I’ve installed Emudeck on my device, the process was really easy to follow, here’s a guide.
I just made this post to share info and suggestions on the best games to try. Right now I’m playing a (totally owned) rom of Zelda breath of the wild and so far is flawless (although stuck to 30 fps x some reason). Any suggestion for other good game??
“Install this blob of data that you just download from this random URL” isn’t something I’m ever going to do on any computer I own. Doesn’t Emudeck support something more reasonable like a flatpak?
Tell me more about flatpack. It is a Rom extension? The file i downloaded used was .Xci, played with Yuzu
flatpak is a universal packaging format for linux, and every flatpak app is containerized for improved security
as a bonus you can easily remove almost all traces of an app when you uninstall so there aren’t any annoying leftover files, like you would on Windows
Now as the RetroDECK CM another benefit is it also make it rather easy to move the important data between installations or even take backups.
If you take RetroDECK for example all you need to do move/copy over to a new installation is:
- Move/Copy the RetroDECK datafolder that is either in home/sd-card/external drive/(other place where you put it) to where you want it on the new device.
- Re-install RetroDECK from flathub on the new device.
- During initial setup point to the location where you put the RetroDECK folder.
That is it.
All your roms, saves, scraped data and everything has been moved.
I personally run RetroDECK on my Steam Deck and both my Linux Laptop, Linux Desktop and more in my home.
Hello, RetroDECK is a flatpak.
Flatpacks are very restrictive by design. While this is a good thing in many cases, it makes it very difficult for tools like EmuDeck to work properly. For example, automatically installing other applications (in this case: emulators) isn‘t easily possible. This would make a flatpak version of Emudeck pretty much useless.
While I understand your concerns, I think installing an AppImage which has been built on Github from open source code just isn‘t all that risky.
Emudeck is heavily discouraged and unsupportorted by a good number of emulator dev teams for refusing to cooperate with them. Emudeck builds configuration files for you, not shying away from not recommended settings and causing issues in some emulators and games.
Also, some emulators have their source code edited and the changes are not documented/not public.
Unfortunately I don’t have an external link about it, can only pin point a quite lenghty conversation and support request I had with a couple of the PCSX2 developers that happened in their Discord server. You can jump to the start of the conversation (if you are in the PCSX2 Discord server) using this link.
The conversation started after I asked them for support for the render window not taking the whole screen when attached to a 4:3 monitor, and told me about why they don’t support at all PCSX2 installs made my Emudeck. Duckstation appears to also not support Emudeck for the lack of cooperation from the project.
Interesting. I had actually been using emudeck because they provide a non-retroarch version of Duckstation (since Retroarch is run by a transphobic shithead)
At the end of the day, the platforms I most emulate on my steam deck are PS1 and PS2 with wii u and switch as mostly a “Ha, take that Nintendo. But… there are much better games to play than BOTW so…”. Suspect the answer is to just use steam rom manager and standalone installs and was leaning toward doing that when I eventually upgrade to an OLED.
But this is pretty disappointing and I would love to read more.
you could give emuze a try: https://github.com/bmsuseluda/emuze
i worked on it for about 2 years and released it a few days a go. it is a passion project of mine. maybe you like it 🙃
From your comments, it seems disingenuous to say a good number of emulator devs when it’s really only PCSX2 (and I’m not sure where that statement on refusing to cooperate originated from, which is unfortunate to see). Based off the Discord link you shared, I think you accidentally went into the conversation without a lot of key information (which can be found on EmuDeck’s wiki and GitHub repo).
EmuDeck downloads the AppImage of PSCX2 not the Flatpak. EmuDeck configures only a few things with PCSX2 (namely the renderer which was recently fixed and should now be removed in the config, file paths, and big picture mode). In addition to those, controls and hotkeys are also configured.
To be synchronous with PSCX2’s recommendations, that renderer should be flipped back to auto from vulkan, the big picture flag removed, and the paths to use symlinks instead. Other than those 3 items, there are no real erroneous configurations (that I’m aware of) that should be in disconnect with what PCSX2 wants. These configs shouldn’t affect performance at all. I may PR these 3 items sometime soon, but again these don’t cause any issues in the games themselves.
The PCSX2 auto-updater you mention being broken works completely fine, I don’t know why it doesn’t work on your end. Anyway, I’m not sure of any major conflict with other dev teams. And hopefully a PR with the above fixes should get EmuDeck back in good graces with PCSX2.
And to re-affirm, it’s really important to go into a support conversation understanding the tools you are using, the Discord conversation linked is sort of a hot mess of misinformation (since PCSX2 likely doesn’t use EmuDeck to use their own emulator, the user should know what they’re using to best receive support).
Gameboy advance: advance wars & advance wars2
Metroid Prime Remastered plays almost flawlessly on the Deck. Definitely worth trying either for the nostalgia, or because you missed one of the best GameCube games.
The Prime hack trilogy is also very fun, (but a Wii game).
I also really enjoy Zelda a Link to the past Links Awakening, it also works almost perfectly if you use a newer version of Yuzu.
I mean, there used be a webapp that let you run snes rom files from your Google drive (forgot what it’s called), so I have no doubt that a link to the past could run on anything
I’m talking about the Switch remaster of the game. While the Gameboy or SNES versions work, OP asked about Switch games so I only focused on those.
The steam deck can handle every game on every system from the PS2 and back, most games on the switch and PS3, smattering of Xbox and 360 and everything on PC barring the most graphically intensive AAA titles. Recommendations on that potential scope can go on forever.
If you like Zelda there are a few titles regarded as “must play” in the series, including Ocarina of Time, Link to the Past, Twilight Princess and many more in the “A” tier of Zelda titles. You’ve got probably years of play time just in those.
It kindof starts to snag in the GCN/PS2 era. Smash Bros Melee never gets to an adequate point for me, and Soul calibur 2 usually is fuzzy with slowdown on the windmill-esque level.
I don’t think I was able to get soul calibur 3 to work too well. The dreamcast version of PSO is much smoother than the GCN version, though GCN version is generally good enough.
Dreamcast/N64/Playstation era I’d say is the sweet spot where games aren’t going to have many issues that they wouldn’t have elsewhere.
I would just like to throw in that that PC port of OoT is maybe the best way to enjoy that game on deck. The only downside is no retro achievement support.
How can you play it? I’ve never beat OoT and I’d love to do it on the deck.
You use your own rom and run it with Ship of Harkinian, which allows you add right stick camera controls, better button mappings, and mods for things such as graphical enhancements.
I don’t know how easy it would be to find, but if you manage to get SoH up and running on your deck, I made a community controller configuration for it called “Ocarina of Time - Harkinian Deck: C-button Radial, Config Toggle”.
Basically it works like this:
Right touch pad = “C-button” radial menu
- Remaps LB, Y, RB, and L3 to a C-button-themed radial menu as Left, Up, Right, and Down respectively.
(You will need to remap your C-buttons away from the right stick in Ship of Harkinian if you want to use it for camera controls. You can just use the radial menu to accomplish that.)
Select Button = “Config mode” toggle
- Summons the Ship of Harkinian Config menu.
- Changes the right analog, touch-pad, and triggers to mouse mode.
- Migrates the C-button radial system to the left touch pad so you can still use it for remapping the c-buttons.
- Pressing the button again dismisses the config menu and returns the game to normal “Game mode” controls.
(Don’t close the game with the config mode controls active or you will be stuck with config controls the next time you start the game. Be sure to quit the game with the game mode controls active.)
I made a couple tweaks, so I don’t know if those are reflected in the community config file I shared.
The PC port is called ship of harkinian
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