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Hornin04

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Anyone have a Steam Deck or thinking of getting the Asus ROG Ally? It's appealing to me as my kids use a Switch, which I like because of the content and their ages. But I have taken about a decade long hiatus from gaming myself and I enjoy sports titles like Madden, shooters like COD and Counter-Strike, and would like a system that can run Hogwarts Legacy with top graphics (unlike the purported switch version coming out this summer). I'd like the option of playing on a TV with wireless controllers but also using a mouse and keyboard if I want to for shooters. I don't know how much I'd actually use it as a handheld, but it seems like it would be easy to take on the road, to the office or even to hide from my kids so they couldn't play titles I don't want them to play.

 

I also see the ROG Ally as something I could dock and use as a computer for Microsoft office, web browsing, etc.

 

I previously debated just getting a budget gaming PC but this sounds more versatile, and offers more of a game system feel that I could use with the kids on the couch with the big screen TV.

 

Price isn't bad on the Ally either. Seems to me that Ally is better than Steam deck with capabilities but worse for battery and interface (although I don't think steam deck would be an easy to use docked PC).

 

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17 hours ago, Horny04 said:

 

Anyone have a Steam Deck or thinking of getting the Asus ROG Ally? It's appealing to me as my kids use a Switch, which I like because of the content and their ages. But I have taken about a decade long hiatus from gaming myself and I enjoy sports titles like Madden, shooters like COD and Counter-Strike, and would like a system that can run Hogwarts Legacy with top graphics (unlike the purported switch version coming out this summer). I'd like the option of playing on a TV with wireless controllers but also using a mouse and keyboard if I want to for shooters. I don't know how much I'd actually use it as a handheld, but it seems like it would be easy to take on the road, to the office or even to hide from my kids so they couldn't play titles I don't want them to play.

 

I also see the ROG Ally as something I could dock and use as a computer for Microsoft office, web browsing, etc.

 

I previously debated just getting a budget gaming PC but this sounds more versatile, and offers more of a game system feel that I could use with the kids on the couch with the big screen TV.

 

Price isn't bad on the Ally either. Seems to me that Ally is better than Steam deck with capabilities but worse for battery and interface (although I don't think steam deck would be an easy to use docked PC).

 

TBH if you're looking for a useful and dockable mobile computer, DeX on a Samsung device is actually pretty fuckin solid.

 

I've been eyeing getting a Steam Deck (or comparable device) but I settled on waiting a hardware cycle or two. A buddy of mine has one and he LOVES it

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27 minutes ago, Horny04 said:

Interesting... I haven't used Dex but have an S23 ultra. What kind of gaming can I do on a monitor with a keyboard/mouse using my phone? Dex works with TV gaming using a controller

If you have GeForce now, you can do full on PC game streaming from one of their servers, or use xbox's cloud game streaming service. 

Idk if there's really any native games that are built for KBM controls, but in my experience the game streaming usually just works. 

 

Productivity wise, I've used DeX with a virtual desktop client to have a full desktop computer inside the company VPN, all being accessed from my S21U. It's a fantastic back pocket option for traveling if you don't mind lugging around accessories 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have a Steam Deck, and it's been great to travel with. I've also used it on a dock as my primary computer for a couple weeks when I had to RMA the motherboard in my gaming desktop. I have no regrets buying one.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I picked up a steam deck during the summer sale - it's fantastic! Proton is a surprisingly capable compatibility layer, and I was able to get BattleNet and Diablo 4 running on it no problemo. Instantly picked up that I was using a controller, and that was that.

My wife is looking forward to playing through Bioshock and the Uncharted games on it

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have had a Steam Deck since last April (was in one of the middle preorder windows) and has been my only gaming PC since. Hadn't really touched PC gaming for years but had a fairly sizable back catalog of older games on Steam that just about all work fantastically on the Deck. Running it mostly handheld recently but at one point was using it docked quite often to play RTS games (Age of Empires and Starcraft) and some olderish Battlefield titles and even some Counter Strike on a bigger monitor with mouse and keyboard. Wish I had gotten the 512gb model or they had a 1TB option as 256 ran out quicker than expected even with multiple SD Cards as well for less frequently played games. Emulation of all kinds of older non steam games is fantastic through some of the available options like EMU deck

Overall 120% satisfied, brought me all the way back into PC gaming after a long absence, and now can play games I would have never imagined playing on the couch, on the airplane, needing a break from work at the home office, waiting for dumb car shit to get fixed at the mechanic waiting room, etc. 

