(Or: I need to blog more)
Today I got a Steam Deck. If you don’t know what that is, you can Google it. But in short, it’s a decent gaming PC in the form of the Nintendo Switch’s big brother. Made by Valve, the clever people behind the Half Life and Portal games, Steam gaming platform and an early example of employee-friendly working culture.
You can use it entirely as a very powerful handheld, or you can put it into Desktop Mode and use it as a computer. It’s Linux and nice. I’m writing this post on it, in fact. I’m reminded of the time I got a Nexus 7, nearly a decade ago, and decided that was the dawn of a new era of prolific writing. Ah, the folly of youth. Still, it’s nice to know I can do that.
But yeah, the main use is to log into the Steam games launcher/marketplace and play the games you bought there. If Valve created Steam back in the day to be the “iTunes of gaming”, then I suppose their iPod has finally arrived.
Another thing you can do, as you can see above, is use that PC functionality to log into non-Steam sites and use your games from those too. What a coincidence that the game pictured was released the same year as my Nexus blog post. I swear I have existed since 2013. You can also emulate old consoles, apparently, as long as you have legally backed up your own ROMs. But I obviously wouldn’t know anything about that.
As you would guess with any new toy, I have spent much more time mucking about with the functionality and gazing at its beauty than using it “properly”. But so far it seems pretty good. Valve have been testing Steam games and marking whether they are a-okay to use on Steam Deck, a bit iffy, or not tested/not working. While useful, it is not law, and I’ve used no-no games like Street Fighter V perfectly happily.
So yes, just thought I would mark this momentous occasion.
throughsilver in blog 