You spouted a lot of words just to confirm that this is, indeed, the console emulation thread.I could say this about most console emulators too, but you don't really need any help with DOSbox unless you're trying to set-up some non-standard setting like a fancy sound card or something. And in those cases there are usually guides telling you all you ever need to know to set it up. Its good to go otherwise, outside of very specific games. Meanwhile despite claims to the contrary, multi-system emulators like MAME and RetroArch are pains to set up, which is why they keep coming up in this topic.
Also, on asking Codexers about old computers never seems to work out, you're always better off searching dedicated forums for that. Case in point, I was trying to get an Acorn Archimedes game working this week, something I highly doubt anyone on the Codex would be able to help with at all.
what is currently the best way to emulate
The answers are always here :
http://nonmame.retrogames.com/