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34 minutes ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Have had a Steam Deck since last April (was in one of the middle preorder windows) and has been my only gaming PC since. Hadn't really touched PC gaming for years but had a fairly sizable back catalog of older games on Steam that just about all work fantastically on the Deck. Running it mostly handheld recently but at one point was using it docked quite often to play RTS games (Age of Empires and Starcraft) and some olderish Battlefield titles and even some Counter Strike on a bigger monitor with mouse and keyboard. Wish I had gotten the 512gb model or they had a 1TB option as 256 ran out quicker than expected even with multiple SD Cards as well for less frequently played games. Emulation of all kinds of older non steam games is fantastic through some of the available options like EMU deck

Overall 120% satisfied, brought me all the way back into PC gaming after a long absence, and now can play games I would have never imagined playing on the couch, on the airplane, needing a break from work at the home office, waiting for dumb car shit to get fixed at the mechanic waiting room, etc. 

Yeah, I'm a big playing on the couch while wife watches tv on weeknights kind of guy and already have a list of about 30 older games that I've never finished, so I'm pretty excited about that.

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1 hour ago, Evil Bill Obrien said:

Overall 120% satisfied, brought me all the way back into PC gaming after a long absence, and now can play games I would have never imagined playing on the couch, on the airplane, needing a break from work at the home office, waiting for dumb car shit to get fixed at the mechanic waiting room, etc. 

What's funny is that it's actually Linux gaming, not PC gaming! Valve has done some incredible engineering with Proton to get windows compatibility working so smoothly

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14 minutes ago, Captainant said:

What's funny is that it's actually Linux gaming, not PC gaming! Valve has done some incredible engineering with Proton to get windows compatibility working so smoothly

It's borderline Apple levels of magic how well Proton works most of the time. Cudos to Valve and the Proton team. 

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Wish I had seen this topic earlier as I was on the fence around the time of OP about getting a Steam Deck. Picked one up during the sale in July and it's been fantastic. Lot of great extras to load up on it and being able to use the dock (and take a dock with you) let's you setup shop pretty much anywhere you go.

I need to look more into how to download episodes and videos from the streaming services so I have them on hand. I think if I go that route it would be in my best interest to have a dedicated memory card just for shows.

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Steam Deck is one of the single best purchases I've made in the last 10 years. It's pretty amazing when you buy one, and actually get it, and suddenly have hundreds of games that weren't portable before, but suddenly are. Everyone raves about how well it performs and stuff, but to me, the best feature is the instant sleep function. It's what makes it actually killer. Press the button on the top, and it instantly goes to sleep, and press it again, and it instantly wakes up. And it does so anywhere -- in game, in menu, in a web browser. It's so fast that it makes it so you can lean on it and use the sleep function pretty liberally, unlike with like a laptop or tablet where it might take 5-10 seconds to actually sleep and wake up right. I keep my steam deck with me in a little backpack and take it out all the time when I got downtime, like on the bus and shit. It has made me actually able to play some of those monster long games that I'd always wanted to play, like Witcher 3, but never had time to sit down and actually devote a night to.

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  • 4 months later...

Checking in to say that my steam deck has been one hell of a CRPG machine! I've played through all of BG3 and I'm now working through Rogue Trader, and it's an absolute delight! The latest firmware also gave a nice performance bump for using FSR to upscale games, I'm able to hit a ready 60fps in most games on medium to high settings 

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  • 2 months later...

No one?

Well, I have to fly halfway around the world twice this year and reports are that while the Ally outperforms the Steam deck in nearly every way, it's an absolute pig when it comes to power consumption so I might go with the Steam deck to keep me occupied during flights.

So I guess the OLED model is the way to go?

How much gaming time are you guys getting out of your deck?

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On 2/21/2024 at 10:19 AM, ajax said:

No one?

Well, I have to fly halfway around the world twice this year and reports are that while the Ally outperforms the Steam deck in nearly every way, it's an absolute pig when it comes to power consumption so I might go with the Steam deck to keep me occupied during flights.

So I guess the OLED model is the way to go?

How much gaming time are you guys getting out of your deck?

Everything I've read is that while the Ally has better specs on paper, Valve has really done the yeomans work to make the steam deck incredibly easy to use. If you're getting a steam deck now, definitely get the OLED

I can get a good 3 hours on a big fancy 3D game, and 4 or 5 on a less demanding game. That said, I pretty much always have a battery brick or wall charger hand when flying so battery is less of a problem I've found. 

