Valve/Steam do a handheld thingy

[The Minsky Moment]

At this point, I've transitioned to full bore fanboy.  It does steam games obviously, but also GOG and Epic. Game Pass - to the deck.  PS plus - run on deck.  Specs starting to struggle - no problem, just run GeForce Now through the deck.  Kids have their PS5, I ignore the TV and just Remote Play it through Deck.  Retro stuff - deck. Just for shits and giggles I broke out a keyboard and mouse and loaded a Combat Mission game. Valve said unsupported, but it ran just fine.  The only thing I like better than playing games on the Deck is screwing around with it to figure out what else I can run through it.

If my experience is in any way illustrative, it's a genius move by Valve even if the hardware is breakeven - in recent years, I used to meh through the annual Steam sale and pick up a cheap title or two; this year I've added close to 20 and my wishlist now has over 80 games on it.

[Jacob]

You sure are make it sound tempting...

[Josquius]

I've not been able to get anything non steam working yet. Been wanting to get a ps2 emulator going to play the newish racing lagoon translation.
It is a bit of a faff with the secondary os. But mostly lack of time on my part.
The pick up and play 30 mins stolen where I can factor is grand for certain types of game.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I've not been able to get anything non steam working yet. Been wanting to get a ps2 emulator going to play the newish racing lagoon translation.
It is a bit of a faff with the secondary os. But mostly lack of time on my part.
The pick up and play 30 mins stolen where I can factor is grand for certain types of game.

https://pimylifeup.com/steam-deck-ubisoft-connect/#:~:text=This%20is%20because%20all%20of,to%20Valve's%20Proton%20compatibility%20layer.

that's the guide I used to get ubisoft uplay to work on the deck.

Got GOG to work but don't remember how
need to make work of EA Play or whatever it's called nowadays

[FunkMonk]

At this point, I've transitioned to full bore fanboy.  It does steam games obviously, but also GOG and Epic. Game Pass - to the deck.  PS plus - run on deck.  Specs starting to struggle - no problem, just run GeForce Now through the deck.  Kids have their PS5, I ignore the TV and just Remote Play it through Deck.  Retro stuff - deck. Just for shits and giggles I broke out a keyboard and mouse and loaded a Combat Mission game. Valve said unsupported, but it ran just fine.  The only thing I like better than playing games on the Deck is screwing around with it to figure out what else I can run through it.

If my experience is in any way illustrative, it's a genius move by Valve even if the hardware is breakeven - in recent years, I used to meh through the annual Steam sale and pick up a cheap title or two; this year I've added close to 20 and my wishlist now has over 80 games on it.

This has been my experience exactly. It's kind of insane that I now play games exclusively on this little handheld PC. I used mine on a 4 hour flight last week. Perfect for trips, especially if you have a small power bank in your carry-on bag.

There's an upgraded OLED version now with better hardware and longer battery life. I think the original Steam Deck is now selling at steep discounts.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've not been able to get anything non steam working yet. Been wanting to get a ps2 emulator going to play the newish racing lagoon translation.
It is a bit of a faff with the secondary os. But mostly lack of time on my part.
The pick up and play 30 mins stolen where I can factor is grand for certain types of game.

For emulation stuff, I use the guides from Retro Game Corps.  They have online guides and youtube videos.  The youtube video on steam deck walks you through the process.  Main guide is here (video is embedded): https://retrogamecorps.com/2022/10/16/steam-deck-emulation-starter-guide/

Basically you go to desktop mode and install EmuDeck off the discovery store.  The EmuDeck installation process is self-guiding, but the Retro Game Corps video provides more explanations.  The EmuDeck installation sets up the whole file folder structure for you and you just dump your Bios and ROM files into the appropriate folders.    The guide and the video also tells you how you can add individual emulated games as separate icons in game mode but personally I don't bother with that and just access everything through Emulation Station. 

Definitely makes it easier if you use keyboard and mouse for the install process.

[Jacob]

I think I'll get the Steam Deck one day, and maybe the GeForce subscription too.

I just have to make sure I have the available time to figure out how to get my janky Skyrim lists going on the deck before I take the plunge.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

that would probably be helped by Bethesda stopping to fuck up everything when trying to push pay-for-mods again

[Jacob]

that would probably be helped by Bethesda stopping to fuck up everything when trying to push pay-for-mods again

True enough, though I'm locked at 1.5.97 and haven't updated since.

[The Minsky Moment]

One other thing I've noticed.  If you play regular modern-ish steam games through the Deck, the battery drains quite quickly as power output is high, in the 20+ watt range.  However, if you stream the exact same game through the Deck using e.g. GFN, Game Pass, Remote Play, etc. - it only uses about 5-8 watts and battery life goes way up. Same holds for running emulators.  I guess this is an obvious point but I didn't realize the impact until I compared it with the performance overlay running - the same game went from about 2 hours estimated gametime on battery to around 6 hours.

[Josquius]

I'm considering getting a dock for easier playing on the tv than faffing sound with unreliable steam link from my desktop.

Anyone know if there's any value to paying 100 quid for an official one rather than just a supposedly compliant one for 30 quid?

Even steams official help pages seem to suggest anything works.

[The Minsky Moment]

I got a cheap one under $30 and it works fine

[The Minsky Moment]

Good deal on a dock from ugreen: https://www.ugreen.com/collections/docking-station-1/products/ugreen-6-in-1-usb-c-docking-station-with-4k-60hz-hdmi

[Caliga]

I played the shit out of my Deck on my business trip to Chicago last week.  Played it nonstop on the flights and in the Uber to the hotel room.  It was great. The dude next to me on my flight up was like 'AWESOME!' when I took it out of its case and booted it up.

[FunkMonk]

It's the greatest handheld gaming device since the original Game Boy.