[HN Gopher] How the Steam Deck breathes life into underrated old...
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How the Steam Deck breathes life into underrated old games
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 161 points
Date : 2022-12-28 14:14 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.techradar.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.techradar.com)
| theshrike79 wrote:
| My Deck ownership is at a point where I don't even buy a game if
| it's not either Deck Verified on Steam or gold/platinum on
| ProtonDB.
|
| I also prefer games that have cross-platform cloud saves so I can
| play longer sessions on my Xbox or PC and continue from the exact
| same spot on the Deck when I'm on the go. I think I can finally
| finish Witcher 3 this time when they added cloud saves, I don't
| need to have 3 parallel games going on different platforms.
|
| The quick pick up and immediate suspend are the killer features
| for me. The Spouse Acceptance Factor is pretty good for a device
| I can play with on the couch and be semi-present. Instead of me
| taking up the TV or being in my own dark corner playing with my
| gaming PC.
|
| I've finished more games during this fall on the deck than my PC
| during the last two years.
| dkonofalski wrote:
| This is almost exactly my experience. I'm the type of person
| that's not great to shop for gifts for because I mostly buy the
| things I want and am minimal in what I want. My wife knows
| this, though, and just told everyone to buy me Steam gift cards
| for Xmas now that I have my Steam Deck.
|
| My only complaint right now is that, for some reason, it seems
| like my cloud saves on Steam also saved the configurations for
| some games so my graphics settings always revert to the
| settings saved on the Steam Deck, even when I play on my PC.
| Titanfall 2, for example, crashes when I open it on my PC the
| first time after playing on the Steam Deck but then restarts
| and runs fine afterwards (albeit with the settings from the
| Steam Deck). Changing the graphics settings back words until I
| play again on my Steam Deck (which lags horribly until I reset
| the settings back to Steam Deck defaults).
| vosper wrote:
| I didn't realise Steam Deck was capable of playing Titanfall
| 2. I loved that game (coulda used more giant robot battles,
| though!). How well does Titanfall 2 play on Steam Deck?
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I played it all the way on the Deck with zero issues.
|
| It's the first game that made first person wall running
| actually fun and easy to do even for a casual player like
| me.
| JackMcMack wrote:
| That's up to the developers, graphics settings should not be
| synced. Unfortunately some games just dump all settings in
| there.
|
| Steam Cloud docs explicitely mention this:
|
| https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/cloud#1
|
| > Avoid machine specific configurations such as video
| settings.
| sogen wrote:
| > on the deck than my PC
|
| I have some games in Steam, but actually don't like to use a PC
| to play games, so the steamdeck looks like a viable
| alternative.
|
| Thanks for this!
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I did the math when I preordered my Deck last year, it was
| cheaper to get the max version of the deck than it would've
| cost me to upgrade my gaming pc to a reasonable level. Even
| with the official dock and dbrand case + screen protector it
| was still less than a GPU would've been :D
| rlex wrote:
| >I've finished more games during this fall on the deck than my
| PC during the last two years.
|
| I can say the same, but about single-player games. I play games
| very often (you can call me addict if you want), but every time
| i get to my PC i always get dragged into some coop/multiplayer
| game by my friends. While with deck, i can just drop to bed,
| fire up some game i've been delaying to play for 5 years, and
| finally complete it. Almost without distractions.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| There's something magical about a single-purpose device.
|
| There is no web browser, Discord, Spotify, IRC or anything.
| Just you and a thousand games you promised yourself you'd
| finish some day =)
| rlex wrote:
| Well it isn't single-purpose, you can get browser, discord,
| spotify, irc or anything just by swapping to desktop
| mode... But i'd rather use my phone or pc for that and
| leave deck for games.
|
| Also, on steamdeck subreddit i saw people using it as their
| main PC (not much power, but definitely more than enough
| for majority of day-to-day tasks, especially with external
| monitor). I recall motorola razr (android one) had dualboot
| (android + ubuntu), and when plugged to external monitor
| you was able to use it as a small PC. But due to pretty
| weak hardware back in 2011, this idea never took off.
| andybak wrote:
| > The Spouse Acceptance Factor is pretty good for a device I
| can play with on the couch and be semi-present.
|
| I even get away with playing in bed as a "kill time until I
| feel sleepy" activity. Nothing else other than browsing a phone
| has reached this level of acceptance.
|
| (I must admit I do have an unusually tolerant partner...)
| nucleardog wrote:
| > The quick pick up and immediate suspend are the killer
| features for me.
|
| Yep, this has been the killer feature for me too.
|
| When playing a game involves closing out some other stuff,
| starting up steam, starting up the game, waiting for it to
| load, loading my save, waiting for it to load, playing for a
| bit, saving, exiting to the menu, exiting the game, etc...
| there's a certain minimum commitment of time involved.
|
| When I can just tap the power button and get dropped back in
| the game where I left it, and when the next distraction comes
| up just tap it again (in a menu, in a cutscene, anywhere) and
| put it back down... suddenly all those little 20 minute chunks
| of dead time where I'd be doom-scrolling the internet can turn
| into gaming time.
|
| Even when I _am_ sitting at my desk, I often just dock my Steam
| Deck and play with a controller on my monitor instead of firing
| up the game on my PC because it's so convenient. (The fact that
| it also doesn't heat my office up to 85 degrees like my PC is a
| bonus as well.)
