Steam Deck Emulation Guide
This guide covers how to install emulators on a Steam Deck, setting up controls, playing games with optimal settings, and integrating them into Steam itself. It uses Steam ROM Manager, which automatically downloads cover art for each game and adds a shortcut to Steam. The end result will look like this, with Steam collections for each system:
This is an unofficial guide, not affiliated with Valve or any of the emulator developers. To my knowledge, it’s not possible to mess up your Deck from this guide, but I take no responsibility if you do. This guide does not cover getting ROMs or other copyrighted material.
Want to automate all of this? Check out EmuDeck, a program that sets all of this - and more - up for you.
Current Systems Supported
Open a GitHub issue to request support for a system.
Storage
This guide assumes your ROMs are under ~/roms (a folder in your home directory), with a file structure like this:
roms
├── switch
├── wii
├── gamecube
├── n64
├── snes
├── ps2
├── 3ds
├── ds
├── psp
└── pce
SD Cards
If you store your roms on an SD card, substitute ~/roms with /run/media/mmcblk0p1/roms in each guide. You’ll have to give each Flatpak access to your SD card. Open up a terminal and run
flatpak override <emulator> --filesystem=/run/media/
Substitute <emulator> with the emulator’s Flatpak name (specified in each guide). For example, Snes9x’s Flatpak name is com.snes9x.Snes9x, so you’d run
flatpak override com.snes9x.Snes9x --filesystem=/run/media/
Getting Started
To start off, switch to Desktop mode by pressing the Steam button, navigating to Power, then Switch to Desktop.
Open Firefox, then navigate to Steam ROM Manager’s latest release, and download the file ending in .AppImage that DOES NOT contain i386. It should be named something like Steam-ROM-Manager-2.3.40.AppImage.
Open SteamOS’ file manager Dolphin (it’s different from the emulator Dolphin), then navigate to wherever you saved the file, probably in Downloads. You can run it by just double-tapping the file. If prompted for Steam’s directory, enter /home/deck/.local/share/Steam.
From here, the guide branches off for each system you want to emulate:
⚠ Common Issues
- If you’ve successfully performed the setup steps for an emulator but you get a blank screen when booting a ROM, the emulator may not have access to your ROMs directory. Open a terminal and run
flatpak override <name> --filesystem=~/roms to allow it to find your ROMs. Replace <name> with the Flatpak name found in the guide for the emulator.
❓ Support
If you need any help, try asking in the #emulation channel over in the Steam Deck Discord.
📜 License
Copyright © 2022-2023 Nicholas Christopher
Unless otherwise stated, this guide is licensed under Creative Commons BY 4.0.
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