Is emulating acceptable?

[Pemalite]

Bofferbrauer said:

Emulation by itself is perfectly legal. Downloading ROMs or copying them from the cartridges/discs however is illegal in most countries unless the copyright holder shares/sells them online, which is extremly rare.

Which is exactly what I have stated. Just with more words.

VGPolyglot said:
Legally, the emulators are legal, but downloading the ROMs aren't. You have to use the actual copy of the game or rip it yourself and not distribute online. Morally, though? I don't see anything wrong with it, especially for retro games, as they make as much money from sales of a used copy as they do from downloading an illegal copy.

Ironically... Nintendo possibly used an illegally downloaded Rom on it's Wii store.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-18-did-nintendo-download-a-mario-rom-and-sell-it-back-to-us