Valve Steam Deck - the real Switch Pro?…

What about the current Plane dev?

It’s gone quiet for a bit. Be good to see some more details.

Jenuall wrote:What about the current Plane dev?

I can tell you have kids.

Xeno wrote:

Jenuall wrote:What about the current Plane dev?

I can tell you have kids.

Just imagine what I'm like in real life!

Hopefully with the good things Mr Microsoft guy (I can't remember his name and can't be bothered to look it up) is saying it'll be easy to install GamePass PC or whatever it's called.

Peter Crisp wrote:Hopefully with the good things Mr Microsoft guy (I can't remember his name and can't be bothered to look it up) is saying it'll be easy to install GamePass PC or whatever it's called.

Gamepass will almost definitely only be a possibility if you replace SteamOS with a Windows install, which will immediately use up almost all the storage on the smaller 64GB model.

So installing it will be "easy" in the sense that it's not difficult to install Windows from a USB, and then download gamepass, but it certainly won't be accessible to anyone with the entry level version, or who isn't comfortable changing OS on what is otherwise a pick up and play device.

Knoyleo wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:Hopefully with the good things Mr Microsoft guy (I can't remember his name and can't be bothered to look it up) is saying it'll be easy to install GamePass PC or whatever it's called.

Gamepass will almost definitely only be a possibility if you replace SteamOS with a Windows install, which will immediately use up almost all the storage on the smaller 64GB model.

So installing it will be "easy" in the sense that it's not difficult to install Windows from a USB, and then download gamepass, but it certainly won't be accessible to anyone with the entry level version, or who isn't comfortable changing OS on what is otherwise a pick up and play device.

Bum .
Even though I used to build my own PCs that was a long, long time ago and my confidence in my tech abilities have nosedived through the floor so I'd more than likely brick the device if I try and install windows .
If it can go wrong you bet I'll find a way to make it happen .

I've just bought a few sale games to get ready for this.

Total War: Warhammer 1 & 2 and Rome: Total War Remastered.

I can't wait to play them next year .

From what little we know so far how capable do you guys feel this will be as a gaming platform?
I haven't been a PC gamer for 15 years or so so my knowledge is completely out of date. Will this do most PC games at 1080p on medium for example? I'm not expecting eye bleeding performance, just the ability to play PC games at a halfway decent level.

Peter Crisp wrote:From what little we know so far how capable do you guys feel this will be as a gaming platform?
I haven't been a PC gamer for 15 years or so so my knowledge is completely out of date. Will this do most PC games at 1080p on medium for example? I'm not expecting eye bleeding performance, just the ability to play PC games at a halfway decent level.

From what we've seen so far I think it's going to be pretty good.

Watched this a few days ago and it sounds promising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSTzPhEJxz8

I think anything released before 2020 should probably run well enough, with anything after that varying depending on the game.

I'm just looking forward to the first batches to get released so we can get some real world impressions on how it handles emulation, other OS installs (Windows, Batocera etc), Gamepass, Epic Store, GOG etc.

EDIT: Plus it'll always have the ability to hook up to a monitor/tv for higher-res "Docked" gameplay (Though this will come at a performance cost over the native res of the unit).

Peter Crisp wrote:From what little we know so far how capable do you guys feel this will be as a gaming platform?
I haven't been a PC gamer for 15 years or so so my knowledge is completely out of date. Will this do most PC games at 1080p on medium for example? I'm not expecting eye bleeding performance, just the ability to play PC games at a halfway decent level.

The screen's only 800 pixels high, so you'll be playing at 720p, except in games that handle a wider range of aspect ratios or custom resolutions. Presumably it will support higher resolutions if using the dock to output to an external monitor, but it will only negatively impact performance.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:I'm just looking forward to the first batches to get released so we can get some real world impressions on how it handles emulation, other OS installs (Windows, Batocera etc), Gamepass, Epic Store, GOG etc.

From what info is out there, do you think a lot of this stuff (emulation especially) can be done just completely using the Steam Deck? You won’t need access to another PC to get everything you need?

So download Dolphin, get some games and play them all just using the Steam Deck?

ITSMILNER wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:I'm just looking forward to the first batches to get released so we can get some real world impressions on how it handles emulation, other OS installs (Windows, Batocera etc), Gamepass, Epic Store, GOG etc.

From what info is out there, do you think a lot of this stuff (emulation especially) can be done just completely using the Steam Deck? You won’t need access to another PC to get everything you need?

So download Dolphin, get some games and play them all just using the Steam Deck?

The Steam Deck is a PC. You might well need to install a different OS to get your emulators running, assuming they don't support Steam OS, but besides that, you should be able to do anything on it that you could on a similarly powered desktop or laptop.

Most emulators support Linux and should work on Steam OS fwiw.

Dolphin does support Linux. The install guide makes it seem like there's a few steps involved in getting it working but it's definitely possible.