But for context, I've played through all of BG3 on my steam deck and my wife is able to play all the Skyrim her heart desires

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I just pulled the trigger on a 1tb steam deck which should keep me busy on my flights.

I think the next step up is to use these display glasses instead of the steam deck screen because bending your neck down during long flights is painful.

But I think I'm going to wait until they improve the technology and it comes down in price.

Xreal-Air2-Glasses-THUMB5SM.jpg.423329c4c03aefc4be2e9d330d04f164.jpg

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Various reviews have said the same thing about the steam deck and every handheld gaming devices on flights. 

It's the issue of the display being at hand level. You either hand to bend your neck down to hand level to view the screen or hold the display up at eye level for hours and hours, which sucks.

I think I have an idea, other than the ar glasses. I'll get a stand to keep the deck on the food tray and an external controller so I can keep my hands low and relaxed.

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28 minutes ago, ajax said:

Various reviews have said the same thing about the steam deck and every handheld gaming devices on flights. 

It's the issue of the display being at hand level. You either hand to bend your neck down to hand level to view the screen or hold the display up at eye level for hours and hours, which sucks.

I think I have an idea, other than the ar glasses. I'll get a stand to keep the deck on the food tray and an external controller so I can keep my hands low and relaxed.

tbh that sounds pretty bulky. The deck as it is is not a small thing in a backpack, and a controller with it would take up most of my backpack

I've brought it along for a 5 hour flight and it was nice to split up my time between watching something and playing something so I could be active or inactive brain - and I didn't really get fatigued since I wouldn't be in one posture for the whole flight

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58 minutes ago, ajax said:

Various reviews have said the same thing about the steam deck and every handheld gaming devices on flights. 

It's the issue of the display being at hand level. You either hand to bend your neck down to hand level to view the screen or hold the display up at eye level for hours and hours, which sucks.

I think I have an idea, other than the ar glasses. I'll get a stand to keep the deck on the food tray and an external controller so I can keep my hands low and relaxed.


I have a switch (with travel case), anker battery bank that will last for a 10hr flight, a miniscule kick stand to hold the switch, and my pro controller.

Plus I take the dock and battery pack.

Sounds like a lot, but most shit fits in the travel case, minis dock/controller/hdmi cable.

Backpack is a travel pro, and plenty of room for that. Love it. Especially since the laptop compartment zips out and you can lay it flat and skip a bin at TSA.

Also have lap top, roku, and a cat6 cable, plus anything else for the trip.

May not be everyones cup of tea, but it works and is great on long flights.

On shorter flights I’ll just watch something. Either on their screen or my tablet. 

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25 minutes ago, Captainant said:

lulz I just noticed the Steve from GamersNexus just put out a big comparison video between all the devices you're considering Ajax

 

Thanks. I think I made the right choice with the OLED 1tb. That SD card burnout is a no go. And I think the windows side of the market is going to be flooded with competitors and better units.

And on flights, I don't think the outlets on the planes push out enough juice to power the Ally without drain.

30 minutes ago, Captainant said:

tbh that sounds pretty bulky. The deck as it is is not a small thing in a backpack, and a controller with it would take up most of my backpack

I think I'm willing to put up with the bulk. The last time I flew 20+ hours my neck was hurting for days from using my phone, and I tend not to watch movies on flights. 

I have two 20+ hour, round trip flights this year. One is a business trip and the other is a family reunion, so neither trip was my choice. I'm trying to reduce my suffering as much as possible with some in flight gaming.

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On 2/25/2024 at 11:27 AM, ajax said:

I have two 20+ hour, round trip flights this year. One is a business trip and the other is a family reunion, so neither trip was my choice. I'm trying to reduce my suffering as much as possible with some in flight gaming.

You’ll spend the whole time playing the new Stardew Valley update that’s coming out next month, won’t you?

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15 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

You’ll spend the whole time playing the new Stardew Valley update that’s coming out next month, won’t you?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley

Spoiler

Players interact with non-player characters (NPCs) that inhabit the town, including engaging in relationships with them; this can culminate in marriage, which results in the NPC helping the player's character to tend the farm. After marriage, players may have the chance to conceive a child with their spouse, or adopt one in the case of same-sex marriage.