| gpderetta wrote:
| I'm amazed how well it works for the games I tried and how
| quickly it resumes.
|
| It does drain the batteries relatively quickly while in stand
| by though
| photoGrant wrote:
| That's genuinely a huge selling point I never even factored
| or was marketed/informed about!
| m4rtink wrote:
| Well for the record, this has been standard functionality
| for mobile consoles in the past - both Playstation Vita and
| Nintendo Switch have the same instant suspend mechanics.
| Not sure about the TV-connected consoles as I never had
| one.
| nonbirithm wrote:
| I remember playing The Darkness 2 on a GPD Win 2, another
| handheld PC released ~4 years ago, and remember how surprised I
| was at the performance at the time even with only integrated
| graphics. It still serves me well to this day for the kinds of
| games I play, so I might wait for a hardware refresh before
| upgrading to a Steam Deck.
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| Playing old games is the main reason I'm excited for these types
| of handhelds. It's also why I may not be getting a Steam Deck
| versus similar alternatives.
|
| The lower-spec handhelds by Abernic and Retroid, for example, can
| handle lots of emulation, Half Life 1, Counterstrike 1.6, Unreal
| Tournament 1999, as well as OpenMW. None of these depend on Steam
| or Proton.
|
| The higher-spec Steam Deck, at 2-3x the cost, comes into play for
| newer titles. For me, that's Fallout 3/NV/4, STALKER, Metro,
| Oblivion, Skyrim, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring.
| Arrath wrote:
| > Playing old games is the main reason I'm excited for these
| types of handhelds.
|
| Same! An often unspoken benefit to playing older games is that
| they are a good deal less taxing on the hardware, allowing you
| to stretch out the battery life. I love it.
| smoldesu wrote:
| > None of these depend on Steam or Proton.
|
| The Steam Deck doesn't depend on Steam or Proton either, FWIW.
| If you want to throw Lakka or another homebrew emulation OS on
| it, it should work out-of-box.
|
| That being said, I get the appeal of other/simpler handhelds
| for retrogaming. The Steam Deck's real party trick is a
| powerful GPU at a decently low wattage, which will go mostly
| unappreciated playing Symphony of the Night.
| NexRebular wrote:
| Does the deck run anything else than Windows or linux? Or is
| it vendor locked with proprietary drivers?
| tadfisher wrote:
| The proprietary stuff is all firmware. It runs open-source
| GPU drivers and everything else is mainstreamed in Linux.
| So if BSD has the drivers, you could theoretically run it.
| nmstoker wrote:
| Would recommend those interested in older games also look into
| EmuDeck. It is a really polished experience, combining a range of
| emulation tools with good default settings.
|
| https://www.emudeck.com/
|
| I've been having a tinker with BBC games too (not integrated with
| EmuDeck currently) and, after some minor tweaks to the code and
| config, managed to get quite a useable setup with BeebEm. Will
| see how feasible it is to upstream in the new year.
| robotnikman wrote:
| Glad I saw this in this thread, I have never heard of emudeck.
| I've been using retroarch from the steam store, and while it
| works it is missing a lot of emulation options
| giobox wrote:
| It would be fascinating to see install stats on emudeck - I
| haven't seen a single steam deck without it installed so far
| and I've met quite a few users "in the wild" now.
| gotoeleven wrote:
| Is there a legal way to acquire ROMs of old games or are
| torrents the only practical way?
| HideousKojima wrote:
| The Genesis/MegaDrive collection games on Steam include the
| roms.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| You could buy the game and dump the ROM yourself. You also
| need to get the original console and dump the BIOS from it.
|
| Nobody does it, torrents are the way people actually do it.
|
| Nevermind that people would actually pay money to have legal,
| licensed, digital copies of both - but the game companies
| don't care or want the money.
| linuxftw wrote:
| Nintendo does release older software from time to time, at
| least 1st party titles. Especially on their virtual
| consoles.
| skyyler wrote:
| They don't do that anymore. They offer subscriptions to
| curated lists of games. You used to be able to purchase
| old games from Nintendo, but now you can't. (At least on
| the Switch)
| charcircuit wrote:
| That is not necessarily legal. Nintendo's lawyers for
| example have the view that a copy made dumping one of their
| games is a copy that violates Nintendo's copyright.
| rowanG077 wrote:
| Fortunately what Nintendo thinks has no legal impact.
| smoldesu wrote:
| In the United States, that view doesn't have legal
| precedent. It could be argued, but in the past American
| courts tend to rule in favor of the personal freedom to
| archive software. Emulators have gotten a protective
| shield ever since the Bleem! lawsuit, and ripping
| physical media is a practice grandfathered in to the
| ownership of digital paraphernalia.
|
| You're correct to highlight that it's not explicitly
| legal/illegal, but at least in America things are pretty
| cut-and-dried.
