Launchbox on Steam Deck

[C-Beats]

@Hifihedgehog Yeah I didn't look at any numbers I was just using the 110k that was mentioned. Even a million units compared to the number of potential machines we hit from Windows + Android is pretty small. Like I said, I'd love to be able to get LB on the Steam Deck, but Linux was NOT made to be dev friendly for anything with a GUI. GTK is pretty garbage compared to the SDK's on other operating systems, and WPF doesn't always play real nice with WINE and other compatibility layers. Not saying it will NEVER happen, just that porting to something that can run in SteamOS is NOT a small task and our time is pretty limited seeing how we only have 2 devs on staff.

[Reggie10]

I think that you guys ignore the Steam Deck at your peril. The press and YouTube are lighting up over this thing and hailing it as bar none the best emulation device to ever exist. No need to purchase and assemble components, it runs nearly everything anyone cares about, it can be played portably or docked on a TV, and configuring things is getting easier every day as more tools are developed by the community. Once mine arrives, I'll be pretty much done with the PC I built for emulation. Might dismantle it and sell it for parts. 

I mean, yeah, most of us have already paid for a lifetime license, so my moving to the Steam Deck won't hurt LaunchBox, but I think a significant portion of people just getting into emulation are going to choose a Deck given how easy to use and hyped up it is.  Obviously you know best where your priorities should be, but I would not just dismiss the Steam Deck out of hand. 

[Hifihedgehog]

I do not think it is a matter of ignoring the Steam Deck but picking battles, allocating limited manpower, and then hedging bets accordingly hoping that it will be the most profitable choice in the long haul. Recall too that ETA PRIME has a stake in LaunchBox and also is an expert himself in SBC, APU gaming, and handheld PCs and so he keeps a very watchful eye on the market more than us enthusiasts. I think if anyone there at LaunchBox might clue in the team to what he sees as a tidal wave of revenue in the emulation market that makes it worth the opportunity cost of development time, it would be him. All I know is right now, anecdotally, Steam Deck users are clamoring for a decent all-in-one emulation experience that scrapes halfway decently and is easily tweaked and tuned. No shocker, Steam ROM Manager’s built-in scraper is pretty bad right now, but commits and issue logs are hitting warp speed thanks to Steam Deck in stark contrast to the years of snail’s pace development. Meanwhile, even more exciting, EmuDeck only came out a week ago and is like a roller coaster ride, going from nothing to everything in a week’s time. Talk about breakneck development cycle and overnight viral sensation. EmuDeck leverages Steam Rom Manager and EmuDeck is seeing as much as hourly commits everyday now. Emulation is a top consideration for many if not most Steam Deck owners and EmuDeck’s Reddit announcement thread that blew up overnight much to everyone’s surprise including the developer is proof of it:
 

EmuDeck already supports several dozen consoles now with no sign of slowing. It somehow now even supports Cemu which itself is not native to Linux. 

https://www.emudeck.com/

Edited March 28, 2022 by Hifihedgehog

[umbrellacorp53]

Currently reading this thread on my Deck (and typing. The brand new split keyboard is awesome!). I'm a week 2 recipient, so I've had a couple of weeks to test it out. This thing is going to be enormously popular. I've never owned anything that has garnered this much intrigue and excitement from so many random people. Also, keep in mind that SteamOS is poised to be used in a product category, much like the experimental OS I remember was installed on my old G1 phone... oh, what was that odd OS called with the app drawer and the pulldown notifications? Ah, Android, that's right. But who would want to develop for a Linux based phone? 

I'm playing around a bit, and clearly bringing my biases with me. I mostly wanted to drop in and say that a vast library of Windows games are working very well through proton. If the team were to test out Launchbox and BigBox on steamOS 3.0 and redirect the file system to the appropriate destinations then it might be all that needs to be done. The attention garnered from an official release, and possibly listing the free version on Steam would most likely pay for itself. Just look at Dbrand already making money on the Deck accessory preorders. 

I think it's a scene that's worth being on the forefront of. Just one biased fanboy's take.

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by umbrellacorp53

[umbrellacorp53]

I want to add that emulation is far from a niche use case for the Deck. With user friendly software it could be primary. I mean, the damn thing is already running current gen (Japanese game company) games flawlessly as well as all the GC and Wii games that are stuck in the vault.

[dracossaint]

Not trying to say you're missing the boat or pressing about adding steamdeck support or etc.

I get that you have to pick your battles, that's the smart thing to do! but theirs a few things I'd like to point out for consideration. Mainly because i believe it is relevant to the subject matter.

I feel steamos 3.0 has a strong chance of becoming the majority for linux gaming. It has a really large player in the gaming industry backing it. Valve. (Arguably amd, but they probably dont have a large horse in the race. Also nvidia is putting some work in, not sure on the ruling for links. Soo I'll put a search term "Valve has NVIDIA working to get Gamescope working on their drivers" )

Other handheld makers have been hinting at trying steam os 3.0 on their handhelds. (OnexPlayer). Also if worked out as a flatpack. It would become platform agnostic (well long as the os supports flatpacks) user generated things could be worked out with flatseal for anything exotic?

But there's definitely the elephant of how to properly maintain a premium version, not sure if that's possible/impossible or what it entails.

I'm not a developer, so I have no idea beyond speculation based on what i do know. Hell maybe Lutris is a solid hope for that even?  

Oh and One silly aside, I actually wanted/got my steamdeck because i wanted it for emulation and steam games was a cool bonus. But im a bit odd for sure

[RedAvatar]

My Steam Deck will arrived this week and the FIRST thought I had, was to use it for my arcade cabinet. I could easily 3D print something so I can add a dock on top of the arcade - just drop in the Steam Deck and voila, the screen, iPac, etc. are connected. It seems like a good marriage to me.

