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Valve recently raised the price on the Steam Deck, making the handheld gaming PC cost up to $949 for the 1TB OLED model. While that's a massive $300 increase over its original price, the Steam Deck is once again sold out.

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[–] Zarxrax@lemmy.world 73 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can't imagine paying $1000 to play my backlog of under $5 games.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean...how big is that backlog and how much are you playing on the go? There's been no better device for handheld gaming, IMO, though I can see why it isn't tempting at that price.

[–] sompreno@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago (5 children)

While the steam deck is a good device, it and every other modern handheld is designed like the switch which is more of a couch gaming experience rather theb a true portable for playing on the go

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 2 points 14 hours ago

Yup, I take the train and everyone who's gaming is on their phone or a retro handheld. In the airport is a different story though.

[–] xspurnx@leminal.space 4 points 23 hours ago

Vita gang enters the room.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Playing on the go is all I do with mine. Beats the hell out of a laptop.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think the difference is that in 10 years when the steam deck is on its final legs, we can still play our games unlike most other consoles.

It might be a spare laptop, steam machine, or something else entirely. But we will presumibly be able to play.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can still play games on my 13 year old PS4, 20 year old Xbox 360, 30 year old N64, etc. What are you talking about? The PS5 is already 6 years old and shows no signs of not being able to play games.

[–] kboos1@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

At least until Sony and Microsoft shutdown the servers for the consoles and they can't validate themselves anymore.

If Valve ever stops supporting the SD and you still want to use it so some reason, then just install a new clean OS or just leave it in desktop mode and move on with life.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No NEW games coming out on those though

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 1 points 14 hours ago

No it's kinda great because there's already a banging catalog of games and they're dirt cheap!

[–] sompreno@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

True, but thats also true for every other modern gaming handheld other then the switch/switch 2 since they all run windows, linux or android

Either way doesn't invalidate my point

[–] chisel@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

3DS, please come back!! The AYN Thor is trying. It would be cool if valve built something like it. Preferably with the autostereoscopic display. I know it's a gimic and nobody uses it much, but damn is it a cool gimic.

[–] bilb@lemmy.ml 2 points 15 hours ago

I love the 3DS 3D effect. I had that shit on 100% of the time, and have missed it dearly.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If you're playing basic-ass games, an ARM/Android handheld may be a better bet anyway.

[–] tidderuuf@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Especially considering you could play something like 50k emulated games that span 4 gaming console generations on a handheld that cost $35.

The SteamDeck is now a luxury.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The steamdeck was always a luxery.

All video games are a luxery.

It's just now it's also expensive.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What's the best $35 handheld to get?

[–] xtools@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

at that price point, the R36S clones on Aliexpress, i got one on sale for ~€22. they play everything up to ps1/dreamcast, n64 not so much though. the romsets they come with and their metadata are really bad, and the sd card is prone to die spontaneously, so it requires some tinkering

[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

they play everything up to ps1/dreamcast, n64 not so much though.

Wait, but Dreamcast is newer than N64. Did you mean Saturn or 32X, or is N64 weirdly hard to emulate for some reason?

the R36S clones on Aliexpress, i got one on sale for ~€22.

Is there anything to watch out for, other than price (and maybe avoiding paying extra for a bigger SD card, if they're unreliable anyway)? Do ones from different sellers have different software? Should I worry about trying to avoid malware, or just assume I'm going to want to wipe the thing and re-flash as soon as I get it, or what?

[–] xtools@programming.dev 2 points 8 hours ago

what i did is going for the smallest sd card, and buy a proper bigger one, then clone the "stock" card, and copy over roms and metadata from my nicely curated Batocera drive.

it can be super tricky to get any OS that officially supports the R36S to run on the clones, so i run the OS it came with. the device isn't connected to the Internet so i don't worry too much about malware.

dreamcast is simpler to emulate, n64 notoriously isn't, I've been struggling with this system during my Raspberry Pi 3 emulation era already. the "real" R36S apparently is a tad more powerful than the cheap knockoffs, but i can't seem to find it anymore - the closest available official one would be the RG35XX for $55

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

For $35 I'm guessing whatever on FB marketplace.

Android phones tend to become pretty worthless after like 5 years, but are still perfectly good for emulation. Hell 10 years ago I was emulating the DS without any issues.

[–] minfapper@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

Just make sure you don't store any personal data on those devices. They become useless because they slowly turn into a security nightmare

[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I want to get something with a physical D-pad and buttons off Aliexpress or whatever, but I have no idea how to sort through all the random no-name choices. The only other criteria I have is that I want it to be fully Free Software with no malware and the best value for money I can find.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago
[–] MartianRecon@lemmus.org 2 points 1 day ago

Wait what? What's this?

[–] dil@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Have prices stayed the same on those? Isn't valve funding arm support since their headset uses it. Maybe prices will drop and steam deck 2 will be using similar architecture to those instead.