It’s been an absolute game changer for me. I used to do 99% of my gaming on my pc and a little bit via laptop on the couch, but the Deck has now taken up at least 75% of that space. Given I mostly...
It’s been an absolute game changer for me. I used to do 99% of my gaming on my pc and a little bit via laptop on the couch, but the Deck has now taken up at least 75% of that space.
Given I mostly play small indie games and roguelikes, it’s amazing for those and with RetroArch for emulation. But even for stuff like getting StarCraft playable through the blizzard launcher and using the trackpads to play is a wild experiment.
It’s a phenomenal piece of tech and has just the right amount of fiddleyness to it that satisfies my tinkerer brain while not being too crazy. It’s definitely sold me on the capability of Linux as a first party gaming OS.
It really is quite amazing how much linux PC gaming has changed over the last four years, and linux in general has come such a long way. The release of the Steam Deck was such a marker in time,...
It really is quite amazing how much linux PC gaming has changed over the last four years, and linux in general has come such a long way.
The release of the Steam Deck was such a marker in time, too: All my coworkers at my last tech job sat covid-distanced in a circle outside, excitedly talking about all the ways we wanted to toy around with the Steam Deck when it would finally come out. It is surreal where we were vs. where we are, and it's just as dizzying trying to figure out where we'll be in another four years.
I'm honestly kind of amazed it's already been four years. The Steam Deck still feels "new" to me, and tech in general seems to age quicker than other things. I haven't loved a gaming device like...
I'm honestly kind of amazed it's already been four years. The Steam Deck still feels "new" to me, and tech in general seems to age quicker than other things.
I haven't loved a gaming device like this since my Dreamcast.
I wasn't ever much of a handheld gamer, but the Wii U (a.k.a. "The Dreamcast of the 2010s") taught me how great it was to play games in the form factor. I spent hours with Splatoon and Rayman Legends on the gamepad, both of which felt absolutely perfect on the device. The Switch continued that trend. Though I loved both of those devices, I kept thinking "this is nice, but I want to play my Steam library!"
I remember following the SteamBoySmach Zero Smach Z a decade ago, hoping that it wouldn't be vaporware (it was). I almost bought a GPD Win around the same time as well. I tried a bluetooth controller with a Windows tablet as a DIY version, but it wasn't great.
The Steam Deck finally gave me everything I was looking for, including the pleasant surprise of it running on Linux. Steam releasing Proton is what finally let me switch to Linux full-time, and I have fond memories of submitting early ProtonDB reports (back when it was just a shared Google Sheet!), delighting in how many games Just Worked™.
It's truly amazing how far things have come, because these days I don't even bother to submit reports. I'm now surprised when games don't work, rather than being delighted when they do as I had been.
I think it's also noteworthy that the Steam Deck is arguably the first Linux device that has made significant inroads into non-Linuxy territory. A big chunk of my friends have one, and not a single one of them cares about Linux.
In parallel to this, I can't tell you how many times over the 2010s I tried to set up a "one stop emulation shop" for all the old systems. I'd spend hours configuring emulators and setting up the controls and optimizing them, only to not really use my setup because it was clunky. I'd then forget about it, and redo it all over again a few years later, excited at all the progress emulators had made since then, and then the exact same thing would happen.
RetroDECK was the solution I always wanted, and I'm happy to report that I've played far more retro games through it than I ever did through any of the emulators I set up in the decade before. I don't know what it is about early console games, but I simply prefer playing them on a handheld rather than at my PC. They just "fit better" there, you know?
I think one of the smartest choices for the Steam Deck was having the trackpads. I don't use them often, but whenever I do I'm glad they're tere. They smooth over a lot of the friction that comes with a lot of PC games simply assuming you have a mouse for stuff like menus or whatnot.
