try it on psx and see if it has the same problem, since it doesnt use a plugin system we might be able to rule out a few things depending on what it does.
btw you said the game freezes on earlier versions of epsxe, is it a random freeze or does it always happen at the same point? if it happens at the same point, where does this occur? have you tried running the game from both the disc and an image of it?