I’ve been really wanting to get a steamdeck. I’ve been playing a lot on my modded switch, but there is a lot I want to play that is not available on the switch.
Does anyone have both systems and still use the switch?
I imagine I can just dump my games and emulate them on the Steamdeck.
I don’t do anything online, so I can’t imagine I’ll miss out on anything.
Im an experienced Linux gamer, so im not worried about the Linux side of things.
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I don’t really bother with emulating Switch on my Steam Deck because my Switch is lighter, quieter, has better battery life, and a far better (OLED) screen. I do love my Steam Deck as well though.
Plus, if you have a SO the Switch is a lot cheaper to keep both of you preoccupied…
That’s a good point. I have to remind myself, that there’s no point in emulating switch as I have one and most of the games have a pc version. So I can just play the pc version of the game.
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There is not any place where I can see one in person where I live. So sadly, I can’t get a feel for it.
But I’m thinking that the weight will not bother me too much, if it does, I think it’s preferable to the hand cramping and joint pain I get from the switch.
Additionally I’m just playing it in the house. I just don’t like being tied to the desktop.
I can’t play a bare Switch for more than 15-20 minutes without pain, but with a Satisfye asymmetric grip, I can play for hours. Not a shill, just a huge fan of the product. :)
I have both. I had the switch long before the steam deck was available. I will say that I have not touched my switch to play games since I received the deck. I got my deck in the second big batch of deliveries when it first released, so I have had it for more than year at this point.
When I want to play Nintendo exclusives, I purchase them and then use my switch rip them to play using yuzu on my deck.
Thanks! I was thinking about doing the exact same thing. Although, I rarely am playing switch exclusives at this point. But I’m sure I’ll do a second run of totk in a few years.
I have both.
I’ve had my switch for many years at this point, while my SteamDeck is barely 1 year old. I probably wouldn’t buy a switch today if I didn’t already have one but since I already have one I still use it very occasionally for exclusives I’m excited for (well, actually used it a ton for TotK recently). I don’t have my Switch hacked and would just rather not go through the hassle of finding clean roms to download. The only Switch game I played on my Deck was Diablo III (because the PC version has no controller support or controller-friendly UI) but with Diablo IV now it’s unnecessary.
All that being said, there’s very few Switch exclusives I’m interested in for $60 anymore, even on the horizon, Zelda was probably the last one unless Mario Odyssey 2 is released before the end of the system’s lifetime. And Zelda TotK was honestly the first game I bought for Switch in probably the last 2+ years… my wife played a few things on it but I had switched to PC exclusively (+Steamdeck) and PS5
For me there isn’t. I already had a Switch and since I bought the Deck, it pretty much just sits there. The only time I’ve used it is when we were in a plane and both me and my partner wanted to play, so we brought both Deck and Switch. If there was some cross-play, I’d actually find a use, but since no one gives a fuck about it, we mostly can’t even play together (Fall Guys being the exception). And I’m very much over paying a fee for accessing servers with my console. I cancelled my Nintendo subscription because I don’t use it and recently wanted to play some level on Mario Maker, turns out you can’t do that without paying for subscription. So I just turned off the Switch again.
I have both and use both of them more than I used the PS3, PS2, and Dreamcast.
Emulation can be ok but often you spend as much time fiddling as playing. Switch just works.
Steam Deck mostly just works for most Steam games, and can do a lot more if you want to tinker. It’s a computer and supports normal computer things like keyboard and mouse. Basically no restrictions.
Have you tried using the emudeck software? It seems that it kind of self configures.
I started tears of the kingdom on an emulator on my desktop PC, and wanted to see how it would work on my steam deck. After setting it up with autosync using NextCloud for saves, not only is it a better experience than the switch because I can sometimes play on my desktop at 4k with frame rates consistently higher than what the switch can do, but playing on the steam deck has comparable performance to the switch albeit at the cost of shorter battery life. I loaned my switch to a friend who doesn’t have one so he could play totk, then I moved across the country and just decided to let him hang on to it until he’s done. The only thing I miss is Tetris 99, but that’s not a big loss.
It’s crazy to think about syncing game saves like that, as I really view the Steamdeck as a console.
What’s the battery life like while emulating?
It’s short. Maybe 90 minutes? Basically running full tilt the whole time.
Thanks for the heads up, I was a little concerned about battery life.
Since I got my Steam Deck, I use my Switch for playing local-multiplayer Mario Kart and… Yea that’s it
Yeah, it seems that the switch can easily be replaced by the steam deck.
