly just because of lazy moderation (including myself).

It's time for a change, to make speedrunning more appealing by not requiring only one option of emulation, which is currently 10+ year old software.

As for accuracy, I haven't done frame checks, just barebone timing, but it times the exact same - if not MORE accurate. I don't see an issue in that regard whatsoever.

I would vouch for this as well. ePSXe is junk now and way too outdated. There has to be a way to use Duckstation/Retroarch, tweek the options to make it as faithful as possible

I've went ahead and added DuckStation as a viable emulator. Be sure to check out the updated rules if you plan on running with DuckStation especially, as that requires a little more from the runner to ensure legitimacy.

Regarding accuracy, it's identical to ePSXe 1.9.0 with no enhancements active. This should be a nice quality of life update for people wanting to run the game.