Hardware The Steam Deck - An Emulation Beast

Steamdeck is great

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I daily run Linux (Gentoo) but never heard about ProtonGP, the only one I can think of is Proton-GE

Oh, no! That’s a typo on my end! Curse my motorbike knowledge getting my brain wires crossed xD. Thanks for the catch, correcting it now!

Post automatically merged: Jan 12, 2025

Ah Steam Deck, the most wonderful hardware for emulations. Really great for portable gaming too!

I really hope I can get it one day since I heard a lot of great things about it (especially in this one). Great article once again man! And a really good review

Thank you!

 

[Revolver32]

I don't play my Deck a lot since I do most of my gaming on my desktop (also Linux). However, I think the Deck is a great device, and I'm glad these handheld PCs are catching on.

Although, none of these Deck competitors (that I've seen anyway) get the small things that the Deck did right. Where are the trackpads for navigating the desktop? Deck has four back buttons, some of these competitors just have two. Deck has a symmetrical stick layout like PlayStation (WHY don't more controllers do this?!), most of the competitors use the typical asymmetrical layout. I think the Deck is super comfortable to hold and play on.

Playing on Deck has unexpectedly made me retroactively appreciate my PSP more. One day I was playing it and realized, "Oh, you know this feels like a bigger PSP". I didn't like it as much as the DS at the time, but the PSP was a very comfortable handheld to play on. And you appreciate the bigger, wider screen the older you get. I didn't think much of it at the time, but getting a console-like experience on the PSP back in the day was quite an achievement. Now, with the Deck, I can literally play Valkyria Chronicles, or Persona 3: Reload, or Half-Life 2 in bed or on the toilet.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I don't play my Deck a lot since I do most of my gaming on my desktop (also Linux). However, I think the Deck is a great device, and I'm glad these handheld PCs are catching on.

Although, none of these Deck competitors (that I've seen anyway) get the small things that the Deck did right. Where are the trackpads for navigating the desktop? Deck has four back buttons, some of these competitors just have two. Deck has a symmetrical stick layout like PlayStation (WHY don't more controllers do this?!), most of the competitors use the typical asymmetrical layout. I think the Deck is super comfortable to hold and play on.

Playing on Deck has unexpectedly made me retroactively appreciate my PSP more. One day I was playing it and realized, "Oh, you know this feels like a bigger PSP". I didn't like it as much as the DS at the time, but the PSP was a very comfortable handheld to play on. And you appreciate the bigger, wider screen the older you get. I didn't think much of it at the time, but getting a console-like experience on the PSP back in the day was quite an achievement. Now, with the Deck, I can literally play Valkyria Chronicles, or Persona 3: Reload, or Half-Life 2 in bed or on the toilet.

Incredibly well-said. ?

 

[Tonberry]

I'm a handheld lover, but all these new-fangled "handhelds", Switch included, always feel too big for me to consider. I have been getting more tempted by the Steam Deck lately because it's supposedly way more powerful than I thought, and all these ways people seem to bypass the SteamOS stuff to install other interesting apps and emulators, though it's still out of my price range for now.
I just don't know if the size and weight is right for me. It looks way bigger than the switch and I already think that system is too cumbersome to use in handheld mode with my dainty, ladylike hands. I suppose I have to wait and try one out if a friend was to ever get one.

 

[Deleted member 25310]

It looks way bigger than the switch and I already think that system is too cumbersome to use in handheld mode with my dainty, ladylike hands.

Well, that sounds great for me! I have large hands, being 1.90 meters tall, so smaller systems always bothered me.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I'm a handheld lover, but all these new-fangled "handhelds", Switch included, always feel too big for me to consider. I have been getting more tempted by the Steam Deck lately because it's supposedly way more powerful than I thought, and all these ways people seem to bypass the SteamOS stuff to install other interesting apps and emulators, though it's still out of my price range for now.
I just don't know if the size and weight is right for me. It looks way bigger than the switch and I already think that system is too cumbersome to use in handheld mode with my dainty, ladylike hands. I suppose I have to wait and try one out if a friend was to ever get one.

You’re not alone at all, I also have dainty, ladylike hands and it’s why I was really worried about the steam deck at first ? (in fact, it’s why I said I prefer DualShock over Xbox controllers) but the SD has been fantastic for me so far with only the *occasional* hand strain, but even that was fairly rare. Otherwise it’s really damn comfy and ergonomic!
The software customizability is big too! But yes, the price might be an issue but hopefully it goes on sale.
Thanks for reading!

 

[kanesha]

Worth noting that when it comes to emulation if it only goes up to ps2, a high end phone can propably match that these days. Mine is mid range from few years ago and it can handle most ps2 games with the "fast" settings preset on aethersx.

