@dynamight picodrive has always been the default megadrive emulator for pi 1/0. pi1/0 versions of retropie don't really have any emulators/software related to other pi models installed by default. that's why there's different image downloads.

emulators can increase in accuracy and requirements, but the ancient versions used for pi1/0 shouldn't.

@babyboodle said in PulseAudio unable to connect; poor emulator performance issues and menu crashes.:

reset to default settings

If you have reset RetroArch to default settings in the RGUI and then saved the config you have probably set non ideal defaults. Our defaults are not the same as the RetroArch defaults. You should remove /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg and reinstall retroarch from "Manage Packages/Core Packages"