I am a first time SteamDeck owner as of yesterday. Super excited to receive it!

I was curious what the best methods of emulation are. I was looking and I saw that I can buy a microSD card with loads of games and console emulations. Seems pretty convenient and cheap though I am sure there are drawbacks that I am not aware of. Please let me know of those, if any.

The one drawback I can think of is that Id be paying for emulation but I need to buy a SD card anyway and that would really just cover the cost of the SD card and my emulators would already be set up. The one I am looking at is a Batocera card which is around $35 for a 512GB microSD with 51,400 games installed. Though, I’ve seen others for cheaper. Also a draw back would be that I wouldn’t be selecting the games I want, though I am sure I could just add and remove what I want/don want. So, that’s a consideration of mine.

I also don’t mind doing some leg work and doing it myself, finding the exact games I want to emulate. I do enjoy tinkering and learning how to do things. I did look for an Emulation MEGAthread on this subreddit and couldnt find it. Would be cool if there was one. So, with all that said, if you all want to lend your opinion and perspective on what the best/top emulation softwares to use, best practices and whatever else I would be very grateful. Thank you.

  • thevictor390@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Emudeck is great for picking out emulators that work well and setting them all up. You still need to source your own games. I wouldn’t trust buying a preloaded SD card, it’s probably the cheapest card imaginable and full of crap you don’t want.

    The reason there isn’t a megathread is it’s pretty much the same as a Linux PC, Emudeck helps you install but all of the apps are standard Linux apps.

    But remember, emulation is just a means to an end. What do you actually want to play? Grab some games you like and go, no need to worry about having 50,000 more in the backlog…