The Steam Deck: A Beautiful Mess, even for Emulation. 

I was really surprised. I was at work and saw a guy playing a steam deck in real life literally the day after your stream. I didn’t think I was ever gonna see one out in the wild. He said he’s had it for about a month.

Don't get the hate on the steam release/reserve system. It's 10,000% better than getting a regular console right now. Just racing against a few million other people every time some big box store randomly drops some amount of them. I'll take a pre-order and knowing I'll eventually get one every time.

I'd take Steam Deck's reservation rollout over the scalper-spoiled 'you'll get it when you can find it' roll out of the PS5/XSX. They made it pretty clear what you are getting into in advance of reservations even being opened, so I'm not sure where the complaints come from, especially from someone near the front of the line. I can get why it would be frustrating for someone who wants it now but has to put in a reservation for a nebulous 'After Q3' (probably 2023) date.

Great video, and I am thrilled by the shoutout! I agree that the SD is a tinkerer's machine right now. I hope we get to the point where there is a plug-and-play solution for emulation that doesn't require a teeter-totter balance of configurations and workarounds, like what you experienced.

I think the reason people weren't/aren't upset with the rollout is because it's the best we've seen from any console released in recent memory. It's being scalped sure, but you know (about) when you're gonna get your steam deck, so why bother turning to a scalper? Personally I wish every lauch used a queue system like this. It's way less stressful. Could they have tried to have more ready for launch? Sure! But I'm sure they're working their best to get as many made as possible. At least with this system I know I'll be getting mine sometime in the summer.

They were pretty clear what the ordering process would look like. Nothing was really unexpected based on what they said before opening reservations.

With Gamecube, the performance seems to be a strange Dolphin issue - under the Quick Access menu, set your GPU clock manually to 1500/1600Mhz - this fixed it for me, and I can now run, for example, Mario Sunshine at 60fps, widescreen, 720p, and with an HD texture pack. :)

Bob making Hello Fresh look chaotic and not fool proof is potentially the best ad I’ve seen for the service

Even if only part of your library is playable, the fact you can play it in portable form is great. Also, supporting valve in this endeavor will help Linux development as a whole and that's a win for everyone. We need to get away from proprietary stuff where we can because they don't care about our privacy or experiences anymore.

Compared the ps5 and xbox series x the preorder was perfect. Everyone who wanted one has a spot in line. Unlike the bots and scalpers who still grab every console on the shelf. I got my steam deck a week ago and while I was ready at the moment the pre orders went up i missed the first hour and a half due to their servers dropping.

The rollout was much better than the alternative with scalpers gobbling up all of the stock on day 1 like every other console. they can only make them so fast and I can't think of a more fair system.

I think the good thing about Steam Deck compared to Nintendo Switch, is that the game prices are generally cheaper, multiplayer is free (and decent), digital store probably won't ever close, more selection of games at Steam Deck launch including lots of JRPGs, graphics are really good, price for buck is decent. I'd imagine future iterations of Steam Deck would iron out any kinks.

Not sure what you're on about with the queue system.. The reservation system was great. -It prevented scalpers and bots from reserving a ton by requiring a steam account older than 2 weeks for the first week or so of pre orders. -Giving a specific date for your order to be ready and then not delivering it would be suicide. The past couple years the fervor around delays for anything games or tech has been vitriolic at best. A vague window gives the wiggle room necessary until the supply chain can catch up. -Of course it was gonna be a server traffic jam... Every other GPU or console in the past few years has been but worse (thanks to bots in particular). I managed to get through within five minutes. It took a while to load each page but it went through.

Valve did the pre-orders this way to stop scalpers

The only really frustrating part of the pre-order process to me was how their servers got overloaded and you couldn't actually place an order reliably. It kept replying with "try again" and after trying again enough, it locked my account from making any purchases for a couple of hours. And now considering they're going in order of reservations made (in different queues based on region and model), it sucks to have to keep waiting because Valve's servers weren't up to the task.