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| It's been a while, but ISTR that their argument was
| essentially that backup or archival copies are
| unnecessary due to the reliability of their media and
| hardware, therefore any purported backup or archival
| copies must actually be for an infringing purpose.
|
| I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there's no "unless
| the copyright owner or an affiliated party claims you
| don't need to" clause in the backup/archival exceptions.
| tadfisher wrote:
| For other media, format-shifting does have precedent; MP3
| players survived the RIAA, for instance. I don't see a
| meaningful difference for software.
| wiseowise wrote:
| Did they add Flatpak support yet? If no, then still hard pass.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| It does have uninstall functionality if that's the reason
| you're passing.
| wiseowise wrote:
| How reliable it is, though? I know I'm probably being
| skeptical for no reason, but still.
| andybak wrote:
| I've found ZX Spectrum games pretty unplayable due to poor
| support for "pure joystick" usage. So you have to either:
|
| a) use the awful virtual keyboard to switch to joydyick mode
| and start the game
|
| b) create a controller profile for every single game
| UI_at_80x24 wrote:
| I've been debating getting a SteamDeck. On paper it's a perfect
| linux 'laptop' replacement. I get to game if I want. Connect it
| to a dock, KB+M, monitor and you have a portable computer.
| However, I am never 'away' from home.
|
| I don't have a commute where I spend hours sitting idle wishing
| for something to do. A possible usage; when I take the kids to
| the park I spend a decent chunk of time interacting with them. So
| out of a 1-3 hour excursion, I'd get maybe 0.75-1.5hrs of usage.
| And that's not every day.
|
| I WANT one. I just can't justify that kind of expense.
| autotune wrote:
| The fact that you can play it resting on a couch vs desktop
| gaming on a home office chair justifies the expense for me
| personally, but you might not be that lazy.
| oblak wrote:
| But couch gaming is so much better with a lighter device in
| hands and a TV hooked to a PC. I, too, want a Deck but can't
| justify the waste because my cute little htpc is much, much
| faster. Not that it needs to be, 90% of the time. Nothing
| fancy. Mostly 8 and 16-bit stuff.
|
| That said, the deck is almost cheaper than the 5800u tomtom
| sort of sff pcs on aliexpress. Everything considered, it's
| not a bad product at all. I fear its future looks brighter
| than that of my index
| autotune wrote:
| Briefly looked at something like a Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit
| for htpc, until I realized that the Deck will be useful for
| the 2-3 flights I take every year as well, so for now it
| still has higher priority on my wish list.
| WhiteNoiz3 wrote:
| My son has been using it in place of an iPad - he watches
| youtube videos on it and loves that it runs linux and is
| basically a full computer.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| It's in the price range of an used old leasing laptop. About
| comparable to the cheapest supermarket laptops that can run
| mid-range games.
|
| But it's portable and can dock to your existing
| display/keyboard/mouse setup when needed.
|
| I haven't booted up my (old) Windows gaming PC since I got the
| deck. It's just so convenient to pick up and play. And when the
| kids/SO call, I can just hit suspend and go see what's up. When
| I get back, I turn on the SD and continue exactly where I left
| off.
|
| WAY easier and more practical than leaving my gaming PC on
| pause for multiple hours. (Not all games let you save anywhere
| you want).
| AaronM wrote:
| The big draw for me is playing while traveling, its the primary
| reason I own a switch. Reading that offline play is still not
| that great of an experience, even for games that don't require
| always on.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wnaiq6/just_took...
| bityard wrote:
| PSA for those who bought into the early generation of humble
| bundles: if you still have the emails or download links, those
| have codes for the steam store where you can punch them right in
| and the games get added into your steam library.
|
| I did this recently and a fair number of the old games Just
| Worked on the steam deck.
| newobj wrote:
| 100% this! The games I play on the steam deck are completely
| disjoint from the games I play on the desktop. I hadn't
| anticipated that at all and I actually get more utility out of
| the steam deck than I had anticipated!
| rowanG077 wrote:
| Protip: if you are considering getting a steam deck consider the
| GPD win 4 as well. It's much more pocketable and more powerful.
| jrm4 wrote:
| FWIW, the Steam Deck is literally the device I've been waiting
| for my entire life since I first played a computer game.
|
| I mostly don't use it as a handheld. More as the "living room
| console for the kids" and as the "portable friends/family"
| device, in that way that e.g. the Switch advertises (but supports
| stuff like the Jackbox games)
|
| We should have had "gaming device that is also an actual general
| purpose computer" a long time ago, but I"m glad it's here now.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I'm really hoping for a Steam Deck that completes the original
| Valve idea of a console-like experience.
|
| Basically I'd be perfectly fine with the Steam Deck hardware in
| a small box without the controller, battery or display. Just
| power button and usb-c for power/data, and maybe even integrate
| the Steam Dock[0] hardware in the box with the extra connectors
| (USB ports, HDMI, Display Port, Gigabit Ethernet).
|
| [0] https://www.steamdeck.com/en/dock
| dkonofalski wrote:
| Same. The only reason I bought the Steam Dock for it was so
| that I could pop it in and switch my game to the TV. 90% of
| my playtime on this thing is on-the-go. It took the concept
| of the Nintendo Switch and actually delivered on it. Now, my
| Switch sits in a drawer and the Steam Deck is my go-to.
| gpderetta wrote:
| It would be a great product and what the steam box should
| have been years ago. Unfortunately proton wasn't a thing yet.
| Zircom wrote:
| Just an FYI but the Switch actually does have all the Jackbox
| games, we play them all the time on ours.
| em3rgent0rdr wrote:
| There never seems to be the year of the Linux desktop, but Linux
| does everything else. Will 2023 be the year of the Linux portable
| gaming device?
