It's not the PAL console. From my tests with Midway Arcade Treasures 2:After a few days of messing around with it and seeing it's a long-standing issue with seemingly no fix - posts here along with other places online going back almost a decade - I can confirm Midway Arcade Treasures 2 will work past the legal screen but only if you enable memory card emulation.
My dump was verified against the Redump hashes so I knew the issue was one of the config options. After loading the disc in Dolphin and seeing a memory card prompt immediately after the legal screen, I figured it was likely a memory card issue - which it was! If you try and use a physical memory card (mine is an official Nintendo one with zero issues in any other games so it's not that which is the problem) then the game will just hang on a black screen.
I'm on a PAL Wii which could be the underlying issue with why this game doesn't typically work, but then the reports of a black screen in Nintendont for this title are widespread.
- No MC emulation. No Memory Card inserted. May or may not hang after the legal screen, but most of the time I got to the MC prompt. Hangs if you go back to the title selection from any game, same if you press reset.
- No MC emulation. Memory Card inserted. Hangs past the legal screen.
Now, keep in mind that using the GCN BIOS may change compatibility sometimes, I have had this happen before. When you use the file:
- No MC emulation. No Memory Card inserted. Works normally.
- No MC emulation. Have the Memory Card plugged in before loading the game on Nintendont. Works normally.
- No MC emulation. If you plug the Memory Card on the game's prompt, it hangs after pressing Retry on the title selection screen.