How easy is it to do a multi OS and install windows?
Would it just give me an option of which to load into when I turned the thing on?

I need to know if it's idiot-proof as I'm an idiot.

On PC that's kind of an involved process. As far as I know, you need to boot from a Linux USB stick, resize the installed Linux partition, boot from a Windows USB stick, install Windows to free space, then change the boot order in the BIOS to boot Linux first, then run a command in Linux to set up the "Boot Linux or Windows?" question just before Linux loads.

It's more than possible there will be a streamlined guide aimed at the Steam Deck specifically that breaks it down into easy steps. The 512 GB model is big enough for dual-booting and I'm sure you won't be the only person considering setting it up that way. (You'd probably want to set it up with a 512 GB microSD card for a bit of extra storage, since each OS would only be able to use 256 GB of the internal storage.)

EDIT: More sensible alternative might be to just use Windows for everything if you need to use Windows-only features. Steam Big Picture works on Windows just as well as it will on SteamOS. (You might also be surprised at how much Linux can do and decide not to bother with Windows of course!)

site23 wrote:EDIT: More sensible alternative might be to just use Windows for everything if you need to use Windows-only features. Steam Big Picture works on Windows just as well as it will on SteamOS. (You might also be surprised at how much Linux can do and decide not to bother with Windows of course!)

I'm getting the 512gb version and my hope is they'll do a version with windows already installed but that may be wishful thinking.
I'll just start with the unit first and see how it goes and then look for guides to see how easy it is to install windows as I'd like to use the PC part of Gamepass ultimate if I can.

I haven't had a PC for so long I'm pretty much a complete noob again. I haven't even used windows 10 .

ITSMILNER wrote:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:I'm just looking forward to the first batches to get released so we can get some real world impressions on how it handles emulation, other OS installs (Windows, Batocera etc), Gamepass, Epic Store, GOG etc.

From what info is out there, do you think a lot of this stuff (emulation especially) can be done just completely using the Steam Deck? You won’t need access to another PC to get everything you need?

So download Dolphin, get some games and play them all just using the Steam Deck?

There are three options for emulation as far as I can tell:

1 - Sticking with the default Steamdeck OS there will be some options available for emulation right out of the box.

Multiple-system emulator wrapper Retroarch has recently had an official Steam release and a small selection its various "cores" (The individual emulators) are available as free DLC.
Currently it has Final Burn Neo (Arcade), Genesis Plus GX (MegaDrive, Mega-CD, 32X, Master System, Game Gear), Mesen S (SNES), Mesen (NES), MGBA (GBA), Sameboy (GameBoy/GameBoy Color), Stella (Atari 2600), Kronos (Saturn), Mupen 64 Plus Next (N64), PCSX Rearmed (PS1).

So there's some decent, if not amazingly impressive emulators available within the eco-system already. However you CAN add other cores to Retroarch manually, which gives you access to just about every other system under the sun up to PS2/GC level. Wii U, PS3 and original XBox don't currently have Retroarch cores (That I'm aware of) so can't really be added under Retroarch just yet. Presumably this will be possible on Steamdeck, assuming there is access to the file system in some way.

I would also assume that we need access to the filesystem to properly install and run stuff like Dolphin, Cemu and Citra.

I fully expect there to be a multitude of "How to get Cemu on Steamdeck" type videos out within a week of the first units being released.

2 - Install a linux-based custom emulation OS such as Batocera.

This requires a bit more technical ability, but it's not too tricky. It has emulators all the way up to the 3DS, Wii U and PS3 built in as well as the original Xbox and PS2. It recently added Steam support using the same Proton tech that Steamdeck will use meaning that it can play all the native linux games on steam, as well as Windows games through proton. It's also possible to add GOG games and other non-steam games. The main downside is that while it's reasonably easy to install, there is a lot of user-configuration required, though it is very customisable. I've been messing around with it for quite a while on my spare PC and it's very impressive if you can get it configured the way you want.

3 - Toss all that gooseberry fool out and just install Windows.

This will give you access to every emulator released for windows, as well as all the Windows games you could ever wish for, regardless of which store they come from. The downside is that you will probably lose some of the features of SteamOS such as the suspend/resume feature and we don't know what kind of performance hit you'll see in with Windows in the background.


With the exception of a Windows install, you will need to find an external way to get the games onto the Steamdeck. The easiest way will probably be to load up an SD card somewhere (Probably another PC) and transfer them over.

EDIT: A Windows install is relatively streamlined these days. It's usually just a case of whacking a Windows ISO file on to a USB stick and plugging it in and restarting the system. You then just follow the on-screen instructions, which are generally straightforward. The only "tricky" part would be knowing how to get the system to boot from USB, but I would expect that to be something easy to find out.

I just found out I can hopefully play AoE 4 using xcloud on my tablet and that's pretty much the only game I'm bothered about so I may not need to worry about installing windows after all .