It can and has been done. Have a look at "Connectix Virtual Game Station"[1]. It's a commercial prodcut that played virtually every PS1 game flawlessly on a 233MHx iMac. I spent thousands of hours playing games on that thing, and glitches were very rare in a huge range of games, even the most demanding like Metal Gear Solid.
Jobs even demoed it on stage.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station