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| But will it play Dark Reign? There are a bunch of classic Win98
| games I would love to play but don't have hardware that could run
| them any more.
| butz wrote:
| For unsupported old games of specific time period dgVoodoo2 does
| wonders. Finally completed Gabriel Knight 3 on Linux.
| izzydata wrote:
| It's just too darn big for its own use case in my opinion. I
| don't want to bring such a behemoth around with me and when I'm
| not away from home I have my desktop which I don't have to hold
| up to use. For the occasional on the go gaming I find things such
| as those tiny retro gaming handhelds far more practical.
|
| Which have a similar phenomenon of bringing old games back to
| life due to the limited specs of such devices. The Retroid
| pockets and Anbernics are the best at this in my opinion.
| marcus_holmes wrote:
| I'm travelling at the moment (like, backpacking for 6 months).
| I find it perfect - it fits into my day bag no problem.
|
| I even have a portable monitor, and an external keyboard and
| mouse. Hook them all up with a USB hub and I have a "proper"
| desktop gaming setup that fits into my backpack no problem.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I travel with an USB-C dock with HDMI + DualSense controller.
|
| I can just plug it in to any hotel tv with an HDMI port and
| play full PC games.
| partdavid wrote:
| That's fair, size versus capability is always a trade-off. It's
| also not exactly inexpensive.
|
| I find it's _just_ small enough, but I don 't use it for every
| case. It's portable in the sense of being great to take with
| you on a plane or a trip; you wouldn't take it with you to work
| or school every day, I don't think. It fits in my personal item
| with good headphones, but there's not much space for something
| like a jacket. So I understand how the size excludes it from a
| lot of situations.
|
| My current gaming is built around NVidia GeForceNow, Steam and
| the Steam Deck. I have all my bases covered and (almost!) all
| the games I want, "retro" and "current".
|
| At home I have NVidia SHIELD devices on each TV. That's three
| rooms (one of which is on a gaming monitor with 120 Hz/HDR). I
| can play all my Steam (and Epic) games seamlessly on all three.
| They were $100 each and my founder's membership to GFN is
| $4.16/mo. The controllers were around $35 each as well. I don't
| strictly need three of them but I got them for symmetry. I like
| that I buy games on standard PC game stores like Steam, so if
| the service shuts down or gets crappy, I'll still have my games
| --it doesn't have the disadvantage that Stadia did. I had a PS4
| and Xbone and I just never used them--I gave them away.
|
| For the "very portable" case I have my phone. Its GFN client is
| great. I can use it with an onscreen controller in a pinch, or
| I have a Razer Kishi which is okay (standard thumbsticks and
| buttons). I also have a cheap Chromebook with a good GFN client
| I can use the play the same games. Of course, both these
| require good wi-fi or particularly good cell service. I've
| played on hotel marginal hotel wi-fi and on 4G/"5G" and that's
| about on the border between useable on non-useable.
|
| Enter the Steam Deck. This covers the offline use case: planes,
| areas with bad wi-fi/wireless coverage. And it's still the same
| games with good hardware and good control. Ironically, what
| _doesn 't_ work well on it is GFN; but that's okay, because
| that's not really what I need it for.
|
| That's the setup that works for me, and it works very well. I'm
| not a "hardcore" gamer and I don't own a PC at all. So for me,
| it is definitely portable enough for its use case.
|
| There _are_ various disadvantages that people might not like
| (besides the Steam Deck being pretty big, as you point out):
|
| Game Selection: Obviously, this is a tradeoff with any gaming
| platform; not every game is available on Steam. With my setup,
| it's even more narrow: not every game on Steam is offered on
| GFN; and not every game on Steam works on the Steam Deck. There
| are some games I own that I can't play on the Deck; there are
| some games I could buy for the Deck that I couldn't play on GFN
| (I don't buy those games). There are still hundreds of games of
| every stripe available, so this doesn't faze me. It's true I
| can't play GTA:V, but that's probably the only game I really
| "miss".
|
| Game streaming: I'm told input lag makes this not an option for
| "serious gamers." I'll believe them. For me, a "non-serious
| gamer", I detect no input lag. GFN isn't completely seamless
| and the fact that you're interacting with a Windows VM can be
| kind of clunky. No problem for a nerdy type, but there are a
| couple of rough edges for a consumer (for example, when
| launching a game you may need to interact with the Steam
| application in the VM to launch it, or sometimes it launches by
| itself; sometimes you need to invoke an onscreen keyboard and
| mouse input method to interact with a game launcher or close
| windows).
|
| It also means your Internet access needs to be up to snuff.
| When it is, streaming is fine. In the past, I'd run into
| lag/jitter problems even when the problem wasn't on my end;
| that seems to have been fixed and I don't experience that
| anymore. I think there are also time or usage limits but I've
| never run into one so I'm not sure. On the other hand, the game
| client's connection to servers is always great (e.g. on Star
| Wars Battlefront II).
|
| Limited controls: As far as I can tell, there's no GFN story
| for racing wheels, dance pads and other alternate controllers,
| at least with the SHIELD. This is probably the thing that bugs
| me most; I'd like to use a wheel for Euro Truck Simulator 2.
|
| Glitches: The biggest problem on my Steam Deck is Bluetooth
| audio delay. I have tried remedies and system settings and they
| haven't worked. It's not great for a game where synced audio
| might be important. As it happens, my games aren't really like
| that and the delay is "okay". It bothers me aesthetically but
| doesn't make playing a game much less fun. But I'd love to see
| it resolved.
|
| Another nit: cloud saves are not _totally_ seamless, you need
| to pay attention to whether they 're synced when using the
| Steam Deck. If you do, your play will be seamless; if you
| don't, it's possible to lose a save moving between the
| platforms.