Sounds like a farm simulator for girls

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8 hours ago, ajax said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley

  Hide contents

Players interact with non-player characters (NPCs) that inhabit the town, including engaging in relationships with them; this can culminate in marriage, which results in the NPC helping the player's character to tend the farm. After marriage, players may have the chance to conceive a child with their spouse, or adopt one in the case of same-sex marriage.

Sounds like a farm simulator for girls

Wallace Shawn Reaction GIF by CBS

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Posted (edited)
On 2/20/2024 at 12:38 PM, ajax said:

Anybody have the ROG Ally? It looks superior to the Steam deck in terms of specs and it's not limited to the Steam catalog. Problem is you have to wrestle with Windows 11, or so I've heard.

The steam deck is not limited to just steam games. I have lots of non-steam games running on my steam deck just fine. Steam Proton will run *anything* in linux, not just steam stuff. All you have to do is go into the steam menu and add your stuff as a non-steam game, and it'll work, complete with steam overlay and gamepad support.

Aside from the usual non-steam stuff you'd expect like GoG and EA and such, you can also run windows-only indie games on the steam deck just fine. Like, I put Another Metroid 2 Remake on my Steam Deck no problem. And what's funny is it was actually even easier to just add the windows version of AM2R instead of going through the trouble of installing the linux version!

  

On 2/25/2024 at 10:18 AM, ajax said:

Various reviews have said the same thing about the steam deck and every handheld gaming devices on flights. 

It's the issue of the display being at hand level. You either hand to bend your neck down to hand level to view the screen or hold the display up at eye level for hours and hours, which sucks.

I think I have an idea, other than the ar glasses. I'll get a stand to keep the deck on the food tray and an external controller so I can keep my hands low and relaxed.

I have a dock for my steam deck that does this. I got one early so it's pretty no-frills (it adds an ethernet port, 3 USB ports, and 2 video out ports - 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort), but they have some 3rd party ones that even embed power bricks into the dock so your dock acts as a second battery for the deck. Neat stuff.

Also, if you go this route, I'd recommend buying an 8bitdo controller. The Xbox controllers connect through bluetooth and constantly drop connections in my experience. You can get around this by buying an Xbox controller dongle, which lets you connect the controller through microsoft's proprietary wireless connection instead of bluetooth and it becomes rock solid, but the downside is you have to install a driver called xone on your steam deck. And that involves quite a bit lof linux that I don't think the average person would be down for. As in, you have to go to the desktop mode, and download the driver source from github and build it from scratch using make. And before you do all that, you have to unlock the steam deck (valve locks down the rootfs in linux so the average person doesn't accidentally fuck it up and brick their deck), and every time the deck updates, you have to do the entire process again. Which brings me back to the 8bitdo controller -- it looks and feels almost exactly like the xbox controller, except it has extra buttons on the back, and hall-effect joysticks so they never drift, and it comes with it's own dongle for the dock that they made specifically to work with the steam deck, so its all plug and play. Can't recommend the 8bitdo controller enough.

Edited by WelfareBuysMyWeed
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15 hours ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Also, if you go this route, I'd recommend buying an 8bitdo controller.

Thanks. I already have the 8bitdo hall effect controller on the way to me.

I got the Steam Deck over the weekend. I thought I'd start small with a cheapo game like a truck simulator. Turns out I really like driving a virtual truck. This thing is addicting.

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28 minutes ago, ajax said:

Thanks. I already have the 8bitdo hall effect controller on the way to me.

I got the Steam Deck over the weekend. I thought I'd start small with a cheapo game like a truck simulator. Turns out I really like driving a virtual truck. This thing is addicting.

That game is incredible. Do you have the texas dlc? It blew my mind when nasa road 1 was in the game. Grab the texas pack, install a Ferrari mod, tune into the local texas radio over the internet, and cruise down the highways at 120 mhp. Its incredibly fun.

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1 hour ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

That game is incredible. Do you have the texas dlc? It blew my mind when nasa road 1 was in the game. Grab the texas pack, install a Ferrari mod, tune into the local texas radio over the internet, and cruise down the highways at 120 mhp. Its incredibly fun.

I actually got the Euro version because I thought European cities would be interesting to look at. I might get the US version later.

