Mangohud on the Deck has different layouts built in, the 3rd option iirc is horizontal. There’s also a Decky plugin to let you create custom mangohud layouts from inside game mode.

XenoTilt and DemonsTilt are fantastic, and my 8 year old loved them. They’re don’t really understand everything going on, but they get super excited when they trigger multiball or some cool table effect.

USB-C supports a lot more than USB-A does. Buying a USB-A dock and then using type-C adapters will limit the functionality to whatever the original USB-A or adapter supports (whichever one has lower capabilities will set the limit). It won’t support display over usb-c for example.

Might consider this bundle, some of the games are targeted at kids younger than 6, but it’s a good deal for younger players.

SteamOS isn’t quite ready for other devices yet, but you can install something like Bazzite or Zorin as a great alternative to windows. Bazzite is focused on providing an experience very close to SteamOS, and Zorin is extremely easy to learn for people moving from windows to linux. Linux Mint is also a great option.

You can check protonDB for game compatibility, but as a general rule any game or emulation will work fine as long as it isn’t a multiplayer game with particularly invasive anticheat. All Tom Clancy games should work except for Rainbow Six Siege. It uses Battleeye anticheat, which actually supports linux/steam deck fine, but Ubisoft is currently refusing to enable linux support. People are actively requesting support be enabled daily, so maybe Ubisoft will come around.

It’s still handy imo to know that projects like this will work on the deck. ProtonDB only covers steam games, and the winehq database is focused on compatibility with wine rather than proton.

So my question is will we ever get a proper signal from Valve saying “Yup, it’s now fully compatible with the RoG Ally”. Right now, i’m getting the message “We are slowly adding support for the Ally. Only features x,y and z are not working”.

I do believe we’ll hit a point where they announce official support. But it’s valve time so it’s hard to say when. I’m the meantime I would probably stick to Bazzite, but it’s your call.

Unironically I wouldn’t be surprised if some version of automated AI commentary becomes a thing at some point. I can imagine some people wanting to simulate having viewers who care about what they’re playing, I’ve already seen kids talking to themselves while playing pretending they’re a streamer.

Congrats! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have

If you run the install script it will let you uninstall Decky but leave your config/plugins intact. Then after you’re done testing you can run the installer again to have everything back how it was before.

Not officially listed on the patch notes. I’m on beta updates though and I’m not having that issue, so maybe it’s been fixed?

If you have Decky plugins installed it may be worth trying disabling them or uninstalling any you don’t use. I’ve noticed some issues with recent steam updates and some plugins, and it might be causing you issues.

MageQuit sounded interesting, so I went to add it to my wishlist… and it turns out I already own it somehow. Now just to figure out best way to get it for my friend group.

Great writeup as usual, lot of emulation/retro hardware related news this week!

I hope the switch emulator scene smooths out soon, but I expect it will stay pretty rough until the switch 2 has released and reached a decent install base. Hopefully once it’s an established success nintendo will calm down a little and we’ll see some consistent options show back up.

I’m looking forward to playing through the DS Castlevania games, I’ve avoided emulating them because I didn’t want to deal with the touch control parts.

Oh man I completely misread what game you were playing lol.

If you likes Outer Wilds, you should also try playing the Forgotten City sometime.

There are a couple other good knowledge progression games, although they’re not as close to the formula as Forgotten City is. Both the Witness and Return of the Obra Dinn have some overlap with it.

The main new game I’ve started recently is Split Fiction, which is the new coop game from the devs of “It Takes Two”. I highly recommend it if you have a coop partner, the game is delightful and you only need one copy for two people.

Some other games I’ve played recently: Finally finished Metaphor Refantazio. I had to take a break from it after about 100 hours because (which is pretty normal for me with long games), but I just came back and finished it. Really great game, highly recommend it on Deck. Also been playing Lost Judgement, which is a Yakuza style game but with a detective focus. Finally I’ve been playing Rift of the Necrodancer, which is a lot of fun but hurts my brain.

I looked at your screenshot, but didn’t even notice that until you pointed it out.

Once you take a screenshot, you can open the steam menu and go to media. Click on the screenshot there, and then hit the share button. There’s a couple handy options there, but if you have the steam mobile app you can send the screenshot straight to your phone.

“Sorry I got rid of windows 10 years ago. I can help you install win 7 but nothing newer than that”