Steam Deck Emulation (EmuDeck 2.0) Guide

Valve’s Steam Deck is the perfect storm of handhelds: it has an exceptional price-to-performance ratio, a large game library thanks to its Steam integration, and it is becoming more readily available every month. In this guide I’ll show you how to emulate your favorite retro (and modern) game systems using a handy tool called EmuDeck.

Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
01:54 written guide and recommended tools
05:00 let's install EmuDeck
09:12 adding games and BIOS files
12:01 configuring Steam ROM Manager
19:15 EmuDeck tools & new features
22:32 quick tips & tricks
28:48 summary & conclusion

Theme song written by Jim Gray of Our Ghosts:

This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

#SteamDeck #EmuDeck #retrogaming

[illslickmatic]

God Tier Video. Had to leave a comment. As a 40-something first time PC gamer (thanks to Steam Deck) your vids have been helpful. Half the fun is getting the emulators to work as well as finding all the ROMS and BIOS. Barely even have time to play, but like I said, the set-up is half the fun and I'd be lost without videos/tutorials like these on the youtube/reddit/net. Thank you!

[Nejc]

It's crazy how much love and care went into Emudeck! Props to EVERY SINGLE person who worked on this! This is insanely great!

[enzospartan]

This is an absolutely huge update! Thanks so much to everyone involved in pushing EmuDeck forward!

[TheAwesomeDarkNinja]

Man, I feel like I need a degree in programming to understand my Steam Deck.

[samnite]

Hiding the games within Emulation Station and out of the SteamOS library was probably my most wanted feature. Thanks for the overview video Russ!

[LaurensNerdyFunStuff]

Wow this is an insane amount of work you've put into all these guides! Thank you! I've only done a little bit of set up for emudeck so I can't wait to dive back into it, once I get myself a usb hub. Doing emudeck stuff without a mouse and keyboard was painful and I'm not doing that again lol.

[AllZalty]

This video alone pushed me into buying the Steam Deck. I was hesitant but have been struggling with a good console to emulate everything and you have streamlined my decision.
Thank you!!!!

[DandelionGum]

Something you didn't mention but I found helpful.

In the rom manager there is an exceptions section. This is a feature precisely for fixing incorrectly titled/imaged games.

If you have a rom that has been incorrectly scraped you can add an exception entry for the filename, then choose what the title should be, the name the scraper should be searching for, or even better an ID for steam grid db so it can be explicitly told what rom info to populate for your rom.

For example say you have a rom named "timesplitters 1 - PS2.iso" but the rom manager thinks it's "Timesplitters Future Perfect". You can add an exception entry with the following settings:

Extracted title (what the rom filename is): timesplitters 1 - PS2
New display title (what you want the title to be): Timesplitters
New search title (what string the rom manager should use to search for info from steam grid db or what explicit id): ${gameid:35537}


The id for specific games can be found on steamgriddb (35537 is Timesplitters on PS1)

This way there is no need to rename rom files, no need to download custom images, and all the extra meta info from steamgrid is added.

[taylortimothy]

This video was SOOO helpful. I just ordered my first steam deck mainly looking forward to playing some of my nostalgic games! GameCube, ps1, ps2 games like LOTR, nfl and nba street! Way too excited but super nervous seems overwhelming with the steps! Hopefully this video and your guide can make it a breeze

[MathieuCruzel]

Emudeck seems really fantastic ! The SteamDeck is looking more and more like the ultimate gaming system, as much for current gen to emulation. And you written guide is fantastic as well, a real reference like many of your previous guides.

[salitz]

Russ, just want to say you are a pillar of the community. Your guides are so helpful, and you clearly put a lot of time into them and your videos. I don't have a Steam Deck, but this definitely makes me want one eventually! I would love to play some Xbox classics on a handheld.

[doh]

Somebody give Russ a Youtube Oscar for the excellent work he’s been doing.

[RGInquisitor]

This is fantastic! I simply cant wait for my SD to arrive. This is one of the first things I plan to do with it. Thanks a lot for the guide!

[AwkwaBear]

Great video man! So cool that you got featured as the official YouTube guide from the discord

Been using emudeck since back in April and it was still pretty user friendly back then but had a little bit of jankiness.

It’s incredible how far it has come in terms of seamlessness and being well configured since then

[Stappy]

I can't praise you enough for this incredible setup guide.. Reading your written guide now and man... I hope you are loving what you do because it is so well written. Thank you Retro Game Corps (or the individual who put this together.) :)

[LiquidTurbo]

What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday morning. Thanks for another fantastic guide! I can finally begin trying out emulation on my SD!

[hinq-uk]

Nice guide - FYI there's a better way to handle the fact you don't want individual game links in Steam ROM Manager which stops you having to redo the whole list when you add something new. Within the left menu of SRM, at the top, is an item called 'Exclusions'. You can use this to correct titles, correct it finding the wrong SGDB entry, etc but you can also use it to exclude certain titles from being imported to Steam when running the parsers. Just fill in 'Extracted Title' and turn 'Exclude Title' on.

[paradox...]

Steam Deck arrived yesterday so this guide couldn't have come at a better time 😁 big thanks!

[Kiduk]

I love you bro. Saved me so much heartache for setting up this beautiful device! God bless

[iyeetpaste]

Awesome. I ordered a new 256gb SD today for emulation, and then I see you've uploaded another of your top shelf guides for just that.
Thanks again!