Hard disagree on the pre-order process. I think the queueing is a great idea, and this is coming from someone who's still waiting for their Q3 window. It's so much better than any other alternative

As someone who daily drives Linux, I see a lot of these quirks as just the normal way of doing things, but I will have to see after I get my deck (probably somewhere next week) Using terminal is just the normal way of doing things, as most users are familiar with it, and it's just plain faster most of the time. I personally also don't think windows support will ever be good, it simply is not a priority for valve. Pushing Linux use is one of the core drives behind the deck in the first place. Again it is not for everyone.

Starting to realize it’s all about perspective when it comes to the SD. I am currently playing Tunic, FFIX & emulating Wind Waker. Zero issues, zero complaints. Absolutely love this this thing and grateful I have one.

I don't get the gripe over the reservation system. You put your $5 for your place in the Queue. Valve specifically tells you what Quarter you are in. And once that Quarter has started, you check your email/Steam every week on 1 or 2 VERY specific days.

It's actually really good for emulation too, and if you know what you're doing, it now takes like 10 min to set up and that's without being a LinuxBro. As for regular games, same thing, most that don't actually work do work fine with 2-3 minutes of extra work to get proton GE installed, which solves so MANY incompatability problems but Valve can't legally include by default. However, you're definitely correct in that this isn't for everyone. I'd argue that is true for emulation in general though, and even for anything past basic gaming i.e. beyond clicking the game's logo and it just running. So, in short, if you're looking for a console-like "it just works" experience, the Deck isn't and will probably never be that. PC gaming in its simplest form isn't even always that. However, if you're more into the more nuanced aspects of PC gaming, such as modding, or are more tech-savvy, or are experienced with the maze that setting up emulation sometimes is, then the Deck is probably the best and most cost effective emulation device on the market unelss you have VERY specific needs (like just wanting gameboy era games). Otherwise, the Deck's an emulation beast and can ALSO play a huge slew of regular games to boot, all very comfortably. I definitely won't be going back to anbernic or anything, likely ever. Right now, I'm more excited about the Steam Deck 2 years down the line.

Still really excited to get hold of one. For emulation, I’m going to try Retroarch first. I’m most familiar with its GUI and settings, plus they seem to be actively working on improving the experience on steam deck.

Good take. It might not be for everyone but this device is everything I've ever wanted. I think it's going to continue to improve as months and years go by. Both valve and the community will be developing for it.

I missed the email and contacted support. They straightened it out and I was able to order my deck. Support is really good in my experience.

I have had a Steam Deck since Day 1 and it has been great, I would not recommend it to everyone, but for the people that like to tweak and tinker with their PC they will love this thing. :)

got mine in the post today, literally installing my games right now, so excited to play!

I can't wait to get mine Q2 not for emulation only but I have a huge backlog of games I'd rather play on the go or breaks from work than sit on my pc to finish em. Great review on your views and concerns 👍🏼

I’ve got a pretty big Steam library that I hardly use because it’s a bit of a pain (and time consuming) to get my pc up and gaming. And I enjoy the portability of handheld gaming. So I’m still pretty confident this is for me.

1:20 guilty strive should work flawlessly, except a missing transparent background in the characterselct (which doesn’t matter)

I would buy this if I hadn’t already invested like 800 dollars into the Nintendo Switch Ecosystem

I think we can safely say 'we NEED you' to give the average consumer/gamer realistic expectations of what the steam deck is and isn't. You always give a fair and well researched review, plus just fun to watch. Still waiting on my email for my 512 Q2 :/

Could the reservation system be improved? Sure. It can be improved. I get it, I somewhat agree. That said - honestly, the reservation system is light years better than everybody else's system, which is "throw all stock on the store and let the scalpers grab all of it." I'm not racing bots with reaction times of milliseconds. I'm not visiting a dozen physical stores hoping it's in stock. I did that for the OLED Switch, it was terrible. With the Steam Deck, I have a place in line. When my turn comes, I'm guaranteed to get the system as long as I don't miss the window. No scalpers can take it away from me. No need to visit every shop in town. I just go on with life with no worries until I get the email. It's so much better.

How was the preorder system unbeknownst to us at the time? They made it very well known that the $5 was to reserve your spot in line, you’d get an email, and then have 3 days to order it.

