Hello all, I was hoping to pick up a machine for 1080p gaming on a TV primarily for playing couch party games on emulators (switch, ps3, wii, etc) and was wondering if the deck would be a good fit? I’ve heard before that there were some problems with docks but not sure if that’s been resolved. Any insight is appreciated
The ONLY problem I have had with this, is the controller on the system itself defaults as controller 1, so SOME games it takes a little fiddling to use different controllers. But I have done this and it works great.
I’ve used a handful of different USB to HDMI docks, and I haven’t had any problems with any of them. I just use an anker dock that supports gigabit ethernet, 100W power passthrough, and HDMI, and it works just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087QZVQJX/
You can use just about any controllers using Bluetooth, I really like the wireless XBox controllers (only supported over Bluetooth) for this. But I’ve also used the Switch controllers and they work fine.
It’s really just a slightly expensive setup for what it is, but it’s also very portable, so…
The ONLY problem I have had with this, is the controller on the system itself defaults as controller 1, so SOME games it takes a little fiddling to use different controllers. But I have done this and it works great.
I don’t know if you’re talking about in-game fiddling or Steam Input but to clarify for others here: Steam allows to reorder the controllers, so the thing I usually do at the beginning of game party is to move the Deck’s integrated inputs to the last place.
Yes, some games just let you select which controller is which, some of them you have to manually set it in the Steam Input settings before you launch the game.
Should work fine, although I found connecting 4 bluetooth controllers at once to the LCD deck didn’t always work reliably. The OLED model has a better wireless chip, so this shouldn’t be an issue. The OLED model also supports waking up when you turn on a controller, but this only works if the controller supports bluetooth low energy (BLE). Xbox controllers do, but if you’re using a different controller you’ll need to check if it supports it or not (if you want this feature).
Dock’s have become much more reliable. The official dock is overly expensive imo, but it recently was updated to support CEC where the deck can turn the TV on and switch inputs to the Deck, which makes it a lot nicer for Docked play. I don’t know if any of the cheaper 3rd party docks support CEC yet.
You mentioned switch emulation, but not all switch games run well. You’ll need to check on the specific games you want to play.
When emulating, the Deck’s built in controls will usually default to player 1. You can rearrange the controller order in both the quick-access-menu (on the deck press the “. . .” button, on other controllers hold the “home” button and press A), and in the steam input menu.
Didn’t know about the controller wake up or the CEC features so that’s cool to hear! And do you know if using a controller with a 2.4G dongle like some 8bitdo would be better for stability than a bluetooth controller?
I can only speak for Wii emulation, it works great.
OLED deck have excellent Bluetooth compatibility with WiiMotes, I can hook up 4 of them using emulated bluetooth mode. (Can’t get passthru mode working tho)
Some configuration beforehand such as changing all four controller slots into “real WiiMote” & enable continues scanning is all you need to do.
Just a side note. Switching between handheld and docked mode is a dull process. In order to switch input source you have to go to desktop mode every time.
If you want an emulation machine for classic games, homebrew Wii can do a lot. Not sure what good options exist for switch and ps3 though.
I regularly use mine as a couch co-op party system, though usually we are playing Steam games, not emulated games. I have played emulated WiiU, Wii, PS2, GameCube games, however, and have found that multi-controller support can be a pain with the emulators needed to play.
Hardware wise, it’s rock solid for Bluetooth controllers up to four, but no more. If you need more than four controllers, you will want to wire them in with a USB hub. We’ve played plenty of six-person Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brawler using four Xbox controllers, one person with a wired steam controller, and one person holding the steam deck as the last controller.
If you go for older retro games, N64 or earlier, it gets a lot easier as retroarch is easy to play around with in game mode, where if you need to get into dolphin or something you have to go into desktop mode to make tweaks and it’s just a pain, imo. This is why we typically play older stuff or steam stuff. Steam stuff is easy because it just works.
It’s also super portable and I can bring the whole setup in a backpack and just requires a USB C laptop charger, my usb c dock and a HDMI cord.