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10 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

I played Cyberpunk 2077 on my steamdeck at 1080p just fine. Same with Final Fantasy VII remake, same with Crash Bandicoot 4, same with God of War, same with Spider Man: Miles Morales, same with Baldur's Gate 3, same with Horizon: Zero Dawn. It is definitely not for "lower end" games, and resolution is not at all the deciding factor in how well the games run. When *NOT* docked, you have to carefully manage your graphics setting vs your TDP because if you crank it too high, you'll eat your battery in 30 minutes, but in a dock, that doesn't matter at all. Let the Steam Deck eat all the electricity it wants, and you can push it to 1080p just fine, so long as you aren't trying to run everything on ultra graphics setting. Fact is, PS5 and Xbox Series games already run in a mix of low to medium settings, matching them with the Steam Deck and capping your framerate at, say, 40 FPS on a 120hz monitor, they play just fine.

Moving my reply to the steam deck thread lol. 

When I'm playing handheld on the couch or whatever, I almost always have a USB-C power cord within arms reach that can put out 65W for the deck. If I'm playing on a big screen, I stream my desktop to the TV and get 1440p with HDR.

That's crazy the deck does so well driving a large display though, I assumed out of hand that the APU wouldn't be up for the numbers of pixels

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2 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Moving my reply to the steam deck thread lol. 

When I'm playing handheld on the couch or whatever, I almost always have a USB-C power cord within arms reach that can put out 65W for the deck. If I'm playing on a big screen, I stream my desktop to the TV and get 1440p with HDR.

That's crazy the deck does so well driving a large display though, I assumed out of hand that the APU wouldn't be up for the numbers of pixels

The main limitations of the steam deck with modern games is the shader unit count. At only 512 shading units vs, say, an RTX 2080 having 2944 shading units as a mid-range card, you are mainly bound by special effects heavy vertex and fragment shaders. But in terms of pixel throughput and threading, the Steamdeck stands up to modern consoles well. The reason people like to hang around 720p resolution is because for some special effects that use the entire screen buffer as an input, you can choke your shader units because they have to work on every fragment (read: pixel) of the screen. But quite a few modern games will let you lower the resolution of special effect buffers, while the final output image of the game is still 1080p. So you might have a 1080p image, but, say, the buffer that shadows are rendered at, which uses a stencil shader, will be at a lower resolution. That get hidden in game menus as "low quality shadows." You basically have to get a feel for what options in games tend to most heavily stress your shader count, but beyond that, the resolution can be pumped up just fine. And, again, capping the framerate with the built in options on the steam deck really helps -- framerate responsiveness works on an exponential curve, so the jump from 30 fps to 40 fps feels bigger than the jump from 40 fps to 60 fps. Anything that can divide evenly by the framerate is ok, so any 120hz TV can cap at 40 fps with no screen tearing just fine, and it'll feel much more responsive than 30 fps while providing a huge performance boost.

At 4k, however, things indeed do get pretty hairy because at that sort of resolution, you really are running up against the pixel throughput limit of the steamdeck. You can use FSR 2.0 if a game supports it to us ML to upscale the image to 4k in games, but not every game supports FSR 2.0, so it's sort of hit or miss (and FSR doesn't perform as well as nvidia's proprietary solution anyways).

The very best thing about the Steam Deck is the individual thread performance of the APU. Only 4 cores/8 threads (SMT), but each core runs fast and is performant. So on the CPU side of things, it can keep up just fine with any CPU heavy application, especially things like emulation. The Steam deck can run Yuzu to emulate the switch pretty well, for example.

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On 3/4/2024 at 3:27 PM, Captainant said:

Moving my reply to the steam deck thread lol. 

When I'm playing handheld on the couch or whatever, I almost always have a USB-C power cord within arms reach that can put out 65W for the deck. If I'm playing on a big screen, I stream my desktop to the TV and get 1440p with HDR.

That's crazy the deck does so well driving a large display though, I assumed out of hand that the APU wouldn't be up for the numbers of pixels

What are you using to stream desktop to tv?

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Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, elfenix said:

What are you using to stream desktop to tv?

I use Moonlight as the client on my TV, and Nvidia has a built in PCOIP protocol called Game stream that Moonlight is compatible with. You can also use an open source mechanism like Sunshine on your host PC to stream to the TV

It takes a little bit of one-time setup to install the client and get everything in place, but once it's there it's just: make sure your PC is on and on the network, then start your Moonlight client on whatever device you're on, and away you go. 

