Well, I've definitely had my adventures with this game. First time I played it, I got nowhere. The game was just plain too hard for me. A few years later, after going back to the game a few times in those years, I decided to start playing it on an emulator. I used save states, got through a good portion of it, and decided to try playing through it without using save states, rather, without any cheating at all. I got to the penultimate palace (the 6th one?), when either my ROM or emulator got screwed up, repressing me from continuing the game. Just recently I started playing through the game again, this time on collectors edition, and I am now in the Maze Island/Palace part of the game, and have only died about 10 or so times.
So, in short, no, I haven't beaten it. But it's definitely within reach, and I might achieve this goal in the near future.
Edit: Now is the near future, and I have beaten the game. It's quite a good feeling to accomplish quite a goal.