I think all the switch exclusive games that I care for emulate perfectly or at least good enough. I think the only game I’m not too sure about is tears of the kingdom, but I imagine the emulator devs give that game a lot of attention. So I’m sure it will be a very compatible game.
I finished the game while ago, but the last set of mods from HolographicWings/TOTK-Mods-collection/ that were out before I was done gave me correct button hints, 16:10 aspect ratio, with a pegged 30 fps for most of the game when not loading shaders, with a minimum of 20 fps at lookout landing.
Yeah my wife is playing animal crossing right now, while I am playing bg3
I have both. I haven’t tried emulating Switch games on the Steam Deck yet. I use my Switch for Nintendo exclusives and local multiplayer games since it’s less of a pita to set up
Thanks! I don’t do any multiplayer stuff except for stardew valley, but no so much anymore.
I think the steam deck will satisfy me.
I’ve tried emulating a couple switch games, the experience hasn’t been great. Perhaps playable, but I’d rather use the first party hardware.
I’ve been using more my switch lately than my deck, but that’s due to the fact I have a local library with many switch games available. While me and my spouse are super pro emulating we don’t want to bother with emulating switch because:
- We’re not willing to hack our Switches yet.
- I’m extremely uninformed on where to find another bios
In addition, the steam deck display isn’t as pretty to look at as the OLED.
I have the first switch version, so it was pretty easy to mod and the screen should be about the same as the steam decks. But I bed the oled switch is really nice to look at.
Steam Deck does feel like a superset of Switch. It offers almost all of what Switch offers in a bit heavier and a lot more comfortable package. You get absolute freedom to do what you want with the device (I buy almost all my games from GOG), the trackpads become pretty much mandatory once you get used to them. You have the option of playing AAA titles with shorter battery life, but don’t actually compare that badly agaist a Switch if you play games that Switch can run. You gain access to a lot more games, a lot cheaper games.
People convince eachother that the two devices somehow serve different functions and audiences, but that just feels like unwarranted courtesy towards Switch. I don’t have a Switch, to be clear, but it does seem like an obvious upgrade from what I can tell.
If you’d like to play Nintendo games without emulation whatsoever. Tracking down a Switch that is easy enough to hack, and dumping all your games and saves can be a big ask for your average Switch/Deck fan. I only use my Switch to dump new releases I buy to play on either my Steam Deck or main rig. I beat ToTK fully through emulation, though that was on my main rig. I also could absolutely not live without the massive backlog that is the Steam library.
Any emulation problems with tears of the kingdom?
I’ve already finished it on the switch, so not super concerned about occasional crashes. The game seems to auto save pretty often anyway.
No major issues from my experience, but in my case the Deck is struggling to keep 20-30 fps
What kind of games are you playing? I think I’ll mostly be playing games on the older side and tons of emulation.
For switch emularion, I only really got around to TotK so far. In general I play singleplayer RPGs, such as Witcher 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as some Cult of the Lamb. The Deck handled all of these very well at medium to medium-high settings. Emulation just adds a considerable performance overhead.
I truthfully emulated ToTK on my main rig, then streamed it to my Deck with Moonlight. At the time (launch week) I had a bit of issue emulating it on Deck to my liking, but I know at this point it’s not bad around 20-30. I played a lot of Street Fighter 6 on my Deck, with only World Tour mode running at 30, everything else is 60. I’m also working my way through Transistor, picking short indies to hammer out one at a time. Pretty much everything I want to run on the Deck will run, with the exception of Xbox 360 games, but I’m still able to run the unreleased Goldeneye 007 XBLA remaster without issue.
I played that unreleased remaster a couple years so. It’s so fun. I played the original as a kid and this was the first time I was able to complete the game in the hardest difficulty.
I did not bother trying to unlock cheats. That game got really hard on the hardest mode.
It took me hours and hits to beat Aztec on the hardest mode. Somehow I still remembered the secret path for the golden gun and was able to beat the final level on the first attempt.
I never actually grew up with an N64 so I didn’t play Golden Eye as a kid. I did have a GameCube and Timesplitters 2 which was loads of fun.
Switch emulation is a bit hit and miss. Some games work fairly well, others underperform or have serious issues. Also, online multiplayer currently only works with a real Switch.
So far, I’ve been pretty lucky with switch emulation. When I really looked at it, just about all the games that are switch exclusive l, that I’m interested in work well.
Plus, I still have my switch incase it will not run.
