If you want to play popular retro games from various systems on your Steam Deck, then download EmuDeck as it will make the process much easier. EmuDeck is a tool that you can download and install on SteamDeck to play popular retro games available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 1, NES/SNES, GameBoy, GameCube & Wii.
With simple steps, you can install up to 160 emulators and supporting utilities to your Steam Deck. It also pre-configures all the controls, aspect ratio settings, etc. so really there is very little configuration required on your part to get up and running.
How to install EmuDeck on your Steam Deck?
The steps are simple and easy to follow:
- Press the Steam button and scroll down to power, and then select Switch to Desktop Mode.
- You can also bring up this menu by holding the power button.
- Download the EmuDeck installer.
- Once the download finishes move the EmuDeck.desktop file to your desktop and double-click to start the installation process.
- During the installation, you need to configure some necessary options i.e.
- Where to install EmuDeck
- What emulators get
- Which emulators will be pre-configured
- The aspect ratio of your games
- Screen flicker
- To play the game launch Steam Rom Manager from the games section of your installed apps.
- Click Preview and then click Generate app list in the bottom left.
- Once it generates the list, click Save app list.
How to uninstall EmuDeck on your Steam Deck?
- Enter Desktop mode on your Steam Deck.
- Double-click the Uninstall EmuDeck icon from the Desktop.
- When prompted Do you really want to uninstall EmuDeck? , select Nope, I want to uninstall EmuDeck.
- Next, you’ll want to remove all the Steam Rom Manager entries. To do that, click the Launch SRM button.
- Click on the Settings option on the left sidebar.
- Click the button on the right that states Remove all added app entries.
- When you see the toast message, Entries have been removed, in the lower-right you can now close out of Steam Rom Manager.
- You’ll now see a dialog stating This will delete EmuDeck… Just click the OK button without selecting any of the options.
- EmuDeck will begin to uninstall.
- Once you see the Done! dialog, click the OK button.
- EmuDeck is now uninstalled.
How to update EmuDeck?
Follow the same steps as mentioned above while uninstalling the Emudeck. Once it is completely uninstalled you can download the Emudeck v2.
Tools offered to manage emulators on your Deck
EmuDeck now has a handy button on the main interface called Tools & Stuff. The tools here are very useful for managing the emulators on your Deck as well as improving how well they perform. Below we’ll take a look at each.
- SteamRomManager – The SteamRomManager (or SRM), will allow parsing all the emulators and generating artwork for the games you’ve copied to your machine. You can customize each of the grid/poster images for those games.
- Quick Reset – Update or reset your installation to the latest EmuDeck version by clicking Reinstall.
- Custom Reset – Update or reset your installation to the latest EmuDeck version in custom mode.
- PowerTools – PowerTools is a plugin that is available on the Quick Access (“…”) button on the right side of the device. Select the option that looks like a plug and you’ll see the PowerTools listed there if installed. In order to install this plugin, you’ll need to set a Sudo password. The UI within EmuDeck makes this easy, just remember your password!
- DeckyControls – An EmuDeck Decky Loader Plugin to easily view emulator hotkeys within Game Mode.
- Gyroscope– This is a plugin that allows you to use the Steam Deck Gyroscope within the Cemu emulator for Wii U games.
- EmuDeck Compressor – This script will search through your roms and compress them (up to 70%) from their original size. This will reduce the amount of space that they take up on your Steam Deck.
- BIOS Checker – If you’re having issues loading some games, this tool will make it easy to check if one of the emulators is missing BIOS files. Not all systems require a Bios and there are some that aren’t being checked by this tool.
- Cloud Backup(Currently Beta) – Allows you to back up your game saves to the cloud. This feature will be handy in the future for sharing the game saves across multiple devices (i.e. Steam Deck and Win600).
- Cloud Services Manager – Manage your cloud services, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and more.
- Retro Achievements – Configure RetroAchivements for Duckstation, PCSX2, and RetroArch.
- Migrate Installation – Migrate your EmuDeck installation to your SD Card or vice-versa.
- Fetch Log File – Troubleshoot your EmuDeck install.
- ChangeLog – Read about the latest changes to EmuDeck.
- Uninstall– If you no longer wish to have EmuDeck installed on your Steam Deck, you can use this option to remove it. Keep in mind, your games/bios files will remain and will need to be deleted manually using the Dolphin File Manager.
- Become a Patron – Consider supporting EmuDeck on Patreon.
How to Clear App Entries from EmuDeck?
In the case where you’ve added a bunch of ROMs to your Steam Deck and later decide to start fresh, you can. To do that, perform the following:
- Open Steam ROM Manager.
- Select the Settings option on the left panel.
- Under General settings (at the right), click Remove (all added app entries).
- This will remove the app entries/configuration from your Steam Deck. At this point, you can add/remove your roms from the Steam Deck, then re-run the Steam ROM Manager to rebuild the list of games.