It plays nice with steams big picture mode natively, but if the game as a 3rd party launcher (like an EA game) youll have to go to the desktop and then launch the game, rather than going through big picture

 

Edit: I also did this on my steam deck for finishing my first playthrough of BG3 before they had the Act3 patch out. It was seamless to play the game (hosted on my PC) remotely on the deck, or any other game you want to play on the couch, but the deck can't handle

Edited by Captainant
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1 hour ago, elfenix said:

maybe i need to try nvidia's built in solution, using sunshine with moonlight was a little bit laggy for me. 

In my experience they're pretty same/same performance wise, it's the network itself that usually makes the biggest impact. My PC and TV are both on the same ethernet LAN so there's like 1 or 2ms of lag between source and client and a gigabit of solid throughput to handle HDR passthrough 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Figured there was a Surly thread on this subject. I finally ordered the AYN Odin 2 Pro after researching all week. Didn’t realize how far along this type of tech had come besides a vague understanding of the Steam Deck. Looking forward to my attempts at emulating some of my favorite PS2/PSP games and getting the NCAA Next 06 mod to work, then seeing what else I can do from there. Also will be nice for Xbox remote play.

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Posted (edited)
19 hours ago, CashMcCoy said:

Figured there was a Surly thread on this subject. I finally ordered the AYN Odin 2 Pro after researching all week. Didn’t realize how far along this type of tech had come besides a vague understanding of the Steam Deck. Looking forward to my attempts at emulating some of my favorite PS2/PSP games and getting the NCAA Next 06 mod to work, then seeing what else I can do from there. Also will be nice for Xbox remote play.

Looks like it's android based? Probably a pretty nice emulator and game streaming box, but at that price point you could instead get a Steam deck and have access to the same emulators AND run x86 games natively

Edited by Captainant
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11 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Looks like it's android based? Probably a pretty nice emulator and game streaming box, but at that price point you could instead get a Steam deck and have access to the same emulators AND run x86 games natively

Plus I guarantee you getting those emulators to work is ten times easier on the Steam Deck than any android device, because the Steam Deck has EmuDeck which turns it all into a one click process: https://www.emudeck.com/

And even if you don't want to mess with desktop mode to get emudeck installed, Retro Arch itself is on steam directly:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118310/RetroArch/

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3 hours ago, Captainant said:

Looks like it's android based? Probably a pretty nice emulator and game streaming box, but at that price point you could instead get a Steam deck and have access to the same emulators AND run x86 games natively

 

3 hours ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Plus I guarantee you getting those emulators to work is ten times easier on the Steam Deck than any android device, because the Steam Deck has EmuDeck which turns it all into a one click process: https://www.emudeck.com/

And even if you don't want to mess with desktop mode to get emudeck installed, Retro Arch itself is on steam directly:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118310/RetroArch/

Was a tough call but really it came down to my preference for the Odin’s size/portability and Switch-like layout. The Steam Deck is just such a unit. Also helps that all my emulation experience in the past has been on Android and I like the OS. Trying to avoid any buyer’s remorse, but I’ve found enough setup guides to give me some hope that I can manage to get what I’m wanting out of it.

If everything goes well then I ever decide to move past retro and cloud gaming, I’ll wait for any potential deals on a Steam Deck and give the Odin to my brother or a friend. Saw there are rumors of the Steam Deck 2 dropping in a couple years.

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23 minutes ago, CashMcCoy said:

 

Was a tough call but really it came down to my preference for the Odin’s size/portability and Switch-like layout. The Steam Deck is just such a unit. Also helps that all my emulation experience in the past has been on Android and I like the OS. Trying to avoid any buyer’s remorse, but I’ve found enough setup guides to give me some hope that I can manage to get what I’m wanting out of it.

If everything goes well then I ever decide to move past retro and cloud gaming, I’ll wait for any potential deals on a Steam Deck and give the Odin to my brother or a friend. Saw there are rumors of the Steam Deck 2 dropping in a couple years.

Sorry, wasn't trying to dissuade you against the Odin, those kinds of android handhelds are neat as well. I think Ayn actually makes a hybrid android/x86 machine as well, although it doesn't perform as well as a steam deck or rog ally or comparable.

