this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
391 points (95.8% liked)
PC Gaming
8655 readers
702 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion.
PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates.
(Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources.
If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Do you have a steam account already? Do you have a gaming pc of any variety?
I love my deck, but I'm a nearly 20 year steam user. If you have a backlog and no steam account, why would you give yourself more of a backlog? (Although the emulation ability of the deck is fantastic, but again, why did a bigger back log hole?)
I do have a Steam account and some games bought there (from years ago, I basically stopped because I didn't have a proper PC at that time... And that hasn't changed actually), and so many others from giveaways
The "strongest" PC I have is a MacBook Pro 2014 with Windows 10/boot camp lol (it is almost the highest tier of that model) so yeah, that is basically not having anything (I remember it struggled to run Tomb Raider reboot, one of the games that I bought).
Basically this, I am lacking a proper device that can emulate GCN/Wii/PS2 games in a hybrid way such as the Switch.
I have a Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 that can do some of that and a phone with Snap Dragon 865 which definitely can run those games, but sadly it doesn't have HDMI video out capabilities.
Also yesterday I was messing around with my hacked Switch and saw that Dreamcast and N64 emulation on RetroArch are better than before (I didn't try it too much, but at least Conker Bad Fur Day and Crazy Taxi ran well, both in handheld and docked mode) and that is good and I want that for the consoles I cannot run properly yet.
Also I am a bit disappointed that some PSP games have issues with the latest version available of PPSSPP for the Switch... Android version should be better...
I’ll tell you that while my modded Switch was easily my favorite system, getting a Deck completely made it obsolete for me. It’s been gathering dust ever since.
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re someone that primarily plays Nintendo exclusives then the Switch is still great. But if you mostly just use it to play your games on the go, and modded it to emulate, the Deck is an easy recommendation.
Plus it’s, imo, the best gateway into PC gaming. It’s reasonably powerful, easy to use, and lets you start building a pc library that will stay with you regardless of new game generations. Free multiplayer and sales are also a nice bonus.
If you’re interested you should look into EmuDeck.
The only aspect I think the Deck lacks is the seamless TV input, I suppose there is a dock for it, but something is telling me the games (depending on which ones) won't look as nice as they do in the handheld (opposite as how it is handled in Nintendo)
You can bump the resolution, so that’s not an issue. The only problem is, depending on the game, higher resolutions will be harder to run.
So actually it’ll usually look better than the Switch. Same resolution or higher, with graphics options to make it look even better.
Sounds like a deck is perfect for you, I'd recommend the refurbished 512 led (got one for mom, she's loving it, and hasn't had a single problem), or the smallest LCD and a large memory card.
Emulation is a breeze, and it's a pretty powerful gaming PC in it's own right. I rarely push it, but I've run Witcher 3, which was as good as my 5 year old "gaming"laptop, and baldurs gate 3 runs decently. I've seen my buddy run 'no man's sky' at what looked like buttery 60fps, though he didn't have the overlay turned on. I'd recommend a cheap Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and a kickstand unless you're going to play it hooked up to the TV, then you'll need a pass through power cable and usbc-> TV input adapter (HDMI), or the dock that they sell, but I haven't had reason to try one.