I was approached by someone from the Reddit community about speed running on those handheld EMU, like the Evercade or RG350. Even with the proper gear and following the rules of speed running, I was not sure if they counted.
I'm already stuck if RetroArch is allowed, now that.
Allowed emulators are decided on a per-leaderboard basis. So your friend is going to need to register and make a forum post in the specific game(s) of interest to ask if those systems are allowed on each board.
Hey, wait a minute, there are hosts of compilation packs. I know it's difficult for me to get MAME working, forcing me to resort to other methods. I have trouble getting the jzintv to work. I managed to get it to work on my RG350, but RetroArch seems to lock you out when trying to fix the problem, and forces you to use a task manager.