Calling it a project is probably the most apt description of the Deck. I understand that it won't be perfect and never expected it to be. I am happy to be a beta tester for this product because of the possibilities it offers in the hopes that it will become the best mobile PC/console that Valve can make it. A device that can do almost anything a PC can do but on the go. It only makes me further excited for a Ver. 2.

8:58 The desktop mode controls are made a lot better if you customize them under Steam settings > Controller > Desktop Configuration. Personally I set mine up so that the right touchpad controls mouse, left touchpad does scrolling, then the R4 and L4 back paddles do left and right click respectively. This improved the desktop navigation experience by quite a bit for me. Now, I would totally agree that this isn't ideal, and it should definitely work better out of the box (also probably shouldn't be buried in settings like that). I think this is a great example of the point made in the video that you'll need to tinker with settings all over the place to get the best experience with the Steam Deck. If you're not afraid to get your hands dirty and do some troubleshooting like I am, then totally get this device. Otherwise, it might not be the best choice if you prefer things to "just work". Also 16:52 is something I completely overlooked. No doubt that moving files over a USB drive is a pain in the ass. In my case, I just put all the files I wanted to move onto my NAS and then connected to it through the file explorer on the Deck.

Keep in mind, developers will probably optimize their emulators FOR the steam deck which means it's probably going to run everything flawlessly eventually

Console commands, are you a hacker!!! Lol, it's interesting to listen to someone's perspective that's not a techie. For me, I use Linux on a near daily basis so all this is second nature, but it's important to recognize that I'm the exception. Great video!

Hasn't changed my mind as it's pretty much what I expected. I am a linux tinkerer so most of the stuff you mentioned is stuff I'm used to fixing, and optimizing emulator settings is also something I find great joy in. I got it for emulation, and I'm sure I won't regret it... but I'm glad you put this out, because I would rather someone hold off and wait until it works better than to have a bad experience and give up.

From what I can gather this essentially has the gaming compatibility of a mid to high specLinux desktop, with the limitation of not having access to keyboard and mouse. In my experience, maybe somewhere around 80% of my Steam library functions under the Proton compatibility layer, though needing the occasional tweaking. From the perspective of a PC user wanting to make his PC gaming a tad more mobile, this device is very appealing, for someone wanting a seamless out-of-the-box experience to replace their nintendo switch... well they'll probably have to wait for Nintendo's next handheld, I can't imagine the Steam Deck will ever quite become that.

One hint for transferring files: You can use Warpinator to transfer files to and from your Steam Deck and computer. If you want to syncrhonize folders between your computer and Deck in the background (say, an emulator's save file folder), you can use Syncthing

As an avid linux user I would like to point out, the SD card not mounting automatically is a problem with whatever distro/configuration Valve is using, not Linux itself. With distros like Ubuntu, automounting is built into the file manager.

I’ve only installed one verified game and one unknown title. And so far they both work great. I’m genuinely surprised. It’s a pretty solid device. I do want to get emulators running on this device. So hopefully thanks to your warning I’ll have a more straight forward experience. 👍

Thought about getting one... but at $500, I think it's going to go into the "It's an expensive toy that I don't really need" box. I have a desktop that plays any steam game I want. I have a Switch for portable gaming. I don't really need the Deck. Still looks cool though.

I would 100% recommend doing another video on the deck right now, its alot different than it was 4 months ago

honestly the preorder situation is something I saw coming a mile away, waiting 7 months for an index taught me this

Fedex is shipping my Steam Deck to me right now, and I should receive it tomorrow. I ordered it on July 16, 2021. I can't wait to get it!

I think this is a good review from the perspective of someone who mostly plays nintendo or someone who doesn't really enjoy messing with computers. though honestly, if you're not a user of steam, im not sure why you'd buy this in the first place.

Dude I'm loving the HL sound effects used as your bleeps!

I love the fact that since this video is about the steam deck, the Nintendo Switch CLICK was replaced with half life sfx.

