6 ms·

Valve has the perfect setup right now. Your desktop, laptop, or Deck can connect to Steam.

easton 3y ago
Unless it’s a 32-bit Mac come January or a machine running windows < 8, in which case you’re screwed until you buy new hardware. Which I’m fine with, but it’s not like Valve is magical somehow. If your machine isn’t still getting Chromium builds they can’t build Steam for it, you still need to buy new hardware. And the game consoles (less) often let you play old games on new hardware.
- slowhadoken 3y ago
  My Deck just runs all those old windows games using proton. I mean, Windows subsystems runs Linux. You don’t even need VMs anymore. It’s not magic it’s just portability.
  - kiwijamo 3y ago
    The majority of my steam collection is games that will not run on the steam deck or Linux. Out of 15 I have, only three works on. YMMV but doesn't look like 'all' these windows games unfortunately. May be more of an issue with the type of games I like, i.e. Civilisation, Age of Empires, etc.
    - slowhadoken 3y ago
      I have over three hundred games purchased on Steam, Windows games, and ROMs (GB to PS3) and I’ve only experienced one or two issues and it wasn’t the Deck’s fault. I play indie games on it all the time too. Now games are being made with the Deck in mind.
    - doix 3y ago
      Civilization and Age of Empires definitely work on Linux. Or atleast civ 5, AoE2:DE and AoE4 all work. I strongly suspect most of the other versions work as well. I actually haven't encountered a single game that doesn't work on Linux that's available on steam. I'm sure they exist, but I personally haven't hit any. My biggest annoyance was when I tried to play Diablo 4 and had to mess about with the Blizzard launcher. Really made me appreciate how fool proof Linux gaming has become with Steam nowadays.
    - slowhadoken 3y ago
      Maybe try adjusting the frame rate, wattage, and/or GPU frequency.
  - easyThrowaway 3y ago
    Steam Deck compatibility is spotty at best for DirectX-8 games and older. A few of those have been updated by the publisher to ship with DDrawCompat, nglide or dgvoodoo, but at large they require some tinkering to get them in a running state. Excluding those who will never, ever work again due to copy protection systems (e.g., all those Games for Windows Live that never received a patch, those EA games still shipping with Securom) of all my games, circa 15-20% of them crash on boot. Nearly all of them are pre-Dx8 games, which basically run correctly only running on a recently unsupported configuration by steam, Windows 7 32bit.
    - slowhadoken 3y ago
      With a little fiddling most of those DirectX games work on the Deck. Again not perfect but absolutely functional. And never say never, fans find solutions to dead games all the time.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  >in which case you’re screwed until you buy new hardware. Windows 10 runs on anything that will emit a clock signal, and Windows 11 can be forced onto hardware it doesn't officially like. I don't like Windows 7 support being dropped either, in large part because the dropping comes due to CEF used by Steam, but it's not like the hardware concerned becomes useless with no way out.
  - Aerroon 3y ago
    >Windows 10 runs on anything that will emit a clock signal It runs extremely poorly on low power hardware. Poorly enough that I consider it unusable. Windows 7 ran fine on the same hardware previously.
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      Seeing as we're talking about games, low power hardware isn't necessarily relevant.
      - mathgeek 3y ago
        We’re talking about games still being playable years later though, so there is an argument that older hardware is relevant (relatively speaking, anyway). Games built for Windows 95 not being playable because your hardware can’t efficiently run Windows 10 is a relevant discussion.
grumbel 3y ago
Steam will drop Windows7/8 support January 1, 2024[1], Vista and XP support got dropped a long time ago. Meanwhile they still sell Win95/98 games on the Steam store, which won't run well or at all on a Windows10/11. So not exactly perfect either as far as backward compatibility is concerned. [1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-800A https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-80...
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  They recently dropped support for MacOS 10.12. They're cutting it close since many Valve games only work on MacOS versions <= 10.13
  - slowhadoken 3y ago
    Apple hasn’t support MacOS 10.12 for four years. That Steam still supports it is amazing to me.
    - nottorp 3y ago
      Have you actually used steam lately? They did something to it on Mac that made it reset to the store page every time it loses focus and gains it back. Including when you try to read the code in your mail to be able to login, or when entering 3d secure codes for a purchase. Basically you can't use it without another device to check your mail/texts. It's been going on for at least 2 months.
      - slowhadoken 3y ago
        I use Steam regularly, I don’t game on a Mac regularly. To be fair I don’t think most people use Macs for gaming. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. Apple has a tight grip on mobile gaming though, that’s a money maker for them.
        nottorp 3y ago
prmoustache 3y ago
Isn't that out of scope of the discussion? Valve doesn't provide the online game capabilities of title and cannot guarantee you will be able to play online to all sort of old titles whose published shut down the servers.
- slowhadoken 3y ago
  It’s within the scope of the discussion. Nintendo should centralize its games into a single universal platform like Steam. Now that Valve has a successful handheld console it’s even more relevant than ever.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    I think most nintendo users are kids and most of the games are given as gift and purchased in cartridges anyway. And people want to be able to buy and sell their games second hand. The nintendo network really is about online gaming in the context of the nintendo DS products.
    - slowhadoken 3y ago
      Kids and adults play Nintendo games. I played them as a kid and now I play them as an adult.
      - prmoustache 3y ago
        I am also an adult who played Zelda today. And I said "most", not "all".
        slowhadoken 3y ago
        Yeah, I get what you’re saying but you’re incorrect. Kids 12 and young only make up 5% of their market. Most Switch users are 25 to 34.

