Emulation on the Steam Deck

[Harrison]

I would have liked to use a larger SD card, but I'm keeping costs down at the moment. The 256GB SanDisk cards are only £30 which is a great price for the size. A 1TB is £160 which I'm not willing to spend at the moment.

Plus my Deck has 256GB storage, so total of 512GB at the moment. I'm only going to be installing specific games on the Deck, but a whole library. I'm still playing on buying an Ayn Odin at some point as they are smaller than the Deck and it will be useful for Android gaming as well as emulation so different to the Deck.

And as I have Xbox Gamepass Premium cloud gaming working on the Deck now I don't even need to install every PC game I want to play, so long as it's only for use on Wifi.

[Demon Cleaner]

For me handheld is all about emulation, the PC gaming feature is nice but I'm playing those games on a big TV, as I'm not traveling with trains and busses anyways. I don't need handhelds for that. And if I'm on holidays, I don't play besides when I'm in Finland, which obviously became my second home and there I have time as I don't bring my whole rig there.

I also don't play any Android games, like I mentioned before, my handhelds are solely for retrogaming. What I don't like about the deck is the size, looks very large in comparison to the Odin, and a 6" screen is already amazing for a "retro" handheld console. That's why I'm selling my OneXPlayer, although an amazing console, won't deny that, it's just too big (8.4" screen 2K), and just too heavy to be a true handheld.

So the main question is, if you're home on the couch, in front of your TV, do you use an handheld?? I have the Switch Lite, which I bought first, after that I bought the Switch OLED, to be honest, just for fun or money spending, but if I play at home, why use the Lite? But on the other hand, never thought that, the Lite is a very good handheld, shape, size, weight are just perfect, and the Odin feels right up the same alley. Copied, perhaps, achieved, definitely.

[Harrison]

Why use a handheld at home? Throughout the summer months it's great to sit outside on the garden sofa or in our garden room (log cabin) and game with a handheld. For this the Deck is perfect.

Equally I'm often sitting in the living room with my wife. She wants the company, but often wants to watch something I'm not interested in. So I can do some gaming with a handheld in the same room.

But like you I do use handhelds more for retro gaming than modern games. The handheld formfactor and screensizes lend thenselves to them, and retro games can look great on smaller screens.

Regarding Android games, there are quite a few really nice games released on Android. Many also on iOS. And with Google Play pass, which is similar to Xbox ganepass, for $29 per year you get access to a lot of the paid for games in there. But playing many of them on a tablet or phone, which is what I've been using when out, is fiddly for quite a few of them, and I never got in well with onscreen touch controls to emulate joysticks and buttons. So the Odin will be ideal for me for that.

[Demon Cleaner]

In the living room I’m the boss, if my girlfriend wants to watch TV and I want to play, she leaves and watches on the iPad

But that’s mostly during the week as we both do home office and she works from my office and I work from the veranda which is next to the living room, so I’m just next to it. And as she often works until 8-9 in the evening and I stop a lot earlier it just makes sense. After she stops we eat and there’s perhaps time to watch one episode and then bed again.

[Harrison]

There is already a lot of information for EmuDeck online. From the official site, and other places.

https://wagnerstechtalk.com/sd-emudeck/

This is a great guide site with walkthroughs that even go into how to get files onto the Steam Deck and manage them ready for the emulators.

[Harrison]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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[Demon Cleaner]

I would have liked to use a larger SD card, but I'm keeping costs down at the moment. The 256GB SanDisk cards are only £30 which is a great price for the size. A 1TB is £160 which I'm not willing to spend at the moment.

FYI, Amazon.de is selling their own Amazon Basics 1TB card for 104€ at the moment, that's 89£. 15£ for the 256GB and 41£ for the 512GB, might be interesting.

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08...KR8XB7XF&psc=1

[Harrison]

I only buy Sandisk or Samsung SD cards.

[Demon Cleaner]

I only buy Sandisk or Samsung SD cards.

Wow

[Harrison]

Just a bit paranoid about reliability. I know cards to store games on a handheld are not really precious or valuable data as such. I suppose it comes from using SD card for photography for years and Sandisk being the only really reliable brand.