With the popularity of handheld gaming on the rise, gamers have historically seen very few options with portable gaming, with only the Nintendo Switch availa...
Limited capabilities? I haven’t found a game in my library it couldn’t play locally. The ui is great, the controls work well, and it can even be used to run desktop apps.
I should have qualified: *Limited compared to latest-gen desktop hardware.
Because let’s be honest, no amount of tweaking will get you to that same level. But it’s obviously enjoyable and more than “just playable,” else we’d hear about it from a lot more people. My question was more geared towards “what is it that I’m missing out on” compared to what I have, not to passive aggressively wrinkle my nose at the console.
Well, it’s a great machine for emulators, for one. I setup Retrodeck as a single flatpak, then was able to dump my ROM collection into some folders and it used EmulationStation Desktop Edition combined with some pre-defined mappings and pre-configured emulators to have a retropie-style interface with almost no setup effort on my end (and the setup you do do is well documented on their site).
Now I have my entire library of games, new and old, available to play on a machine with super comfortable controls built-in, in a smaller form factor than a laptop plus controller.
And this is coming from a guy with Moonlight installed on my AndroidTV so I can stream my main gaming rig to it.
RetroDeck is a flatpak and EmuDeck is basically a script that installs a bunch of custom stuff directly and configures it. I like the flatpak ecosystem and it makes more sense to me to do it that way so it’s self-contained. Seems like it’d be cleaner to remove/update/move the installation and less likely to break due to a SteamOS update
EmuDeck is working on Windows/ROG Ally support, while RetroDeck is just for Linux and dev priorities are still fully focused on the Deck
RetroDeck supports a couple fewer systems than EmuDeck, but they both cover all of the ones I care about personally.
@entropicdrift okay, I’m having issues with the rom transfers. The way I have my rom set up is that each game has its older folder. So, RE2 folder has .cue 1 and .cue 2 and the .m3u file. I put that folder in the psx folder and now retrodeck sees it as separate files and the .m3u file won’t launch. Actually , no Psx game launches.
So you’re comparing a $400 portable to a $3k 1000 watt desktop?
Yeah, if you have that desktop and a steam controller, that’s going to play better at home. If you want to play portably, or anywhere in your house like in bed next to your wife, the deck is excellent. You could even stream locally from you PC to the deck while laying in bed.
Mine is only 450-500 at most, and about half that cost (towards when GPUs began to come down). But I was just trying to ascertain how it compares to a gaming rig from current or a generation ago. If it can emulate and do 2D like a champ but struggles with 3D, that would factor into my decision. I don’t mind lowering settings, but I do if they always have to be “Low.” I did my time on a GTX 960M—not doing that again, insomuch as it’s up to me.
But from the other answers, it sounds like it is both capable and has some unique use cases that my SFF desktop couldn’t fill. With the community support and ever-growing list of tweaks and tools, I think it might be on my shortlist for the next sale.
Limited capabilities? I haven’t found a game in my library it couldn’t play locally. The ui is great, the controls work well, and it can even be used to run desktop apps.
I should have qualified: *Limited compared to latest-gen desktop hardware.
Because let’s be honest, no amount of tweaking will get you to that same level. But it’s obviously enjoyable and more than “just playable,” else we’d hear about it from a lot more people. My question was more geared towards “what is it that I’m missing out on” compared to what I have, not to passive aggressively wrinkle my nose at the console.
Well, it’s a great machine for emulators, for one. I setup Retrodeck as a single flatpak, then was able to dump my ROM collection into some folders and it used EmulationStation Desktop Edition combined with some pre-defined mappings and pre-configured emulators to have a retropie-style interface with almost no setup effort on my end (and the setup you do do is well documented on their site).
Now I have my entire library of games, new and old, available to play on a machine with super comfortable controls built-in, in a smaller form factor than a laptop plus controller.
And this is coming from a guy with Moonlight installed on my AndroidTV so I can stream my main gaming rig to it.
@entropicdrift @Telorand why did you choose retro deck over emu deck ?
Couple reasons:
RetroDeck is a flatpak and EmuDeck is basically a script that installs a bunch of custom stuff directly and configures it. I like the flatpak ecosystem and it makes more sense to me to do it that way so it’s self-contained. Seems like it’d be cleaner to remove/update/move the installation and less likely to break due to a SteamOS update
EmuDeck is working on Windows/ROG Ally support, while RetroDeck is just for Linux and dev priorities are still fully focused on the Deck
RetroDeck supports a couple fewer systems than EmuDeck, but they both cover all of the ones I care about personally.
RetroDeck is also more closely partnered with EmulationStation-DE
@entropicdrift is retrodeck ready for use? I haven’t really heard of it compared to emudeck.
IMO it is. They put a bunch of “oh it’s still early days” kinda warnings on their github page but for me it was pretty much plug and play
@entropicdrift okay, I’m having issues with the rom transfers. The way I have my rom set up is that each game has its older folder. So, RE2 folder has .cue 1 and .cue 2 and the .m3u file. I put that folder in the psx folder and now retrodeck sees it as separate files and the .m3u file won’t launch. Actually , no Psx game launches.
Hey, I’m not the guy to ask. For one, I don’t have any PSX games on my deck yet, but also I haven’t had to troubleshoot retrodeck yet.
If I were you I’d ask for help on their discord
@entropicdrift i wish someone did a walk through. I don’t know much about the process involved for retro deck.
Did you want a video or a text walkthrough?
I used the text one. Worked great
So you’re comparing a $400 portable to a $3k 1000 watt desktop?
Yeah, if you have that desktop and a steam controller, that’s going to play better at home. If you want to play portably, or anywhere in your house like in bed next to your wife, the deck is excellent. You could even stream locally from you PC to the deck while laying in bed.
Mine is only 450-500 at most, and about half that cost (towards when GPUs began to come down). But I was just trying to ascertain how it compares to a gaming rig from current or a generation ago. If it can emulate and do 2D like a champ but struggles with 3D, that would factor into my decision. I don’t mind lowering settings, but I do if they always have to be “Low.” I did my time on a GTX 960M—not doing that again, insomuch as it’s up to me.
But from the other answers, it sounds like it is both capable and has some unique use cases that my SFF desktop couldn’t fill. With the community support and ever-growing list of tweaks and tools, I think it might be on my shortlist for the next sale.