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.
I mean, I have a steam deck and a switch. Just beat Totk on the switch and recently started BG3 on the deck.
The trick is to put one console down and pick the other one up.
True gamers play both at the same time
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.
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. :)
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.
Vague and unpopular opinion incoming:
Despite the Steam Deck being better than the Switch at nearly everything, there is still something that keeps pulling me back to the Switch. The only things I can think of is how much thinner and lighter it is combined with the simplified software. I’m not saying the Switch software is good, because it’s not. It’s slow despite how slimmed down it is. Meanwhile the Steam Deck is much faster, smoother, and has many more features. But the Steam Deck still just feels clunky compared to the Switch. It might be due to the Steam Deck using a full desktop operating system with a modified UI while the Switch OS is made solely for playing games. Despite being very well designed and using optimized software, something about the Steam Deck makes it feel like a tech demo rather than a handheld game console. I still really like the Steam Deck, but I keep getting pulled back to the Switch.
Put simply: Weight aside, the Steam Deck is significantly better at every individual factor than the Switch. But there is still something about the final product of the Switch that I enjoy using more than the Steam Deck.
Like the sibling comment it feels the opposite way round to me. The Switch feels like a child’s toy - light, small and not wildly comfortable to hold for a long period of time. The Deck feels much more ergonomic and solid to hold in my hands - I still enjoy the feeling of just picking it up (had it for 7 months) because it just feels like it fits.
Some of this is because I have big hands and the Switch obviously has to work for kids hands and the Switch being lighter is actually better for longer sessions but when I got back to the Switch now it feels cheap and flimsy.
Heh, completely opposite to me.
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
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.
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.
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.
- maybe some games you don’t want to spend time tweaking the launch options, the graphics, the sliders, the mods etc and you just want to play the game as the devs intended. Switch is good for that.
- maybe there are times you don’t want to deal with all the hassles of a handled pc as a gaming system. Switch is good for that.
- maybe you want to play Nintendo games, but you don’t want to go through all the hassle of emulation (especially switch games). Switch is good for that.
- maybe there is an indie dev you want to support, and you know their game is more expensive on switch than on pc, but it’s well within your budget and you want to give them extra coin. Switch is good for that.
- while switch games are generally low fidelity and low frame rate, you know what to generally expect going in.
- maybe your group of friends mostly own switch and play switch online compared to steam.
Truth be told, once I got my steam deck, I sold my switch. Not because the switch was terrible by any means, but I realised that I missed my pc game library, I didn’t care for online multiplayer, and I didn’t care for Nintendo games. Also, I grew up with Linux and tinkering both Windows and Linux - it’s in my blood at this point, so getting a steam deck was just pure joy for me, even if I spent 90% of the time configuring the thing and 10% playing games.
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
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.
Yeah my wife is playing animal crossing right now, while I am playing bg3
I find playing connected to a television far easier with the Switch. But, TBH, I don’t find much worth playing on the Switch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