I am really excited for what the future of the steam deck and the handheld pc market holds. I think if we look back to the switch's first year it was also extremely rough, like botw basically carried the switch for a few months the library was barren as hell. I think it's only after the 2nd year that publishers saw that the switch was a proven success that they really started to support it. We can already see emblems of what that could like with elden ring running the best on steam deck, I can't wait to see what happens when devs making steam deck optimized titles

I don't understand how the Ayn Odin can do gamecube emulation better than the steam deck. Is the gamecube build of dolphin better on android than on linux? Or is it just that dolphin isn't utilizing the CPU or GPU of the steam deck properly?

Nice video and Love that you are honest with the goofs!

Thanks for your super candid, honest video. I really appreciated the second half of your video with the sit-down aesthetic. I enjoy your long form as a break from the short videos

A lot of people who have only used Windows are gonna have a mildly hard time doing stuff outside of playing verified games. The fact that it's using Linux actually makes it much more exciting to me as an enthusiast with lots of GNU/Linux experience. I look forward to messing around with stuff under the hood. If people are willing to take the time to learn they will likely find that software compatibility is the ONLY thing Windows has over GNU/Linux. I understand that is precisely why it's not for everyone however.

The pre order process makes it so a bot doesn't buy all the deck and have you buy a deck for 1200$ from a scalper. And I've nothing bad to say about it except that i cannot wait to get my hands on my deck.

Feels like a beta and fully fleshed out at the same time? That's how I felt about the Steam Controller back when that was the new hot.

It's funny, before I got a Switch, I put in some effort -- and a bit of cash -- to try and set up an older laptop as a controller-only, Steam-based (e.g. with Big Picture), family gaming station. I had great initial success... but had annoyances that just never went away. And those annoyances are exactly the kind that you mention here with the Steam Deck. A lot of stuff worked great, but then some of the games my kids really liked to play just didn't work right. Or lost controller sync. Or locked up at weird times. At some point I realized that everything I wanted out of this setup, Switch had done it in an incredibly polished way. Obviously it's not Steam's fault that the games don't work exactly right. But they are the ones promoting and selling the Steam Deck, so I think it's still fair to point the issues out. As Bob mentioned, whether then or now, there always seems like there's a "better option". Depending on your needs, maybe it's a Switch, or a portable emulator deck, or even a PC. Unless you're a hobbyist, in which case the Steam Deck is right up your alley... but that is niche for sure. I'm way late to say this but... thanks for the overview!

My preorder came up today for the 64GB EMMC version. I have a 1TB 2230 SSD in a drawer waiting for this system as an upgrade after my initial "Tinkering" is complete. I may rough it on an SD card until Steam OS 3.0 and "Dual boot" functionality arrives.

slight misinformation about the order process: it was communicated to the public, on the website, how the reservation system would work well before orders went live. i can understand why you dont like it, but with how scalping is these days, i really like it aside from the delay that pushed EVERYONE back the same amount, no order windows have been changed, just clarified. the people complaining dont know what "some time after Q3" means its not "at any time" during your order window, it was explicitly on mondays, with thursdays added starting Q2 and you cant really blame them for the website crashing when orders went live, they didnt expect this much hype

You are one of the few RU-vidrs who's ads I won't skip you do such a great job. Sponsors must love you

Great video! I got mine a week ago and love it. You’re spot on, it definitely requires a bit of tinkering to get things working but I’ve found it’s not very difficult. The biggest gripe I have is the battery. I feel as if you can never really push the deck to its maximum capability without being near a charger. That’s pretty much the only complaint I have at the moment. Most games marked unplayable actually run extremely well. Far cry 5, red dead redemption 2, GTA 5…just to name a few

Pretty cool to see you make a review on this and be honest, i remember the backlash when you first saw and talked about it especially with the controls but looks like you gave it a fair shot. Btw use winpinator on pc and warpinator on steam deck to transfer stuff its alot easier and pretty damn fast

The Steam Deck reviews are remarkably consistent in their summations. Glad you guys are being honest, since this was a device I was considering. Now I know better to at least wait until it's improved.

Hey, I wouldn't say you're completely out of luck when missing the 3 days purchase window, support was kind enough to give me a second chance when I first missed it, and other people received similar treatment!

