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??
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.
Any good alternative to try? Can you post some link about this issues??
the closest alternative is RetroDeck
Retrodeck for me too. I found the devs very helpful and approachable. The work they are doing with the EmulationStation DE devs is making both better and really taking controller support to the next level.
I use it and it’s pretty good. They are open to people’s idea.
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.
But what are the current alternatives? Really seems like the options are either using Emudeck or a whole lot more work
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).
I’ve not had any problems with it and I found it super easy to setup and use
I recommend retrodeck. They seeme to really care about emulating. And the devs really talk to pieople all of the time. They need help with more devs to support their work.
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.
Emudeck was my main reason for picking up a steam deck. Figured I could get an archive of retro games, and then build up a library of indie games over time.
I have to do some troubleshooting to get PS1 and PS2 games working, but that is probably just getting bios files. Just downloaded so many games that I am working through that even when something doesn’t work immediately I have more than enough options to be entertained.
I want to try God of war 1 and 2. Maybe even the 3 if the ps3 emulator can run it.
I’m unsure of the viability of this suggestion but epsxe has always netted good results for me (Ps1, android). I’d like to think installing it on Steam wouldn’t be too problematic.
epsxe is extremely old by now and not updated. Your current best choice is Duckstation
“Extremely old now and not updated”
…Sounds exactly like me! Good to know, thanks!
What’s the difference between emudeck and retrodeck? I’ve been using retrodeck and enjoying it quite a lot.
As I recall, retro deck installs an emulation hub that you go into, and then choose what to emulate.
Emudeck installs a bunch of individual emulators and configures them, and also sets up roms so they show up as standalone games in your library. The end result is the games feel like steam games, and you rarely have to mess with anything showing them to be emulated titles.
Emudeck also installs EmulationStation. You can choose to access your games and not by integrating then into Steam. Just like Retrodeck.
And Decky Loader has several Emudeck plugins, but I don’t recall seeing any for emulation platforms.
Fubarberry
RetroDECK is a flatpak application that builds in a variety of emulators and systems into one app you can download from flathub.
We are also working on the “Add to Steam” function. You can read more about it in the links posted in other replies in this thread :)
I may have to check out emudeck then. I’m not sure if retrodeck can do that too, but I like the idea of it treating roms as standalone games in my library. I might end up running some games as part of retrodeck, and some from emudeck.
Not a contest, really. Post the link I’ll check that too 👌. What retro game you play??
It’s in the Discover app, just do a search for it! I like the fact that it has a scraper for getting box art, game metadata, etc.
As for what I’ve been playing, recently finished Jet Set Radio Future and I’ve been playing Luigi’s Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine, along with some og Animal Crossing (I love that the villagers have no problems with insulting you).
http://retrodeck.net/ I’ll check it.
Last I heard breath of the wild ran MUCH better using the Wii u version in cemu, that’s how I originally set mine up and it runs great, and some mods make it even better. That said if you’re on switch make sure you’re not running it in docked mode, it’s capped at 30. I believe both yuzu and ryujinx let you set that on a global or per game basis. Then tears of the kingdom is only on switch :) hope this helps!
I love emudeck and emulation on the deck. The Metroid prime trilogy using primehack is SEXY
Should i disable “docked mode” somewhere?
Yup in the controls menu if I remember right (there is a quick toggle key for it but I can’t remember what that is)
For yuzu, there’s a Key comand [Start + 🔼] now I just have to figure it what is the start Key on the Steam Deck. But all considered the game graphics looks a little bit better on Ruyjinx. The edge of Link are a bit white and grainy on Yuzu (ofc you have to look very closely to notice that)
Edit
After a couple of try i find out how disable the fps lock on Yuzu but the games animation and motion run faster than intended (like a 2x video speed). From what can I see, both Yuzu and Ryujin are good to play, Ryu is more focused on graphic fedelity, and Yuzu gives better fps.
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 pastLinks 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.
Do you mean Link’s Awakening?
🤦♂️ …yes lol
Ah, gotcha
I suggest Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island from SNES. Amazing game with a killer soundtrack.
Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy
Like many others, I highly suggest Retrodeck instead of EmuDeck. Not only it is a flawless experience, but having it all packaged in a flatpak means it won’t scatter files around for every emulator which are then hard to clean up (like EmuDeck does, usually).
But is easy to create a .flatpak rom from an original iso?
You got it a bit confused! Flatpak is not a way to store roms, but a way to deliver the software (RetroDeck) onto your device. Retrodeck, once installed, will create a “retrodeck” folder in your steam deck filesystem, which will again contain folders for roms.
All you need to do at that point is to place rom files inside already existing folders for their own systems (psx, psp, etc). Those files can be of many filetypes. For example, psx roms can be in chd, cue/bin, iso, etc
It is as straightforward as it can get!
I haven’t been able to get Xbox 360 to work. I really want to play forza horizon 1
That would be sick, but Forza barely works with Xenia on my PC with decent specs lol
Gameboy advance: advance wars & advance wars2
Did you try Breath of the Wild on cemu?Itbelievei the steam deck can do >30fps in it.
I used Yuzu, 30fps are good enough for now. Just curious about the controls. The action, jump and fight button are mapped a bit differently from the one on the steams games, it seems that B is mapped instead of A (maybe just a Switch thing).
Edit
Yep, different position. I’ll fix it later.
There are mods for TOTK to display and use the deck layout (or Xbox controller or whatever).
That mod surely exists for BOTW.
It does :)
Do you like turn based JRPGs? You can play Person 3, 4 and 5 on Yuzu. Performance is the same as the switch.
Doesn’t P4G have a PC port?
3, 4, and 5 are all on pc now
I loved it until it randomly stopped working and I never figured out why. Uninstalled, reinstalled and still won’t even open.
Also, the uninstall wiped my library so that was annoying.
“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?
Hello, RetroDECK is a flatpak.
Tell me more about flatpack. It is a Rom extension? The file i
downloadedused was .Xci, played with YuzuFlatpak is the technology that the package manager in desktop mode uses to install software
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.
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.
I … kof! …find, God of War HD collection (1 and 2 remaster.) for ps3. Which ps3 emulator work best on the Deck in your opinion?
The PSP emulator PPSSPP works the best. Potentially, this would be the better choice for this game.
Otherwise, IIRC RPCS3 is the best PS3 emulator. I just find it janky to get it performing well (For Skate 3, at least)
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