Anyway, I guess it's a testament to the Steam Deck's staying power that I didn't even realize I've had one for FOUR years now (technically a little less since I had to wait a few months in the initial rollout). I love it. I use it all the time. It does everything I want it to do. On the off chance that I run into a game that doesn't play well on it, I can just stream it from the Windows machine I have using Sunshine/Moonlight. I genuinely do feel like I can play anything on it, making it my one-stop-shop not just for emulation, but for gaming in general.
It’s been an absolute game changer for me. I used to do 99% of my gaming on my pc and a little bit via laptop on the couch, but the Deck has now taken up at least 75% of that space.
Given I mostly play small indie games and roguelikes, it’s amazing for those and with RetroArch for emulation. But even for stuff like getting StarCraft playable through the blizzard launcher and using the trackpads to play is a wild experiment.
It’s a phenomenal piece of tech and has just the right amount of fiddleyness to it that satisfies my tinkerer brain while not being too crazy. It’s definitely sold me on the capability of Linux as a first party gaming OS.
It really is quite amazing how much linux PC gaming has changed over the last four years, and linux in general has come such a long way.
The release of the Steam Deck was such a marker in time, too: All my coworkers at my last tech job sat covid-distanced in a circle outside, excitedly talking about all the ways we wanted to toy around with the Steam Deck when it would finally come out. It is surreal where we were vs. where we are, and it's just as dizzying trying to figure out where we'll be in another four years.
I'm honestly kind of amazed it's already been four years. The Steam Deck still feels "new" to me, and tech in general seems to age quicker than other things.
I haven't loved a gaming device like this since my Dreamcast.
I wasn't ever much of a handheld gamer, but the Wii U (a.k.a. "The Dreamcast of the 2010s") taught me how great it was to play games in the form factor. I spent hours with Splatoon and Rayman Legends on the gamepad, both of which felt absolutely perfect on the device. The Switch continued that trend. Though I loved both of those devices, I kept thinking "this is nice, but I want to play my Steam library!"
I remember following the
SteamBoySmach ZeroSmach Z a decade ago, hoping that it wouldn't be vaporware (it was). I almost bought a GPD Win around the same time as well. I tried a bluetooth controller with a Windows tablet as a DIY version, but it wasn't great.The Steam Deck finally gave me everything I was looking for, including the pleasant surprise of it running on Linux. Steam releasing Proton is what finally let me switch to Linux full-time, and I have fond memories of submitting early ProtonDB reports (back when it was just a shared Google Sheet!), delighting in how many games Just Worked™.
It's truly amazing how far things have come, because these days I don't even bother to submit reports. I'm now surprised when games don't work, rather than being delighted when they do as I had been.
I think it's also noteworthy that the Steam Deck is arguably the first Linux device that has made significant inroads into non-Linuxy territory. A big chunk of my friends have one, and not a single one of them cares about Linux.
In parallel to this, I can't tell you how many times over the 2010s I tried to set up a "one stop emulation shop" for all the old systems. I'd spend hours configuring emulators and setting up the controls and optimizing them, only to not really use my setup because it was clunky. I'd then forget about it, and redo it all over again a few years later, excited at all the progress emulators had made since then, and then the exact same thing would happen.
RetroDECK was the solution I always wanted, and I'm happy to report that I've played far more retro games through it than I ever did through any of the emulators I set up in the decade before. I don't know what it is about early console games, but I simply prefer playing them on a handheld rather than at my PC. They just "fit better" there, you know?
I think one of the smartest choices for the Steam Deck was having the trackpads. I don't use them often, but whenever I do I'm glad they're tere. They smooth over a lot of the friction that comes with a lot of PC games simply assuming you have a mouse for stuff like menus or whatnot.
Anyway, I guess it's a testament to the Steam Deck's staying power that I didn't even realize I've had one for FOUR years now (technically a little less since I had to wait a few months in the initial rollout). I love it. I use it all the time. It does everything I want it to do. On the off chance that I run into a game that doesn't play well on it, I can just stream it from the Windows machine I have using Sunshine/Moonlight. I genuinely do feel like I can play anything on it, making it my one-stop-shop not just for emulation, but for gaming in general.