Got mine about 2 weeks ago, it's amazing. I mainly curse at it but knowing most issues will be solved in the coming months i am suprised at how much gaming i do on it. I went from an average 4-5 hours per 2 weeks (desktop pc) to 60-70 hours per 2 weeks (steamdeck)

if you run Linux on your desktop PC like a normal person you won't have any problems with putting roms on the SD card. also i don't know why it wants you to mount your SD card as Linux does have the ability to automount and at least for me that's what happens on my desktop so this is something you can probably fix

okay i haven't watched the video yet and im sure he mentions it; it is wonderful the firmware updates they are doing to make the incomplete steam deck more complete as time goes on, so even with its buggyness its still a worthwhile investment if you got one imo

Great video, Bob. Thanks for keeping it real and telling those folks that aren’t as into the tech side of things to think hard before slapping out the greenbacks. I got my deck a week ago. I’ve definitely experienced all the things you brought up, but I still love the device. I’m into tinkering and this hits all the right chords for me.

Also . . . love that the editor used a bunch of Half-Life sound effects when you swore. 😆 I suppose it's fitting, a piece of Valve history when talking about a Valve product.

14:39 😭 what is this urge to gravitate towards some "appstore" It's a full blown pc, it doesn't need an appstore... Damn you Steve Jobs

Thank you for being critical of the SD. This is my emulation machine bc of the PS3 that runs great as long as you want to tinker with it. I had to manually drop eboot files into Rcps3 for games to be recognized and I got emudeck to recognize them by accident. Ironically the only emulator that worked right out of the box was yuzu. Everything else was off. The fan boys need to chill and see this as an ongoing project by Valve and not a gift of God for Linux.

Your videos are always entertaining and thorough, we appreciate that. Thank you!

Hey I hope you make a video of the Steam Deck vs the AYN Odin. I would love a video on it plus it'll help me out so much on which I should get because I'm having a hard time deciding.

16:27 this entire section is basically false. Yes some things don't "just work" because a PC doesn't have training wheels and won't do automatic actions without consent of the user. And blame Microsoft and apple for using snowflake proprietary filesystems, not the other way around. You could just format the microsd to exFAT and have it be read by all the OSes of you're only gonna transfer and store ROMs. Connect the hardware, mount the filesystem, use it, unmount it, disconnect it. This has been the case for all computers since the beginning of time. Even smartphones don't automount the microsd

This thing is an upgrade from my 2015 budget build pc in every way. I'm cool with a few hiccups. Thanks for the vid, bahb!

Have you tried this with your very cool KVM monitor? Do the USB ports work? How does it react to it switching inputs?Llooking to buy the monitor to use with my Macbook pro and my soon to come steam deck (and type c hub). I want to use the same G502 mouse with it and the KVM monitor seems like a good solution.

I think in comparison to recent Gen 9 console and product releases, the reservation system is a breath of fresh air. Scalpers have decimated the Series and PS5 rollouts, miners have stolen the 6000 and 30 series cards, and the supply chain has squeezed them all from both ends. It's only after nearly 2 years that the situation seems to be slowly getting better. Meanwhile Valve says that I'm definitely guaranteed to get it sometime in 6 months, for MSRP and not a penny more. I think I can live with that.

LOL, i still wait for my pre-order so I went to the scalper jungle to get myself one. And yeah ... i realised waiting for it is not a bad idea in the end 🙄 Agreed with him it feel like a unfinished product for gaming or emulation. Awesome video 👍 Love your perspective on the Steam Deck 😁

Biggest thing about the Deck to me is the fact it will probably popularize handheld console PCs, I'm excited to see what the future holds but personally, I'd go with a GPD Win 3 just because of how much better (and less bulky) it looks.

Always look forward to your videos! Great cinematography and content as always! Also like the new profile picture!

Living in japan, I am jonesing for the SD! It looks like I need to wait until at least the end of 2022 for the orders to open up here and I am eagerly consuming any new video about it explaining what is changing. As my favorite channel, alongside RetroGameCorps, I am excited to hear about your progression with it all the way up until I get mine.

