People complain that the Data Frog SF 2000 is too wimpy to play Super NES and Game Boy Advance games, and while that is a reasonable complaint, what tweaks ME off is that the damn thing is incredibly selective about which arcade games it will play. Despite telling you otherwise in the interface, the system is running Final Burn, not MAME. Final Burn is designed to run 68000-based arcade games really well and really efficiently, and for the most part Data Frog's system does just that. CPS2 games run at full speed despite their ritzy visuals, and the same thing applies to Neo-Geo games. Alpha Denshi's games don't emulate all that well, and the larger games (post KOF '97) weigh the SF 2000 down, but most everything else? Great, awesome, terrific, no notes. Well, one note... it would be nice to have most of the games in English. Maybe a custom firmware can address this.
Here's the thing, though. Arcades existed before the Neo-Geo, and despite being a 68000-focused system, the latest version of Final Burn supports many of the games released in the early to mid 1980s. The version of Final Burn on this handheld, however, does not. It's got no idea of what to do with the lion's share of arcade games you feed it, whether you put them in the User ROMs folder or use a homebrew program to put them directly in the Arcade directory. Most of the time it just sits there with a NOW LOADING... screen that never finds any ROMs, and remains hopelessly confused until you shut the system off.
Even gimmies like Pac-Man, Frogger, and Galaga (emulated for so long that Fred Flintstone could have played them on HIS computer) don't work on the SF 2000. Occasionally you'll strike gold with some obscure Toaplan release, or find a game that runs but can't be played (looking at you, Eyes), but for the most part what you get with this system is what you get. If you want the oldies, you'll have to tune into home console conversions, and you know how THOSE often turn out. Even the good ones aren't exactly the same (and are often entirely different... looking at you, NES Gyruss), and the bad ones (typically by Micronics and T*HQ) are atrocities, the digital equivalent of the Hindenburg going up in flames.
It makes me all the more eager for this thing to get custom firmware, because it kind of sucks scrounging for games that almost sort of scratch the itch for an arcade favorite. Come on, Data Frog! Emulation of the proper arcade games is the reason I DON'T play Pac-Man for the NES anymore. Don't make me settle! It's the 21st century! The Donkey Kong with all four stages is not beyond your grasp!
(And don't mention the PSP; it's got the same problem with sucky arcade emulation beyond Neo-Geo and CPS games. Really, play the PSP version of Final Burn. See how many games refuse to load or even shut off your system.)