| mikedelago wrote:
| Different strokes, I suppose.
|
| I've had a fantastic time playing Dwarf Fortress on the Steam
| Deck as a passenger in a car, as well as Team Fortress 2 in
| bed.
| dualboot wrote:
| For me the size is a major advantage. Traditional controllers
| are an ergo nightmare for me. The width of the controller means
| my hands are at a much more natural angle and the shape and
| balance of the deck is very well thought out.
|
| The steam deck replaces gaming laptops for me. Gaming laptops
| have always been hot, noisy, and highly failure prone. The deck
| is downright dainty in comparison and doesn't require me to
| carry a mouse, controller, and clunky power brick as well.
| Sakos wrote:
| The SD has basically the minimum display size for useable retro
| _PC_ gaming. For PS1 emulation, you could probably get away
| with something the size of the GB Pocket, but PC games simply
| were never designed for small screens.
| climb_stealth wrote:
| Hah, I want one because I don't want to buy a big-ass desktop
| PC. Basically I want keyboard+mouse PC gaming without buying a
| desktop. It seems ideal for that.
|
| But I agree, it looks super chunky for something that is meant
| to be portable. I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the
| maximum size for something to comfortably travel with, and the
| Steamdeck is 250g heavier and bigger in all dimensions [0].
|
| [0] https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-deck-vs-nintendo-
| switch/#secti...
| koinedad wrote:
| This is why I got a Steamdeck recently, didn't want/need a
| full on gaming PC. So far it's perfect for me.
| rlex wrote:
| >I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size
| for something to comfortably travel with
|
| I have pretty severe hand pain after prolonged use of switch.
| Getting case with big grips definitely helps, but then switch
| gets much bigger.
|
| While prolonged use of deck is also noticeable, it's much,
| much less taxing on hands. Or so i feel. Probably because
| it's more comfortable to hold due to size and built-in grips?
| Sakos wrote:
| > I would consider the Nintendo Switch about the maximum size
| for something to comfortably travel with
|
| I don't understand why. The SD fits in every bag I take with
| me. Unless all you travel with is a purse? Then I guess sure,
| it's too big. But the SD being 250g heavier and it being
| larger than the Switch are all positives for me. It has such
| a solid feel and the sides are more ergonomic in a way that
| makes it more comfortable to use than my Switch ever was.
| climb_stealth wrote:
| I'm glad you describe it as a positive! It's still at the
| top of my list.
|
| The Switch fits flat down in my backpack. The Steamdeck
| would probably not fit in the same way. I haven't had a
| chance to handle one though. But personally I find the
| Switch already borderline annoying to take.
|
| Typing this whilst waiting for a flight with a fully packed
| bag for what it's worth. On its own it would be fine, but
| once you add a drink bottle, toiletries, a laptop and
| chargers it adds up.
| floydnoel wrote:
| The Steam Deck has an excellent travel case. If I were
| needing to travel with it, I would find a way to attach
| the travel case externally to my bag. That way, it
| wouldn't impact what can be packed already.
| partdavid wrote:
| It fits in my personal item (a small messenger bag), in
| its case, along with good noise-cancelling headphones.
| There's space for the other stuff I need (a small bottle
| of water and a snack), but not a jacket, which I have to
| wear or tie to the strap. I don't think any personal
| item-sized thing is going to have space for it and
| headphones a laptop (I put my laptop in my carry-on,
| which is usually either a 20L backpack or a 40L
| ultralight rollerboard). Its case has space for a charger
| and since my phone and headphones are USB-C as well I can
| just stick with it. It won't be flat like your switch.
|
| I don't think I'd try strapping it to the outside of any
| bag, even though the case it came with seems quite good.
| I think it would be unwieldy.
| nkozyra wrote:
| It's "portable" but as someone looking for a gaming computer
| for a 9 year old, ideal in a lot of ways and certainly
| preferable to handing him some giant, ugly Windows box or
| teaching him how to navigate Linux (which I hope he'll do
| over time with this)
| [deleted]
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| Despite of that, Steam Deck is much more comfortable to hold
| than Nintendo Switch. I have both and my hands feel sore
| after holding the Switch for a while - no such effect on the
| Deck. It does take up more space in a bag though.
| shkkmo wrote:
| It's not a pocket console, it's a backpack console. In terms on
| consoles, It's like moving from a desktop to a laptop. Laptops
| won over desktops, even when the laptop rarely leaves the
| house, because it offers free movement amd choice of location.
|
| Compared to gaming on a laptop, the steam deck works better and
| is more flexible in more locations. The quick suspend feature,
| though it doesn't work with every game, just extends this
| convenience by making it easy to pickup and put down.
|
| There's definitely a space for pocket gaming, but that faces
| stiff competition from phone games.
| stuart78 wrote:
| I think this gets it exactly right. I've taken the deck on
| trips where I have room in the suitcase, but I wouldn't take
| it on my daily commute. But most of all, I'm just with it on
| the couch. Even though there is also a nice big tv right in
| front of it, the instant on / instant suspend makes it great
| for 5-10 minute chunks.
| sgtnoodle wrote:
| I bought a deck mainly for the working suspend. I have an
| AMD based desktop that I run Arch Linux on, and suspend
| didn't work on it for most of 2022. Bug fixes have since
| trickled into the mainline kernel, and there's AMD
| employees and Valve contractors productively participating
| in issue tickets.
