Steam! Now on your Couch! The Steamdeck Coming this Winter!

[Kazin]

It's weird with the d-pad - I adjusted to its position immediately. If I did have a complaint, it'd be the "start" and "select" buttons are a bit squishy - the one on the right kept getting pushed down slightly (though not enough to register a press, thankfully).

Beat Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 last night, took just under 40 hours. The emulator crashed only once, in the final dungeon, during a fight. Not sure why, to be honest. Had no other issues, though. Quite happy with PS2 emulation.

I just now, today, realized how to set the back buttons in Dolphin lol. Having save states on Gamecube/Wii is wild. Good stuff. Played until level 11 on Phantasy Star Online for some reason today lol. I'll have to see if PCSX2 has savestates tomorrow.

I also installed DeSmemu, and while it runs well, I hated it. I'll stick to my DSs and 3DSs, thanks. Just a more pleasing experience, even if the emulator can uprez the games.

 

[Sarge]

I'm working on installing some stuff now. For some reason, I can't get the app to unzip RAR and 7Zip files to go on there, and I don't feel like doing any hoop-jumping right now. I'm also wondering if I should just swap the MicroSD back to an exFAT/NTFS drive. It will still work fine for emulation purposes from what I can tell, you just can't integrate it with Steam. Which I think I'm okay with, and it would make it really easy to jump back and forth from Windows and the Deck.

 

[Kazin]

So you're going to have a thumb drive sticking out the top of your Deck anytime you emulate? That doesn't seem ideal...

 

[Kazin]

Plex media server works through the browser on desktop mode. I wonder if I could get it working in SteamOS with button controls to navigate? Probably not, but... that'd be great.

EDIT: lol yep, it works, just add Firefox as a Non-Steam App and it carries over all your settings, bookmarks, saved passwords, etc. from desktop mode. This thing rules. Don't know how to hide the address bar in full screen mode in SteamOS, but there's probably a setting somewhere that I'm missing.

 

[Sarge]

Nah, I'm just talking about the fact that the MicroSD slot will still read a FAT32/exFAT/NTFS drive, it just won't use it for Steam game storage. In that case, I could just pop the card in and out and read it on a big PC to load it up. Of course, I could just also use software as you mentioned earlier to read it on a Windows machine, so I'll probably end up leaving it as-is.

I actually posted my last post from the Deck, haha. Was hooked up to my TV and using a wireless keyboard. Felt really snappy to use.

 

[Sarge]

Doing some fiddling with EmuDeck, which sets up emulators to work with nice artwork and such in Gaming Mode on the Deck. I'm going to have to rename some files to get it to scrape properly on some, but it looks like it's working pretty well. Also noticing that it wants the Flatpak version of RA instead of the Steam one.

 

[Kazin]

I know people are excited about that, but I don't want to load up my SteamOS interface with like a thousand oldschool games. I don't mind selecting them from a Retroarch menu, frankly. Same with Dolphin/PCSX2/etc. It's nice that the option is there, though.

 

[Kazin]

WACKY WHEELS WORKS ON DECK

I followed this guide linked to a post I did on reddit. After installing that compatibility tool, restarting Steam in desktop mode, then booting into SteamOS and changing the controls, it works and runs just as it did back on real DOS computers (read: jankily, just how I like it)! I love the Steam Deck lol

EDIT: It even works with putting the system to sleep. Omg this rules

 

[John]

I just want to say I love seeing everyone's excited posts as they try different things. I've still got weeks to months until they let me buy one, but seeing you be the beta testers is awesome.

 

[Kazin]

That's good to hear, because I feel like my constant posts of "random game nobody but me cares about runs!" might annoy people haha

Speaking of, next on the to do list is to figure out how to get Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun running on Deck...

 

[Sarge]

I know people are excited about that, but I don't want to load up my SteamOS interface with like a thousand oldschool games. I don't mind selecting them from a Retroarch menu, frankly. Same with Dolphin/PCSX2/etc. It's nice that the option is there, though.

Yeah, I get that for sure. I'd roll with a curated approach with that.

 

[Kazin]

*sigh*

There are still issues with DOSbox. I can't change the controls at all, or then NONE of them work, so I'm stuck with the Steam default, which have overlapping keys, so the B button both does the handbrake and uses an item. It's still playable, but I'd like to fix that problem and also lower the sound effects volume, but to exit that menu, you need the Escape key mapped, which mapping it to literally anything makes no controls work whatsoever. No idea what's causing that, but it's frustrating.

 

[Sarge]

Can it be mapped to one of the back buttons through Steam? I think one of the profiles even does that by default.

So far I haven't gotten any GOG games using DOSBox to boot. I haven't dived in super deeply yet, though. I also ran into issues getting Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (GOG version) to work, and it's apparently an issue on other Linux builds as well. I did, however, get Batman: Arkham Asylum working by installing Proton-GE and using that instead of the default one.

There's just so much tinkering here.

EDIT: As an addendum, the things that work in their walled garden work great. I just want to see how far outside their box I can get without just jumping to Windows!

 

[Kazin]

Can it be mapped to one of the back buttons through Steam? I think one of the profiles even does that by default.

So far I haven't gotten any GOG games using DOSBox to boot. I haven't dived in super deeply yet, though. I also ran into issues getting Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (GOG version) to work, and it's apparently an issue on other Linux builds as well. I did, however, get Batman: Arkham Asylum working by installing Proton-GE and using that instead of the default one.

There's just so much tinkering here.

EDIT: As an addendum, the things that work in their walled garden work great. I just want to see how far outside their box I can get without just jumping to Windows!

If I remap anything - back buttons through Steam included - no buttons work. It is super, super weird. I tried a bunch of different remaps, including plugging in an actual keyboard, and still nothing unless I use the default setup.

