naivette

I just wanted to do a write up of my setup on my steam deck, since I had to look up sources in various places, but not one place documented the problems I ran into lol.

I used these two guides:

https://retrogamecorps.com/2022/10/16/steam-deck-emulation-starter-guide/

https://github.com/suchmememanyskill/steam-deck-addons/tree/main/Launcher-multiplatform-game-launcher#install-steam-deck

Emulation: Retrodeck

So for retro emulation, I used Retrodeck (since I didn’t want all the emulated games showing up among the main steam games, and it kept things simple). 

I went into Desktop mode and then opened the “Discovery” app which is an appstore (or flatpack?) for the Linux OS, and looked up Retrodeck under “Emulators” or “Emulation”. I mainly wanted to run PS1 games.

I then used Warpinator (on the deck) and Winpinator (on my PC) to transfer the roms and bios files needed from my computer to the Steam Deck. For the BIOS folder, it’s important to put the bios files under the main folder rather than separating the files in sub-folder (i.e. PS1 bios, etc.). Unless there’s already a sub-folder that was created for it, like the Switch emulator.

After I made sure the bios files and roms were in the correct folders, just booting up Retrodeck from the Steam Library will load into the frontend, where you can access all your retro games.

Non-Linux/Steam Games

I have a ton of itch.io games from one of their charity bundles, and although you can download the official itch.io app, it only lets you download Linux games.

Since the Steam Deck runs all windows games through a Proton translation layer, Windows OS games should work as long as they’re launched through steam.

One method is to manually download itch.io games from the browser, and then manually add them to steam (like on PC).

Another way is to use the Alfae launcher for Linux. Once you download and install Alfae, you can log into itch (and other stores like Epic or GOG), and then use Alfae to download the games and push them to steam using the SteamExporter function of the launcher. It also has the nice function of using your SteamGridDB account to add artwork (albeit cropped) to steam. You can then go from “Desktop Mode” to “Gaming Mode” and the games should show up under non-steam games in your library.

One issue I ran into while using this program is that sometimes it doesn’t unzip the game files it downloads, so while it looks like the game should work, Alfae isn’t mapped to the right .exe game file since the whole folder is still zipped. When this happens, I usually go back into desktop mode, unzip the files, find the game.exe file, and then add that to the Steam library manually. It’s a pain in the ass, but you can then use SteamGridDB’s Boop function to add any art for the games that’s missing. This won’t mess with any of the previously added games.

I’m totally new to linux stuff, but this setup wasn’t too hard! Hopefully this write-up is helpful to someone else too.