| atwebb wrote:
| Do you mean for the use cases in the article or in general? It
| certainly is big but it is a remarkable device and works
| exceptionally well. I'm shocked how well Valve did (just in
| general, they nailed it and are executing well). I bring the SD
| a bunch of places, quick resume is awesome, the screen is
| great, powering games isn't an issue. I suspect it may get
| smaller later but even the Switch now seems too small and there
| are lots of add-ons to extend it so your hands aren't cramped
| up.
| izzydata wrote:
| The use case of playing a game outside the house. I find that
| even the switch lite to be far too big for this, but at least
| it fits in a bag a bit better. The Sony Vita was probably the
| perfect form factor in my opinion.
|
| Obviously those things can't play modern PC titles on low to
| medium settings, but that doesn't feel particularly necessary
| to me.
| Sakos wrote:
| > but that doesn't feel particularly necessary to me
|
| I mean, then the SD isn't for you, no? Just get a Vita or
| one of the modern indie pocket gaming handhelds.
| shanebellone wrote:
| I guess the meaning of portable gaming is ambiguous. I took it
| to mean "wireless gaming" and it succeeds by that definition.
|
| I rarely use the Deck but my girlfriend loves it. She prefers
| the handheld form factor for couch gaming. I just prefer my
| office chair to any other seat in my house which makes PC
| gaming more appealing.
| MadcapJake wrote:
| agree with the other replies but also one thing to add: the
| gaming market in PCs is still mostly in the big screen world.
| They couldn't go too small or risk making the games too small
| for what they were designed for. The magnifier feature is not
| something you want to perform all the time. I imagine they did
| some AB testing and I firmly believe they landed on a good
| compromise.
| godzillabrennus wrote:
| I've discovered the joy that is the dadish series thanks to steam
| deck.
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| Advertising dressed as journalism.
| goda90 wrote:
| Obviously Proton is a big part of the Steam Deck's success, but I
| firmly believe it would be a flop if it weren't for Steam's input
| mapping tools. I can play so many games that are keyboard+mouse
| only because of mapping hotkeys.
| shkkmo wrote:
| Those mapping tools, and many of the mappings, owe a debt to
| the underrated steam controller.
| marcus_holmes wrote:
| I had one of those, it was great. I don't know why it failed.
| empyrrhicist wrote:
| There was a patent infringement case which I have heard
| blamed for it.
| dagmx wrote:
| It failed because:
|
| 1. It's an accessory that was an extra purchase when many
| alternatives existed. So it was competing for mindshare
| from people who either were using keyboard+mouse, or could
| also buy a console controller and connect it up. Unless you
| already researched it, there was no surface reason to own
| one for many people.
|
| 2. Low availability. You couldn't just find it in any
| retail store. So you already needed to be aware of it to
| want it, and then be willing to wait for delivery. So it
| had a higher bar to cross.
|
| 3. Comfort was a big one. Some people loved it. Others
| hated it. It was too big for many people, and too
| cumbersome for others. I personally thought it was one of
| the worst controllers I've owned and I have very large
| hands.
|
| 4. The touch controls mapped poorly to many games. If you
| did buy one, it was really hit and miss how well it worked
| for your games. A lot depended on either putting in the
| time to map it out or hoping the community had something.
|
| It just had too much going against it. Which is a death
| blow for a product that can't exist by itself and has
| competition (even if it does more).
|
| The steamdeck in comparison sort of exists in its own niche
| and is a complete product.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| 5) Most halfway-recent PC games that are any good to play
| on a gamepad are made with X-Box controllers in mind--
| button maps readied and all, truly plug-n-play--and 360
| or XBone controllers are readily available and even very
| cheap (in the case of used 360 controllers, especially).
| This has been true so long that they're practically _the_
| "standard" gamepad for PC gaming, if you're gonna bring a
| gamepad into the mix at all, with the main kinda-
| successful exceptions being retro controllers for use
| with emulators. If you want the boring and relatively-
| cheap thing that's also the least likely to give you any
| surprises or irritations in the next 5+ years, you just
| get an X-Box controller, so Valve's controller had a real
| uphill battle.
| jamesgeck0 wrote:
| > Most halfway-recent PC games
|
| This is a key point that undermines the rest of your
| argument. Controller support is practically a given
| today, but when the Steam Controller launched in 2015
| there were _a lot_ of games on Steam (even AAA console
| ports) that were mouse/keyboard only.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| I meant more like since 2005.
|
| [EDIT] To clarify, I mean games _that lend themselves to
| gamepad controls to begin with_ have tended to support
| X-Box controllers really well for about that long, and I
| 'd bet that's most of what PC gamers want to do with
| gamepads. They want to play GTA games or Red Dead on a
| gamepad--most of them still prefer keyboard and mouse for
| first-person shooters or isometric RPGs or strategy games
| or what have you. The market for people who want to
| replace the keyboard & mouse on games that are _best_
| played with a keyboard & mouse is surely much smaller
| than the set who just want a gamepad as a supplementary
| controller for platformers and 3rd-person action games,
| or as the "poor (or space-constrained) man's" flight
| stick / steering wheel--that larger market is already
| pretty well-served by cheap used X-Box controllers.
| AngryData wrote:
| I think it was a combination of a lack of both a proper
| d-pad or right joystick. With only one missing, I would
| have recommended it more, but with both missing, it only
| works great for a certain sub selection of games, and while
| most of the rest are playable, they aren't a great
| experience with it.