At some point this weekend I'm going to attempt to get Boxtron (another compatibility tool) working (apparently there's some extra files you need to download and configure), and see if that runs Wacky Wheels better.

And yeah, I don't want to just install Windows on this thing if I can avoid it. Just seems like wasted space. I'm hoping the community/Valve come up with solutions to get everything running on Linux/SteamOS.

 

[Troa11]

This may not be the place to say but I was really looking forward to owning a Deck when my place in line comes up (next year) but then the Win Max 2 was revealed and since cost isn't an issue for me (it'll likely be twice the price), I'm really not sure which I want anymore. By the time my Deck order comes up the Max 2 should at least be in crowdfunding if not launch. (Context that I own a Win Max now and absolutely LOVE it.)

 

[Sarge]

Oh, wow, yeah, that sounds like something super wonky going on. I did notice that the last update changed some things in Desktop mode for the better (mainly the keyboard), but I've also noticed it can be unresponsive at times, still, and since it's so large it will block a ton of the screen. But at least they're still refining things. I'm looking forward to all the improvements they and the community make for sure. Being in on the ground floor can be exciting!

In other news, I managed to get Undertale working from a GOG install, so yay?

@Troa11 : With that kind of core count, I figure that thing will be an emulation beast. Will be very interested to see how it shakes out!

 

[Kazin]

I pulled my Shining Force III Scenario 2 save off my Fenrir ODE modded Sega Saturn, plopped it in the save directory for Retroarch, renamed the .bin file "Shining Force III - Scenario 2.ram" to match the name of my ISO, and now I'm continuing my SF3 playthrough in English on a handheld. I love this thing so much

Also I played through Steamworld Dig this weekend, so I am playing native Steam games, too lol

EDIT: Geez, Shining Force III runs great at 1080p, too (though decreases battery life quite a bit, I get an extra hour and a half at 720p, so that's where I'll be leaving it). Saturn emulation has gotten way better than even just a few years ago

 

[Sarge]

Which core are you using? I know that some of them are more resource-intensive. I've not even really played around much with the Saturn cores, although I did test Burning Rangers and it seemed to work fine. I think I was using Yabause for that.

I tried a game that relies on the mouse a lot - Shadowrun Returns - and I'm really impressed how well the trackpads work.

 

[Kazin]

The only one installable on the Steam release of Retroarch, Kronos (well, other than somehow sideloading cores into that release which is apparently possible, but I've not messed around with that yet). I haven't played a ton of Saturn yet - just testing out a bunch of games - but the battery life seems comparable to running Wii stuff, usually, depending on the game (about 3 hours of battery life from a full charge, at least with the settings I was using).

 

[Sarge]

Ah, gotcha. I ended up swapping over to the Flatpak version and it seems to be working fine for me.

 

[Kazin]

Hey @Sarge I will give you a $10 Steam giftcard or credit or whatever if you can get Diablo 1 and/or Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun running on Steam Deck and tell me how to do it lol

 

[Becksworth]

Did you try DevilutionX for Diablo? I'm not sure for Tiberian Sun.

Edit: Looks like there are some Snap files for the WINE config for Tiberian Sun. My understanding is those are competing format of Flatpaks in the Linux app space. Not sure if Steamdeck supports those or not.

 

[Kazin]

I can't get DevilutionX to install - it doesn't seem to work on the version of Arch Linux that Valve put on the Deck. Re: snap files - same thing, but also those will get deleted when the Deck gets updated (which is quite often).

 

[Sarge]

Hmm, I'll see if I can't take a look and figure it out. No money needed, I'll probably enjoy the challenge.

 

[John]

Has anyone gotten GOG games to work on the Steam Deck, outside of installing Windows, which I would assume throws a bunch more overhead on the system?

I read that there's a ScummVM install that lets you use the touch screen, both touch pads, and all front/rear buttons for configuring stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to testing that out, as it could be a good interpreter for some stuff that normally has a DOSBOX frontend.

 

[Sarge]

I've installed a few things from GOG. The easiest way is probably through Heroic Games Launcher, which lets you access both Epic Games and GOG, and will also act as a Wine Manager. I've only installed a few things through it so far, but I did get Fight 'N' Rage up and running.

Alternately, you can install native versions from the GOG website. You run the shell script, and it should install properly, although I've seen a few instances where the games in question just don't want to work right. I've had some problems with stuff that uses DOSBox, and fought through an issue with Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight with a combination of fixes from the forum there and some copying library files around so the game actually sees them properly.

I haven't tested significantly, but ScummVM seems to work pretty well. It's available in the Discover app, and touchpads and all seem to work great. You might want to map a few keys so you can access the menu, though, as I don't think the default profiles have that in place. I'm still learning the ropes on the ridiculous customization options available with controls.

 

[John]

For other people still waiting, it's implied via this Steam blog post that they only send out the order emails on Mondays, so no need to be super vigilant on watching your email throughout the week.

 

[Becksworth]

Apparently, some weeks in Q2 they are going to do two order batches. Valve didn't specify which weeks unfortunately, but just warning that that Q1 blog post may be outdated now.

 

[Kazin]

I'll have to try this "Heroic Games Launcher" (thanks, btw, I've never heard of it lol). I've tried to just install the .exe file of Diablo with Proton compatibility enabled, but it crashes after the Blizzard logos.

 

[Sarge]

I haven't had a chance to look closely, but it does appear Devilution is the solution, but that will likely be overwritten on an update if I understand correctly. This result popped up, but I'm pretty sure anything package manager related goes poof. Maybe they'll get that solved in the future. In the meantime, I need to source a copy of Diablo, haha.