Note on links: I am not sponsored or paid in any way by anyone affiliated with the links in this post. I am just a fan, and am showing appreciation.

The Background

About me

I am a lover of retro gaming, through and through. Since being a kid in middle school I have been fascinated with the fact that, through the miracle of technology, we can play old games on new devices via emulation. Having an Android phone growing up, I always made sure to have emulators at the ready and loaded with all of my favorite games. Personally, I veer towards Super Nintendo to Game Boy Advance era games, as that is what I grew up with.

About RetroPie

As I got older and experimented more with technology, I found out about emulation through Raspberry Pi (specifically the RetroPie interface). I do not claim to be a tech geek, but I know enough to set the RetroPie up. I was in love with that little handheld computer. It had more emulators than I ever had on my phone, and all through one convenient interface. Better yet, it could connect to small portable screen or my TV, depending on the situation. It was one of my prized possessions that I made sure to keep safe, because of memories, the sweat I put into getting it together, and best of all the library I had amassed on it.

There are only a few downsides in my eyes to the Retropie. One is the fact that it was a whole separate “console”, so if you want to use it, you need to hook it up or dedicate a space to it. The other is that it has severe processing limitations, meaning that it is difficult to play anything past GBA/PS1 era games.

For anyone interested in the RetroPie, you can look here.

I finally purchased a Steam Deck about a month ago. I could write a whole post on my thoughts on the Steam Deck (and at some point I might). This post will be limited, however, to when I found out you could run emulators directly on the Steam Deck.

The Process

The Basics

Through listening to a variety of video game podcasts, I found out that people have made it possible to emulate directly on the Steam Deck. This is music to my ears. I decided to dedicate a weekend to getting it all set up.

I found this guide on Steam Deck emulation through a Reddit post. For anyone interested, I highly recommend it as it makes very little assumption about your familiarity with these things. The basics of setting it all up were very straightforward and user friendly.

One of the more exciting aspects of the process was being able to bring over all of my old ROMs and save data from my RetroPie. I was scared at first that I would have to start anew in all the games I had put countless hours into on my RetroPie. However, with just a bit of tinkering, all of my save data and save states transferred near seamlessly. I can’t describe my sigh of relief when I tested my Final Fantasy IV save and saw it working perfectly.

The Nuances

Another exciting prospect was being able to play more intensive games on the Steam Deck. As I mentioned before, the RetroPie is great, but has computational limitations. Now on Steam Deck you can emulate even Switch and 3DS games. I am still in shock about this.

This led me down another rabbit hole of pulling out my older consoles and games to figure out how to make them into ROMs. I will say that this added layer of fun turned my weekend project into a week-long endeavor. Though it had its hiccups, by the end of the week I had a Steam Deck with more emulators and ROMs than I ever thought was possible.

The Conclusion

Though I’m still working out the kinks, I could not be happier with the end result. Not only do I have all my old emulators and ROMs in the palm of my hand, but I can also play games that have been gathering dust on the shelf for years.

For anyone that has a Steam Deck and an interest in emulation, I HIGHLY recommend setting this up. Having the processing power and portability of the Steam Deck has reignited my passion for these retro games. My only problem now is having too many great games to choose from!

If you have a story to tell about emulating on Steam Deck, or just want to shout out your favorite retro game you’ve been playing, please leave a comment!