|
| For the games I used it with, it was great, probably the
| best Dark Souls controller I ever used by turning the right
| track pad into a simulated trackball. But without a d-pad
| it ruins it for most fighting games, joystick FPS are kind
| of shit without a second joystick as there is no more
| muscle memory to rely on, and it lacks the speed needed for
| any serious RTS games.
|
| That leaves racing games, and surfing the web.
|
| It does make an amazing remote mouse for watching shows and
| stuff from my computer while not sitting at it, but that
| certainly doesn't drive sales. And the one joystick is has
| is absolutely phenomenal, the smallest deadzone out of any
| joystick controller ive used and it is super sensitive and
| precise, which would have been really great if there were
| two of them. And the haptics was pretty great in my opinion
| for racing game.
| flanbiscuit wrote:
| Had? What happened to it? Is it not still useful?
|
| I have one, but only used it a couple times. Don't remember
| it being a game changer for me but it's been so long since
| the last time I touched it that I can't remember now what
| it was like to use it. I'll have to find it and give
| another try
| theshrike79 wrote:
| It's EOL and you can't get more.
|
| I'm still kicking myself for not ordering a half-dozen of
| them when they suddenly went on super-sale on Steam
| (5EUR/pop or something)
| Sakos wrote:
| I'm not sure by what measure it failed. I'm certain Valve
| wasn't trying to turn the Steam Controller into a household
| item. It was a reasonably popular niche product and as a
| dogfooding item it was a wild success for the development
| of Steam input, which is a core reason why the Steam Deck
| works at all.
| dagmx wrote:
| Valve were definitely trying to push it, along with their
| other defunct products: The Steam Link and the Steam
| Machines.
|
| Both those products were meant to be mass adopted, and
| the steam controller was meant to be the best input
| choice for both of them.
| Sakos wrote:
| Steam Machines were a miserable failure with nothing to
| show for it. I don't buy the "guilty by association"
| argument though. People liked, bought and used the Steam
| Controller. Steam Machines never even remotely reached
| that point.
| dagmx wrote:
| Whether the Steam Machines were successful or not is
| besides the point with regards to whether valve intended
| it to be successful (they clearly did because they pushed
| very hard for it at the time) and the Steam Controller
| having been part of the pitch.
|
| Lots of things that arose from their steam machine
| project were more successful than the steam machine,
| including:
|
| - the steam deck - funding various Vulkan projects -
| funding Proton development - general Linux experience for
| gaming getting better (many many patches that were
| funded)
|
| So it's not really meaningful to differentiate their
| intent just by the popularity of their product. The steam
| machine and the steam controllers were meant to be the
| every day console and valve certainly invested a ton into
| trying.
| waboremo wrote:
| No successful product goes on fire sale only ~3 years
| after release.
| mikedelago wrote:
| I don't think it was pushed/marketed very hard, and by the
| end of it they were kind of just giving them away.
|
| Failed might not be appropriate, it's still plenty usable
| in my opinion.
| everdrive wrote:
| I had one, and really wanted to like it. I found the
| controller very comfortable in my hands. But, I could never
| make the touch pads useful for me. I tried different
| configurations, I tried intentionally practicing with them.
| But to no avail. For me, they were never more comfortable,
| intuitive, or accurate than dual-sticks. But, they were so
| central to the controller that they effectively _had_ to be
| used.
| delecti wrote:
| Because it was weird. Lots of "you'll get it once you try
| it" products fail because they can't convey what their
| value proposition is. On top of that, their market was
| already limited to PC gamers who wanted a controller (which
| was already a comparatively small market at the time), plus
| were willing to go with something non-standard that they'd
| have to tinker with to get working.
| tmtvl wrote:
| Valve lost a patent case against SCUF and Ironburg over the
| back paddles. Which sucks, because the main value
| proposition of the SC wasn't the back paddles but the
| haptic touchpads combined with the customisation. It would
| be nice if Valve would make another SC and pay the
| licensing fees.
| seritools wrote:
| It's awesome seeing the iteration through the steam
| controller, then the Index controllers, and now the steam
| deck.
| psychphysic wrote:
| To succeed as it has it needed it all.
|
| First of all it really needed to secure sales early ideally
| preorders.
|
| It needed to "just work" with games, like you said input
| mapping is huge part of that, also proton and "deck verified".
|
| Valve brought all those things together.
|
| I'm just surprised it was colaunched with HL3.
| laidoffamazon wrote:
| The Steam Deck is effectively a portable PS4/Xbox One, and it has
| blown me away in how great the user experience is. I played
| through more games on my Steam Deck this year than on my powerful
| gaming PC.
| talideon wrote:
| I've been going though my older games to figure out which work,
| especially if they're well suited to controller-based play, and
| reporting them in the forums. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
| Turns out there are a _lot_ of games like that, and it's good to
| see them being promoted on "Great on Deck" when they get through
| validation, or even seeing the yellow (!) beside them.
| andrethegiant wrote:
| I would love to get hooked into a video game again, but I can't
| shake the guilt that I'm wasting my time. Any tips on how to
| enjoy them again?