Using Steam Rom Manager
This option gives you all your games presented with their box art as if they were a regular Steam Game. EmuDeck has preloaded configurations for Steam Rom Manager for the following systems:
| System | Emulator | Roms format | File Required in the base of Emulation/bios (or special consideration) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atari 2600 | Retroarch Stella core | .7z .a26 .bin .zip | |
| Atari Lynx | Retroarch Beetle Lynx core | .7z .lnx .bin .zip | |
| Cloud Services | Web Browser | .sh | cloud/cloud.conf |
| Final Burn Neo | Retroarch Fbn core | .zip .7z | Bioses will be searched through 3 folders : * the folder of the current romset * the Emulation/bios/fbneo/ * the Emulation/bios/ |
| Mame 2003 Plus | Retroarch Mame 2003 Plus core | .zip | |
| Mame 2010 | Retroarch Mame 2010 core | .zip | |
| Mame Current | Retroarch Mame Current core | .zip | |
| Microsoft Xbox | Xemu | .iso (xiso formatted) | Emulation/bios: mcpx_1.0.bin modified retail “COMPLEX 4627” BIOS Emulation/storage/xemu: xbox_hdd.qcow2 |
| Neo Geo Pocket & Color | Retroarch Beetle NeoPop | .7z .ngp .ngc .bin .zip | |
| Nintendo 3DS | Citra | .3ds .3dsx .app .axf .cci .cxi .elf .cia(FOR INSTALL ONLY) | Title keys required for encrypted rom types |
| Nintendo 64 | Retroarch Mupen64plus-Next | .7z .bin .n64 .ndd .u1 .v64 .z64 .zip | |
| Nintendo DS | Retroarch melonDS core | .7z .nds .zip | bios7.bin bios9.bin firmware.bin |
| Nintendo GameBoy | Retroarch Gambatte core | .7z .gb .dmg .zip | |
| Nintendo GameBoy Advance | Retroarch mGBA core | .7z .gba .zip | |
| Nintendo GameBoy Color | Retroarch Gambatte core | .7z .gb .gbc .dmg .zip | |
| Nintendo GameCube | Dolphin Standalone | .ciso .dol .elf .gcm .gcz .iso .nkit.iso .rvz .wad .wia .wbfs | |
| Nintendo NES | Retroarch Nestopia core | .7z .nes .fds .unf .unif .zip | |
| Nintendo PrimeHack | PrimeHack (Metroid Prime specific) | .ciso .dol .elf .gcm .gcz .iso .json .nkit.iso .rvz .wad .wia .wbfs | |
| Nintendo Switch | Yuzu | .kp .nca .nro .nso .nsp .xci | Title keys required for encrypted rom types firmware installation with valid mii data required for some games |
| Nintendo Wii | Dolphin Standalone | .ciso .dol .elf .gcm .gcz .iso .json .nkit.iso .rvz .wad .wia .wbfs | |
| Nintendo Wii U | Cemu | .rpx .wud .wux .elf .iso .wad | Title keys required for encrypted rom types |
| Remote Play Clients | (Chiaki, Moonlight, Parsec) | .sh (flatpak) | |
| Sega 32X | Retroarch PicoDrive core | .7z .32x .bin .zip | |
| Sega CD | Retroarch Genesis Plus GX core | .7z .32x .cue .chd .iso .zip | bios_CD_E.bin bios_CD_U.bin bios_CD_J.bin |
| Sega Dreamcast | Retroarch FlyCast Core | .7z .cdi .chd .cue .gdi .m3u | dc/dc_boot.bin |
| Sega Game Gear | Retroarch Genesis Plus GX core | .7z .gg .zip | |
| Sega Genesis / Mega Drive | Retroarch Genesis Plus GX core | .7z .gen .md .smd .zip | |
| Sega Genesis Widescreen | Retroarch Genesis Plus GX Wide core | .7z .gen .md .smd .zip | |
| Sega Master System | Retroarch Genesis Plus GX core | .7z .gen .sms .zip | |
| Sega Saturn | Retroarch Yabause core | .7z .cue .iso .chd .zip .m3u | sega_101.bin mpr-17933.bin |
| Sony Playstation | DuckStation Standalone Retroarch Beetle HW | .cue .chd .ecm .iso .m3u .mds .pbp | scph5500.bin scph5501.bin scph5502.bin |
| Sony Playstation 2 | PCSX2 & PCSX2 QT | .bin .chd .cso .dump .gz .img .iso .mdf .nrg | Bios files are required. Here is an example set: SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_EUR_200.BIN SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_EUR_200.EROM SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_EUR_200.ROM1 SCPH-70004_BIOS_V12_EUR_200.ROM2 |
| Sony Playstation 3 | RPCS3 | /PS3_GAME/USRDIR/eboot.bin | Firmware installation in the Emulator is required. |
| Sony Playstation Portable | PPSSPP Standalone PPSSPP Retroarch core | .7z (RA only) .elf .cso .iso .pbp .prx | The retroarch core requires ppsspp.zip in the bios folder. You can obtain it from within RetroArch’s downloader. Standalone PPSSPP does not require anything special. |
| Super Nintendo | Retroarch Snes9x Current core | .7z .bs .fig .sfc .smc .swx .zip | |
| Super Nintendo Widescreen | Retroarch bsnes hd beta Current core | .7z .bs .fig .sfc .smc .swx .zip | |
| Wonderswan & Color | Retroarch Beetle Cygne core | .7z .pc2 .ws .wsc .zip |
EmuDeck Buttons
We try to use the same buttons for every emulator but some of them have their own different ones, as shown here:
| Hotkey | RetroArch | Dolphin | Citra* | Cemu* | Yuzu | PCSX2* | RPCS3 | Cloud* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Menu | L3 + R3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Exit | Select + Start | Select + Start | R5 | Select + Start | Select + Start | STEAM Button | STEAM Button | Select + Start |
| Pause/Unpause Emulation | Select + A | Select + A | – | – | Select + A | – | – | |
| Fast Forward | Select + R2 | Select + R2 | – | – | Select + R2 | Select + R2 | – | – |
| Load State | Select + L1 | Select + L1 | – | – | – | Select + L1 | – | – |
| Save State | Select + R1 | Select + R1 | – | – | – | Select + R1 | – | – |
| Full Screen | – | – | L4 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Swap Screens | – | – | R4 | R4 | – | – | – | – |
| Toggle Layout | – | – | L5 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Hold Action Set* | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | L4 |