Really it's not the steam deck itself that is so awesome (although the instant suspend-resume is a killer feature), it's steamOS that is the killer feature. And while you can't straight up install steamOS on other machines, you can install HoloOS which is a community equivalent, or just throw ubuntu or similar on there and then install steam and it'll work the same way. It's the big picture mode stuff, and the steam proton stuff, that makes the "Steam deck" so killer, and that can be used on any x86 portable. That's the single coolest thing about all these PC handhelds -- it really doesn't matter which manufacturer you go with, they're all interoperable and play the same games. In the future, there could be a different x86 handheld not made by valve that would be just as recommended as the steam deck, because the software is what is special.

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52 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Sorry, wasn't trying to dissuade you against the Odin, those kinds of android handhelds are neat as well. I think Ayn actually makes a hybrid android/x86 machine as well, although it doesn't perform as well as a steam deck or rog ally or comparable.

Really it's not the steam deck itself that is so awesome (although the instant suspend-resume is a killer feature), it's steamOS that is the killer feature. And while you can't straight up install steamOS on other machines, you can install HoloOS which is a community equivalent, or just throw ubuntu or similar on there and then install steam and it'll work the same way. It's the big picture mode stuff, and the steam proton stuff, that makes the "Steam deck" so killer, and that can be used on any x86 portable. That's the single coolest thing about all these PC handhelds -- it really doesn't matter which manufacturer you go with, they're all interoperable and play the same games. In the future, there could be a different x86 handheld not made by valve that would be just as recommended as the steam deck, because the software is what is special.

No worries, I appreciate any insight. Been reminiscing about my PSP for years while living under a rock in regard to the capabilities of these modern handhelds, and now I can’t stop reading about them. After getting burnt out last year due to work/life and Madden connected franchise shitshows, grinding on Palworld and the upcoming CFB25 release have helped me rediscover my video game enjoyment. Plus my sneaker hobby has gone too far so this is my best attempt to fill the postgrad void.

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If all you are looking for is PSP or PS1 or N64 or earlier emulators, look at the R36s on Aliexpress. Picked one up a few weeks back on sale for 30 bucks, and it is a blast. Tony Hawk Pro Skater plus all the Mario Titles and Goldeneye in my pocket.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apple finally allowing emulators for iPads and iPhones 

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/04/17/game-emulator-delta-arrives-on-app-store-after-controversies

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/delta-game-emulator/id1048524688

Supported Game Systems

• Nintendo Entertainment System

• Super Nintendo Entertainment System

• Nintendo 64

• Game Boy (Color)

• Game Boy Advance

• Nintendo DS

• And plenty more to come!

Controller Support

• Nintendo Switch Pro controllers, Joy-Cons

• Nintendo Switch Online controllers (NES, SNES, N64)

• PS4, PS5

• Xbox One S, Xbox Series X

• MFi game controllers

• Bluetooth & wired keyboards

Save States

• Save and load save states for any game from the pause menu.

• Lock save states to prevent them from being accidentally overwritten.

• Automatically makes backup save states to ensure you never lose your progress.

• Support for “Quick Saves,” save states that can be quickly saved/loaded with a single button press (requires external controller).

Cheats

• Supports various types of cheat codes for each supported system:

• NES: Game Genie

• SNES: Game Genie, Pro Action Replay

• N64: GameShark

• GBC: Game Genie, GameShark

• GBA: Action Replay, Code Breaker, GameShark

• DS: Action Replay

Delta Sync

• Sync your games, game saves, save states, cheats, controller skins, and controller mappings between devices.

• View version histories of everything you sync and optionally restore them to earlier versions.

• Supports both Google Drive and Dropbox.

Custom Controller Skins

• Beautiful built-in controller skins for all systems.

• Import controller skins made by others, or even make your own to share with the world!

Hold Button

• Choose buttons for Delta to hold down on your behalf, freeing up your thumbs to press other buttons instead.

• Perfect for games that typically require one button be held down constantly (e.g. run button in Mario games, or the A button in Mario Kart).

Fast Forward

• Speed through slower parts of games by running the game much faster than normal.

• Easily enable or disable from the pause menu, or optionally with a mapped button on an external controller.

3D/Haptic Touch

• Use 3D or Haptic Touch to “peek” at games, save states, and cheat codes.

• App icon shortcuts allow quick access to your most recently played games, or optionally customize the shortcuts to always include certain games.

Game Artwork

• Automatically displays appropriate box art for imported games.

• Change a game’s artwork to anything you want, or select from the built-in game artwork database.

Misc.

• Gyroscope support (WarioWare: Twisted! only)

• Microphone support (DS only)

• Support for delta:// URL scheme to jump directly into a specific game.

 

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
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