I moved on from stage 2 for now. I did an early run through of some of the next stages in the interest of making at least some progress, though they are kinda boring levels.
#638103949113436532 - Gargoyle's Quest II less lag
Still undecided if I want to take death on the first boss or not, but the damage boost in stage 2 is set up so that can be changed later.. up to the first boss though this is 95 frames faster than published movie. Not sure how much is attributed to this emulator, but stage 2 starts only 2 frames faster.