I saw there was a somewhat similar post to this, but I’m kind of celebrating the fact that this was the first year I was able to game exclusively on Linux! I’m very thankful for all of the effort from the people involved in all of the aspects of Wine/Proton, it’s great to not need to reboot to play games.
It’s a great portable device if you have a good use case for it. I could even see it as a fairly capable primary device with some peripherals. But I’m sure you’ve heard and seen all of that before! :-)
I use it to play in bed. Last year, my split was 75% Linux, 25% Steam Deck, and this year it’s 25% Linux, 75% Steam Deck. So it grew on me quite a bit, and it’s now my primary gaming device.
Yes, in bed is the perfect spot for it! I often use it on the couch or on the back porch as well. And it’s a game changer for when I’m in bed sick too. When I’m feeling half decent I can just grab it for a bit and chase away the boredom, and then put it down just as quickly.
I don’t think I’ll be using as my primary device anytime soon, but there’s always that possibility! I like high resolution monitors and high graphics settings too well on some games!
I honestly don’t care much for graphics settings, and I mostly play older AAAs and indies anyway. Gaming isn’t the primary purpose of my computer, so my GPU is just good enough to make that pleasant (6650XT), and i can usually get decent frames on my 1440p monitor.
So yeah, the Deck is perfect for my use case, especially since I usually play with a controller on PC anyway. I still use my PC for certain games (strategy games, RDR2, and certain shooters), but it’s just really hard to beat the thing sitting on my nightstand.
It does sound like it’s perfect! I enjoy seeing what all people do with their Deck, it’s sometimes pretty impressive. I’ve definitely used mine for retro gaming before, it’s great how capable they can be.
I still haven’t gotten into emulators because there are enough other games to keep me well stocked with fun stuff to play. Maybe I’ll play with it over Christmas break.
It can be very enjoyable if you like some of the older games. I’ve always liked a lot of the SNES games for some reason, and I’m too young to be nostalgic for it! I have myself one of the original consoles and a small game collection, but sometimes it’s nice to use emulation as well.
I love older games. I only played like two games for SNES (borrowed from a friend), but we had an old NES and Sega Genesis that I have a ton of nostalgia for. I actually have a RetroPie system set up in my house (on my TV in my bedroom).
I just haven’t gotten around to configuring emulators on the Deck. I’m sure it’s not hard, I’m just incredibly lazy since I have so many other games that already work OOTB on the Deck (hundreds I haven’t played).
It’s not too hard, but it sounds like you might have some overlap with your current setup at that point. I certainly understand the too many games situation though! We’re very spoiled for choice on that.
Last year I was about 75 linux / 25 deck but this years its 100% deck. In my case the deck is much better than my laptop for gaming but its also so easy to pick up and jump into a game.
My desktop is quite a bit better than the Deck, but the Deck is good enough and more convenient, so it wins. I still play strategy games and other KB+m heavy games on the Deck, hence the 25%.