Unless it’s a 32-bit Mac come January or a machine running windows < 8, in which case you’re screwed until you buy new hardware. Which I’m fine with, but it’s not like Valve is magical somehow. If your machine isn’t still getting Chromium builds they can’t build Steam for it, you still need to buy new hardware. And the game consoles (less) often let you play old games on new hardware.

slowhadoken 3y ago
My Deck just runs all those old windows games using proton. I mean, Windows subsystems runs Linux. You don’t even need VMs anymore. It’s not magic it’s just portability.
- kiwijamo 3y ago
  The majority of my steam collection is games that will not run on the steam deck or Linux. Out of 15 I have, only three works on. YMMV but doesn't look like 'all' these windows games unfortunately. May be more of an issue with the type of games I like, i.e. Civilisation, Age of Empires, etc.
  - slowhadoken 3y ago
    I have over three hundred games purchased on Steam, Windows games, and ROMs (GB to PS3) and I’ve only experienced one or two issues and it wasn’t the Deck’s fault. I play indie games on it all the time too. Now games are being made with the Deck in mind.
  - doix 3y ago
    Civilization and Age of Empires definitely work on Linux. Or atleast civ 5, AoE2:DE and AoE4 all work. I strongly suspect most of the other versions work as well. I actually haven't encountered a single game that doesn't work on Linux that's available on steam. I'm sure they exist, but I personally haven't hit any. My biggest annoyance was when I tried to play Diablo 4 and had to mess about with the Blizzard launcher. Really made me appreciate how fool proof Linux gaming has become with Steam nowadays.
  - slowhadoken 3y ago
    Maybe try adjusting the frame rate, wattage, and/or GPU frequency.
- easyThrowaway 3y ago
  Steam Deck compatibility is spotty at best for DirectX-8 games and older. A few of those have been updated by the publisher to ship with DDrawCompat, nglide or dgvoodoo, but at large they require some tinkering to get them in a running state. Excluding those who will never, ever work again due to copy protection systems (e.g., all those Games for Windows Live that never received a patch, those EA games still shipping with Securom) of all my games, circa 15-20% of them crash on boot. Nearly all of them are pre-Dx8 games, which basically run correctly only running on a recently unsupported configuration by steam, Windows 7 32bit.
  - slowhadoken 3y ago
    With a little fiddling most of those DirectX games work on the Deck. Again not perfect but absolutely functional. And never say never, fans find solutions to dead games all the time.
Dalewyn 3y ago
>in which case you’re screwed until you buy new hardware. Windows 10 runs on anything that will emit a clock signal, and Windows 11 can be forced onto hardware it doesn't officially like. I don't like Windows 7 support being dropped either, in large part because the dropping comes due to CEF used by Steam, but it's not like the hardware concerned becomes useless with no way out.
- Aerroon 3y ago
  >Windows 10 runs on anything that will emit a clock signal It runs extremely poorly on low power hardware. Poorly enough that I consider it unusable. Windows 7 ran fine on the same hardware previously.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Seeing as we're talking about games, low power hardware isn't necessarily relevant.
    - mathgeek 3y ago
      We’re talking about games still being playable years later though, so there is an argument that older hardware is relevant (relatively speaking, anyway). Games built for Windows 95 not being playable because your hardware can’t efficiently run Windows 10 is a relevant discussion.

grumbel 3y ago

Steam will drop Windows7/8 support January 1, 2024[1], Vista and XP support got dropped a long time ago. Meanwhile they still sell Win95/98 games on the Steam store, which won't run well or at all on a Windows10/11. So not exactly perfect either as far as backward compatibility is concerned. [1] https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-800A https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4784-4F2B-1321-80...

Rebelgecko 3y ago
They recently dropped support for MacOS 10.12. They're cutting it close since many Valve games only work on MacOS versions <= 10.13
- slowhadoken 3y ago
  Apple hasn’t support MacOS 10.12 for four years. That Steam still supports it is amazing to me.
  - nottorp 3y ago
    Have you actually used steam lately? They did something to it on Mac that made it reset to the store page every time it loses focus and gains it back. Including when you try to read the code in your mail to be able to login, or when entering 3d secure codes for a purchase. Basically you can't use it without another device to check your mail/texts. It's been going on for at least 2 months.
    - slowhadoken 3y ago
      I use Steam regularly, I don’t game on a Mac regularly. To be fair I don’t think most people use Macs for gaming. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. Apple has a tight grip on mobile gaming though, that’s a money maker for them.
      - nottorp 3y ago

prmoustache 3y ago

Isn't that out of scope of the discussion? Valve doesn't provide the online game capabilities of title and cannot guarantee you will be able to play online to all sort of old titles whose published shut down the servers.

slowhadoken 3y ago
It’s within the scope of the discussion. Nintendo should centralize its games into a single universal platform like Steam. Now that Valve has a successful handheld console it’s even more relevant than ever.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  I think most nintendo users are kids and most of the games are given as gift and purchased in cartridges anyway. And people want to be able to buy and sell their games second hand. The nintendo network really is about online gaming in the context of the nintendo DS products.
  - slowhadoken 3y ago
    Kids and adults play Nintendo games. I played them as a kid and now I play them as an adult.
    - prmoustache 3y ago
      I am also an adult who played Zelda today. And I said "most", not "all".
      - slowhadoken 3y ago
        Yeah, I get what you’re saying but you’re incorrect. Kids 12 and young only make up 5% of their market. Most Switch users are 25 to 34.