 

[pixelvoidalchemy]

Damn, now I need a Steam Deck!

 

[Tonberry]

You’re not alone at all, I also have dainty, ladylike hands and it’s why I was really worried about the steam deck at first ? (in fact, it’s why I said I prefer DualShock over Xbox controllers) but the SD has been fantastic for me so far with only the *occasional* hand strain, but even that was fairly rare. Otherwise it’s really damn comfy and ergonomic!
The software customizability is big too! But yes, the price might be an issue but hopefully it goes on sale.
Thanks for reading!

Nice to hear some first-hand experience from someone with similar hands, that makes me even more tempted to get one then!

 

[DrunkOcelot]

Amazing article. I just recently got a steamdeck myself. Why is it that Compile/Tecmo have issues being emulated?

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Amazing article. I just recently got a steamdeck myself. Why is it that Compile/Tecmo have issues being emulated?

Not emulation related. All the primary emulation talk is under the GoW pic. I’ll probably edit for better phrasing. Compile Heart/Tecmo have mixed to horrendous pc ports period and it’s a giant coin toss if you’ll buy one that runs ok on your rig. They’re poorly optimized in general.
Worth noting however I get literally everything from them and not just the big games, I think Koei is generally lazy with optimizing their lesser popular games.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Bobmeboi]

loving the resident Evli 4 phrase and the article

 

[Infasis]

They made some pretty nice changes to the internals on the OLED model, so even if you don't care about the screen it's a good idea to get that one if possible.

 

[Fat_Wombat_55]

As much as I'd like a deck, I'm going to wait for more info on the new Legion range before I commit to anything in that category.

In the meantime, I'm very interested in the Pimax Portal QLED but it's out of stock :(

 

[yayang]

when looking into handled console this day, I suddenly remembered something like tamagochi and gamewatch....classic era of handled consoles......oh what a great moment!

 

[DrunkOcelot]

when looking into handled console this day, I suddenly remembered something like tamagochi and gamewatch....classic era of handled consoles......oh what a great moment!

I have a few tomagotchies/digimon lying around. Every so often I'll put batteries in it and play with it for awhile. Good times

 

[anle]

This thing's a BEAST!!! After recent updates of course. 2 summers ago this thing was DREADFUL to operate, but things are improving somewhat. I'm interested in how the OS will develop overtime. Thinking about switching on over to linux when win12 comes after 11 becomes deprecated or sumn.

My only gripe is valve's hardware design, as i was heavily disappointed about valve's OEM dock's usb ports not detecting my peripherals. I bought my deck 2nd hand and got the dock as a gift, so sending stuff in for R&D is out of the question. Thankfully this 3rd party usb-c hub i got for it works like a charm.

And yes, neptunia games cannot boot up for shit, but that's a loss im willing to take i suppose. This only makes me miss my psvita even more.... T^T

 

[Yousef Yousef]

And yes, neptunia games cannot boot up for shit, but that's a loss im willing to take i suppose. This only makes me miss my psvita even more.... T^T

the suffering never ends

 

[berkough]

Love my Steam Deck! While infinitely customizable, I really like the vanilla experience. I own quite a number of games on Steam... I've been a Linux user for 20+ years, so when Valve announced that they were going to port the Steam client to Linux, that's where I started buying digital PC games. Fast-forward a decade or so and I have a library where 90% of my games run on the Deck without hardly any configuration (I also have experience running the first two versions of SteamOS based on Debian).

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Love my Steam Deck! While infinitely customizable, I really like the vanilla experience.

Same. I still got a lot out of it regardless.

I own quite a number of games on Steam...

Haha, meanwhile I used it to play Sony games or get even more Japanese niche games just to further retire my ps4 for good (my switch has been great for that too)

I've been a Linux user for 20+ years,

I’m barely a year in! Surprisingly easy to adjust to.

so when Valve announced that they were going to port the Steam client to Linux, that's where I started buying digital PC games. Fast-forward a decade or so and I have a library where 90% of my games run on the Deck without hardly any configuration (I also have experience running the first two versions of SteamOS based on Debian).

It’s incredible. Games booting up and running perfectly on the fly with minimum input on your part. Truly a dream.

 

[rugal]

great review it really explain what the steam deck can do and not do in emulator games
and yes steam deck is not optimal to play ps3 games some ps3 games it can play but not the heavy games

the steam deck is really a emulator beast and a plus that its easy to install linux
it can be used to play alot of retro games easy
psp ps1 ps2 psvita nds nds3 all those work well

but if you want to play ps3 games the steam deck do not have the power to play it
so for ps3 games i recomend rog ally or better legion go because they have more power than steam deck

note
the rog ally has stronger cpu than steam deck but the gpu power is the same as steam deck
the legion go has same cpu power as rog ally but legion go have stronger gpu