Feels like this is the most honest Steam Deck review I've run into on RU-vid, so far. Thanks for the info and great job.

I'd say this take is confusing and inconsistent. Correct me if this is wrong, but what I'm getting from this is that you want the Deck to be more like a console and less like a tinkerer's device. But then you go out of your way to tinker with it and get emulators working on it, instead of going the console route of buying Deck Verified games for your system. So... what? Already, very mixed signals. This would be like if I purchased an Xbox Series and went "So, guys, I don't actually play Xbox games. The only games I really play are older Xbox games that aren't backwards compatible with this thing. Oh well! Let's try to get emulation running on this!" And then your final verdict is based on how the tinkering job for emulation wasn't really what you wanted and that means the device is messy. When you completely avoided purchasing verified games on it. I'm sure you had no issue buying games to play on your Switch? It is certainly valid criticism that not every verified game works flawlessly, although it's worth noting that officially licensed console games can also have issues, sometimes huge ones when looking at games like Cyberpunk or Anthem, and verified games having issues seems go be the vast exception and not a rule on the Deck, thankfully. The Deck is a bit of a have-cake-and-eat-it-too device. You can stick to their strict verification system ensuring a most of the time smooth gaming experience, and you can also try to get other PC games with issues to run flawlessly or set up emulators and what have you if you really want. They don't have to support such endeavors, it's enough to not actively block you from them like consoles do. But yeah. To summarize: You can't criticize it for having tinkered with it, when you went out of your way to ignore their directions for verified games entirely. They gave you what you say you wanted, and then you went and did the opposite, and complain that you had to do said opposite thing.

Im glad Vavle is at least fairly transparent about the preorders and while the launch day was frustrating at least we all got to get in line, and not have to pay up front, like the analogue pocket….plus if you cancel the preorder you get your bucks back into your steam wallet. No harm no foul.

"this is probably for the people who want to play AAA games" Me who's largely going to play indie sidescrollers: 👀

The old channel icon looks better

This video aged like fine milk xD

I think I love your office and desk set ups and I want to see more. My Gawd! The class! Thanks for ironing out what the SteamDeck is. I didn’t know that at the base level, it’s kinda wonky. I’ll stick to my iPadPro and Switch OLED, no pressure! Great Stuff, as always!

I agree the controller layout is awesome. It feels more natural and easier to move between the sticks and d-pad/buttons.

21:39 Thank you for saying that. So many other people just endlessly praise it. It's much more useful to know what the real experience is like instead of seeing someone who's already worked all the bugs out act like there aren't many.

I don't know I kind of liked the way Valve handled preorders for Steam Deck. It does I think cut down on the ability for people to scalp them. If you have $5 you at least have a spot in line and are likely able to get one even if it means you have to wait a few months. I can't do that for PS5. Hell you can't find PS5's in store. You could only reserve one. You couldn't buy them in bulk. I am still pretty excited for this thing.

Warpinator is a program thats great for moving files over wifi between systems. Emudeck, was rough the first time for installing for me. Retroarch was super broken. Pressing b took the mouse and shoved it all the way to the right, running it again after a fresh download/updated fixed it.

Thanks for all the live streams and the new videos

you can install most non steam games on here

Lemme guess, this another 20 minute video of bob not know how to tweak the settings

So can you play ROMs and have Steam games at the same time? Or do you have to pick one or the other?

I was so confused why all of a sudden my touch pad for a left click stopped working and R2 replaced it, didn’t realize it was bc steam was/wasn’t open

16:45 "it won't work on a Mac or PC" But it works on the steam deck which is a PC ? Hello ? Of course it will work on any PC. And no, there's no "special Linux formatting". It's macos/windows who are stupid and refuse to adopt industry open standards

I think you’re really downplaying what this device can do and how powerful it is for a handheld… what’s with the weird negative slant for the first third of the video 😂

Great video. Was debating this or the ayan odin pro or whatever it was called. Def going with the ayan since i jus want a portable emulator i can pay some fun old retro games.

@WULFF DEN Question for steam deck dose your steam deck have backlight bleeding like in the corner it’s noticed when the screen is black.