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| Video games waste time. TV wastes time. Reading wastes time.
| Watching movies wastes time. And so on. It's not any more a
| waste of time than other things that aren't work.
|
| Also, there's plenty of games that are shorter or can be played
| in short sessions if you are too busy for long sessions.
| darkwizard42 wrote:
| I would first reflect on what gets you "hooked" to the point
| you feel guilty. For me, League of Legends was VERY addictive.
| My mood for the evening would change depending on how much I
| won or lost and I always wanted to queue up for "just one more
| game" even if I had another commitment in 30-45 minutes. So for
| me, dropping online team-based competitive gaming was the right
| move.
|
| I would look into games that let you start/stop whenever
| without any issues. These fit best into (I presume) your adult
| life, without having the classic "I can't pause this right now"
| moments. I recommend Stardew Valley if you want something very
| laid back (and it works on nearly every system) and then one-
| player games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, Portal if you
| want some story, puzzle, action. Each is award-winning and has
| deep gameplay but also easy enough to approach (if you have a
| background in gaming as you mentioned).
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Part of weightlifting is having rest periods.
|
| The same applies to mental work too.
|
| Rest and relaxation is part of the work.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Some stuff in your brain is better processed in the background
| without you actively thinking about them.
|
| Playing games, reading, watching movies etc. lets the active
| part of your GTFO of the way and let the background processes
| run without interruptions.
|
| Active breaks are also an option to combat any guilt. Just
| decide that "I'm going to play a game for 30 minutes", then
| it's not wasted time - you scheduled it =)
| LesZedCB wrote:
| find a game that's more than a shooter. some are truly art, and
| culturally significant works.
|
| do you like a mystery, newtonian space simulation, beautiful
| music and visuals, and being driven by your own curiosity
| instead of a game on rails?
|
| check out "Outer Wilds"
|
| i similarly find it hard to play games myself. this game came
| on a recommendation and instantly became the best game i've
| ever played. and in the vein of wasting time, this game
| transcends "video games." it's actually a masterpiece. i
| recommend going in with no knowledge, just give it a shot.
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/
| chrisdalke wrote:
| Outer Wilds is a profound, thought-provoking work of art.
|
| A tip anyone encountering this comment: If you like Sci-fi,
| story-based, exploration games -- Just buy it. Just go play
| it. Don't read a single review. Don't look at YouTube videos.
| It's the type of game that you can truly only experience
| once, and the less known before entering that experience the
| better.
|
| Also, play on Controller -- The game has a lot of spaceship
| flight which is pretty frustrating on keyboard/mouse.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Did you feel guilty typing this comment?
| weakfortress wrote:
| Stop reading productivity blogs. You do not have to be
| productive 24/7. Downtime is important. Do you think going to a
| concert, or dinner with friends, etc is wasting your time too?
| It sounds like a deeper problem than just the video games.
| robotnikman wrote:
| Exactly. I used to think the same way when comparing myself
| to some of my friends who don't play video games much, then I
| realized they filled their downtime with stuff like Netflix
| or Youtube instead of video games.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| I've been enjoying many old games anyway because they're easy to
| run on Linux.
|
| However, I must say modern games like Cyberpunk 2077 also run
| very well on Linux in Steam.
|
| And I got the Steam Deck to thank for that, since more
| development on Proton and vkd3d was done for it!
| bogwog wrote:
| I can't think of a single game in my library that doesn't run
| on Linux today. The only exceptions are games with anticheat
| issues of course, but those likely run perfectly fine too.
|
| I'm not saying incompatible games don't exist, I'm sure they
| do, but they're definitely the exception rather than the rule
| now.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| The Age of Empires II remake doesn't work well for me
| unfortunately: it runs, but when trying multiplayer, you can
| play for 1 minute, then it gives sync error
|
| Multiplayer is the sad part for Linux these days, except for
| the more cooperative type of games like Terraria, Factorio
| and Satisfactory where it works well.
| Scaevolus wrote:
| To fix AOE2:DE multiplayer all you need to do is extract
| UCRTBASE.DLL from a VC++ redistributable to avoid desyncs--
| here's a repo that has a script for it:
| https://github.com/ardba/proton_aoe2de_mpfix
| beebeepka wrote:
| I play multiplayer games on Linux all the time.
|
| https://www.protondb.com/ is your friend. Avoid purchasing
| games that ate not at least gold
| sigmar wrote:
| Who else is feeling ancient after realizing the "old games" this
| article refers to are games from 2011 and 2010? (but, thankfully,
| also one from late 90s)
| tmtvl wrote:
| Yeah, I was expecting things like Wizardry VI or the like.
| TillE wrote:
| Ten years is a long time, but it's interesting that we've
| reached sort of a plateau in videogame design. I mean, look at
| 1982 vs 1992 vs 2002. Technology continues to advance, but
| we're still making the same kind of 3D games, so that a kid
| today could go play those games without any real trouble.
| Semaphor wrote:
| Isometric RPGs advanced: Nowadays, the UI & UX do not make
| you want to scratch your eyes out. Mostly ;)
| wiseowise wrote:
| > A pretty relic of the past, I was so surprised to find that
| it runs perfectly on the Steam Deck in 2022, better than it
| ever did at launch. I was able to find a new appreciation for
| the aspects of the game that stuck with me when I was a
| teenager, like the game's inimitable cel-shaded art style,
| evocative of the same graphic novels The Darkness 2 is based
| on.
|
| Got me.
|
| I was like "The Darkness 2? Relic of the past? Huh?".
| nottorp wrote:
| Me, I have a remake of Knight Lore installed right now :)
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Lore
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