And also, whenever the next one comes along that library will still be there
Every other console you have the concept of "backwards compatibility" as a feature rather than an expectation.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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To be fair that's because software on consoles is designed for specific hardware. With newer hardware the old games won't just work, because they were complex for very specific hardware. So for BC you end up with emulation which requires a lot more processing power than the original hardware, and is not perfect.
Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC. And as time went on they removed that hardware to save costs and BC went with it.
PC gaming however, and by extension portables like the Steam Deck however are running software developed more generically for wider ranges of architecture to begin with. It means less hardware optimization, but it generally means compatibility out of the box as hardware improves since it wasn't designed with extremely specific hardware anyway.
This is less true since the PS4/XB1 era, since it's just pretty standard x86 hardware, much like a PC. Although it may still apply to the Switch if they go in a different direction for the Switch 2.
thats if the switch 2 isnt still just standard arm hardware, much like a phone.
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Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC.
And the PS2 likewise literally had PS1 hardware to handle BC.
Many PS2 titles also used the PS1 hardware for game functionally so some PS2 titles have bugs on newer PS2 models with the hardware removed.
where can I learn more about these games?
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I'm surprised the difference isn't much higher, but I guess there's a ton of shovelware on the Switch.
It is much higher. Those are just the officially approved numbers. You can get a lot more games than that working though. Most will probably run out of the box anyway, or with just slight tinkering, assuming the performance of the Deck suffices of course. You may have to create custom control mappings though.
Slight tinkering and slight annoyances. Like some text is hard to read or unreadable, button/key prompts are wrong. Frame limiting being wonky, sound glitches. But all in all still amazing to be able to play your stuff on the go.
Yup. I've just been purchasing games without the Verified tag now because I'll just be like: "yeah that seems like it'd work and it typically does".
I made the mistake of installing Stardew Valley on it for 1.6. Oof, I'm playing it everywhere. Very bad when you can't handle your addictions well.
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respectfully, how have you not seen the infinite rivers of shovelware on steam since they stopped vetting the store ~10 years ago?
I'd be surprised if many of those are verified for steam deck?
Yeah. They probably work fine on the deck too, but they can only verify so many games and those are low priority.
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Steam is the same way
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Also I can emulate a steamdeck on my desktop without being sued!
Why?
Because the games that run on the Steam Deck are PC games, no emulation required. It's a joke.
It's a joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
OP is also the guy who thinks it is weird to pre-heat your oven. https://fedia.io/m/[email protected]/t/763821/Are-the-people-who-read-terms-and-conditions-the-same#comments
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And you can emulate the Switch on the Deck.
It's quite a lot more than that if you count all the titles that work but aren't verified, I imagine!
My steam deck is also just stable as my switch now despite that not being the case when I first got mine.
Me too. When I first got it I would have hesitated to recommend it to the more luddite kind of people in my life but as it is now it barely needs a warning. Only thing really right now is making sure they understand the compatibility ratings.
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As an owner of the Switch (with a huge backlog) and a dreaming owner of the Steam Deck, should I be happy or worried about the backlog?
Play the games that interest you, not that you have others waiting in the corner.
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?)
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Isn't that comparison asinine? I mean... Yeah, no shit. One is a handheld PC and the other isn't.
They're competitors on form factor. Actually, the one difference you mention is precisely why I'll probably be buying a SteamDeck instead of a Nintendo Switch. I can play Nintendo games on both after all.
They are only competitors for people who are fairly ignorant. Steam deck comes with the ability to play switch games for free...
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While the Steam Deck is technically a handheld PC, as a Linux enthusiast who's tried to use the desktop mode for laptoppy things... No it isn't.
It works in a pinch (well... Not for my job, but I also don't expect Valve to put lxd into SteamOS), but the comparison to the Switch (which I also own) is much better than comparing it to even a gaming laptop. In fact, if I were the type of person to emulate stuff (which, don't worry Nintendo, I totally am not), I would say my Steam Deck makes a better switch than my switch. If I'd emulated a Switch to play Mario Kart (which obviously I haven't) I'd say it was a better experience on my Steam Deck than on my switch.
While the Steam Deck is technically a handheld PC, as a Linux enthusiast who's tried to use the desktop mode for laptoppy things... No it isn't.
Desktop mode is literally just KDE, and you can install whatever OS you want on it anyway. In what way is it not a handheld PC?
I think they mean functionally.
I know everytime I've had to do extended work in desktop mode I've had to use a USB mouse and keyboard. Obviously, it's a handheld PC, but it's not really designed to replace your laptop.
You could use it as a desktop computer with a dock though, I suppose.
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What I'm saying is that the PC comparison simply misses the point, whereas the Switch comparison is a comparison of how the devices are intended to be used (and for the most part actually used). The Steam Deck is not a good device for running a development environment or most of the things one thinks of as "PC tasks." It's not designed for that.
One can use it in that way, but one of the biggest differences between the Steam Deck and its "more pc-ish" competitors like the Ally is that Valve has done a lot of work to make desktop mode unnecessary for the vast majority of users. The user experience puts it much more directly in competition with the Switch than with other handheld PCs, and that's a strength of the Deck, not a weakness.
One can install Linux on a Switch too, at which point it's basically an ARM-based handheld PC. But a reviewer who reviewed the Switch for its power as a handheld Linux machine would be missing the point too.
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That’s an embarrassingly small number of games for a PC… a PC should have access to far more games than that. I’m sure that’s just the “verified” games, but it’s pretty dumb to flaunt it like it’s something impressive.
Definitely just verified, the actual number is easily triple that.
Not to mention even tons of unsupported games work perfectly fine.
And then there's emulation
Ugh! We don’t want larger games! We want more games!
As a Lenovo Go user that can access both worlds this is an interesting article to see where I stand in terms of overall access to games. But shouldn't a Steamdeck have more titles? As far as I know you can't you also side install Windows for games from other platforms?
This is just steam titles in the verified program. Protondb has 21k steam games that are reported working, and there's also non-steam games and emulation.
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Though both have a shit ton of shovelware garbage
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