However ... Valve has said many times it won't give Windows support, probably because they want to push developers to add support for Linux or to make it work properly using Proteus. Frankly I think they WILL add Windows support because they'll find the demand for dual booting will become quite big and they may find that Proteus won't offer enough compatibility compared to Windows. ETA seemed to get Windows to work rather well compared to LTT who basically said it was an incredibly rough experience.

So yeah, it's a bit of a gamble - do you develop for Linux and then find out the Steam Deck will get proper Windows support after all? Or do you just develop regardless of the Steam Deck, knowing you'll at least have a Linux alternative? Maybe a poll asking if people would pay for an extra Linux version would shed some light but even then ...

[dragon57]

On 4/26/2022 at 5:19 AM, RedAvatar said:

My Steam Deck will arrived this week and the FIRST thought I had, was to use it for my arcade cabinet. I could easily 3D print something so I can add a dock on top of the arcade - just drop in the Steam Deck and voila, the screen, iPac, etc. are connected. It seems like a good marriage to me.

However ... Valve has said many times it won't give Windows support, probably because they want to push developers to add support for Linux or to make it work properly using Proteus. Frankly I think they WILL add Windows support because they'll find the demand for dual booting will become quite big and they may find that Proteus won't offer enough compatibility compared to Windows. ETA seemed to get Windows to work rather well compared to LTT who basically said it was an incredibly rough experience.

So yeah, it's a bit of a gamble - do you develop for Linux and then find out the Steam Deck will get proper Windows support after all? Or do you just develop regardless of the Steam Deck, knowing you'll at least have a Linux alternative? Maybe a poll asking if people would pay for an extra Linux version would shed some light but even then ...

There is a native linux build of Emulation Station you could use in the mean time. ETA Prime has a video on it. Hopefully a native LB will arrive one day.

[WeaponZ]

I would love LaunchBox/BigBox on my Steam Deck too.

But for now I settle with EmuDeck. I didn´t want my steam interface poluted with roms so I chose to only use the steam rom manager to create an entry for EmulationStation DE.

EmulationStation DE is working very well but off course its not nearly as pretty as BigBox 🙂

Emulators are working like a charm and I can emulate everything from Atari2600 up to PS3, Wii and Switch flawlessly.

For me Steam Deck is my dream portable emulator, PS Vita served me well, Powkiddy v90 is good for older games and formfactor is great for a daily burner. Switch is also pretty good but this Steam Deck is fantastic and Arch Linux is my favorite branch.

[umbrellacorp53]

Well, I spent a good part of the day trying to get LB/BB to work through Proton. It's hard enough just getting the files onto the Deck since the MicroSD uses ext3/ext4 as a format instead of NTFS or something Windows Compatible. I ended up formatting a MicroSD to NTFS, then plugging it into a USB-C adapter to transfer to the MicroSD that I had actually inserted into the Deck. Weird workaround but it got the files onto the Deck. 

I tried adding LaunchBox as a non-Steam game and using Proton compatibility. After launching it gave me a warning that it needed to install .net files. This prompt did nothing and the game closed. I used ProtonTricks to acquire the necessary .net dependencies. The next time I launched it I no longer received the warning. It just simply closed.

[dracossaint]

I know it's a little late, but theirs a program called Warpinator you can yse yo transfer files via windows to the steamdeck. You'd install it on the deck and windows, a lot simpler then the usb-c port. Found it out after using a external hard drive to transfer game backups from steam. 

[Alumriel]

I would be happy to pay for a linux/steam version if Jason ever decides to make one.

[Kamengamerretro]

My Steam Deck is on its way, and I to would LOVE to use LB on it, that or I will dual boot Windows and Steam OS to do it

[D-Arcade]

How well does Steam Deck run on Wine as of now? I can't wait to run Launchbox and Big Box when I get my hands on steam deck.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, D-Arcade said:

How well does Steam Deck run on Wine as of now? I can't wait to run Launchbox and Big Box when I get my hands on steam deck.

Launchbox doesnt currently work under wine i believe, so you wont be able to run Launchbox on the steamdeck.

[dracossaint]

2 hours ago, D-Arcade said:

How well does Steam Deck run on Wine as of now? I can't wait to run Launchbox and Big Box when I get my hands on steam deck.

For future reference, their is integration of steamdeck stuff with protonDB. to check games and such.

The desktop environment is KDE plasma, the file system is immutable, but lets ya have free run as much as it can without risking breaking things. So ya can mod .ini files for games without much fuss, but dont expect to depricate the desktop environment and put your own.

You can install stuff like Lutris, heroic game launcher and use the built in proton/wine libraries or add extra versions of proton (glorious eggroll)

You'll use the discover store for most of This, or ya know app images.

then you can set a specific version of proton per game and have ge bundled in the same menu. (A similar example is hooe you opt for a beta version of a game and it works for non steam games as well)

That's been my experience with wine and proton, but I admit I am very much new when it comes to linux and wine.

[bsmitty]

I love the Bigbox save game feature. Steam could bring that natively on their own platform. But what we want is native integration of LaunchBox/Bigbox that can sync our saves to the cloud between our home computer where we use Bigbox on Windows and a native Steam Deck implementation. Please bring this. I would even pay another fee for it (already paid for lifetime Bigbox).

[NeoNight1986]

Just throwing in my two cents. I love and adore lunchbox. It is the way i launch games on my Windows PC and the emulation i have on my android. I would also purchase and use the steam os version should it ever be made over anything else. 

[Vergil365]

i also would love to have bigbox in my steam deck and would buy another lifetime license for it.

[cleverest]

I would also love Launchbox/BigBox on the Steamdeck. I'm getting mine in a few days!