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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
founded 4 years ago
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RetroDECK Blog - Retro Gaming Flatpak - May 2025: Mad Community Scientists
(retrodeck.readthedocs.io)
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I’m here for another little post to share the interesting things I’ve spotted in gaming! Be it Steam Deck, Linux, general gaming or probably-not-relevant-at-all! And I know, it’s been 2 days since my last of these posts:
...but that was a dedicated GOG-specific one, so I reserve the right to inundate you all, if you’ll let me.
M aim is to phrase this in a more personal manner than most gaming sites do now. My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:
- image/gif/link heavy (I’m a big GIF fan – and I pronounce it with a hard ‘g’)
- personal voice (no 1930’s nasal radio presenter voice here!)
- mostly news or articles or points you won’t find on the ‘big’ gaming sites, these are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I figure you’ll have spotted the big news posts elsewhere!
So grab a coffee? Or a tea? Or a tequila? And enjoy <3
Winlator:
What is Winlator?
Winlator is an Android application that lets you to run Windows (x86_64) applications with Wine and Box86/Box64. It’s been very much the hot ticket in the last few months, with the Android emulation scene being deeply invested. I vaguely remember some handheld being developed that even uses this in their marketing (though for the life of me I can’t remember which?!)
Games like GTA V, The Witcher 3, Tomb Raider 2013 run perfectly fine depending on the device. It’s kinda like the new ‘what’s next in gaming’ for phones.
What’s happened?
The Android scene has a reputation for having some rather rabid fans. Then there’s a breakaway group of those fans who are just shitty people. Harassing the devs of these projects is far-too-common in that scene, and it seems it has finally hit Winlator also. So we’ve seen a hefty amount of that in the last two or three days, but also the developer has been accused of virus activity being found.
So...dev stumbles, fans harass, and the project is dead.
Goodbye Winlator...for now?
Elden Ring
I’ve tried. Maybe 4 times now I’ve tried to like Elden Ring? I adore the fantasy settings, and this one has a grim Gothic edge to it which should really appeal to me...but I can’t take being killed 48 times before I can figure out a pattern.
Ironically, I love Death’s Door and Tunic (I know, Tunic is not souls-y, but it still has some of those elements to it)
Anyway, Elden Ring has now sold over 30 million copies. So I know for a fact I am in the minority, so I suppose if you’re tarnished – celebrate?
BTW, are you excited for the upcoming Elden Ring-y multiplayer game Nightreign? The specs required have been released, too:
Early Access:
I think I’ve got one E.A. game, because I love the ocean and any underwater settings (Leviathan and Deep Star Six, anyone?), which actually equates to 2.38% of my Steam Library (I’m an avid GOG buyer, not Steam!) – called Ocean Keeper (an underwater rogue-lite game).
Typically, I’ve no interest in Early Access, I don’t think I should pay to have a dev push an unfinished game on me, I get to deal with the bugs, and then have a shit time. But, it seems everyone else kinda loves it.
This graph shows you just how popular this has gotten, and is getting over the years. It’s a sad new state of gaming, but its showing no signs of slowing down:
Blacklist:
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist now has achievements!
Agents,
We are pleased to announce that Steam Achievements are now available for Splinter Cell: Blacklist!
As a heads up, achievements will be retroactively earned for the accomplishments already completed in your game. For the sync to happen, you need to launch the game once. Once synced, the previously unlocked Ubisoft Connect achievements will be automatically unlocked on Steam.
To ensure that you can complete 100% of the Steam Achievements for Splinter Cell: Blacklist, we've removed 19 achievements that required online services that are no longer available for the game.
Nightdive:
Nightdive Studios uploaded an interesting video to YouTube.
In this special Deep Dive bonus interview, Nightdive's Locke Vincent and Larry Kuperman sit down with Bartosz Kwietniewski (Head of Business Development) and Marcin Paczyński (Senior Business Development Manager) at GOG.com to explore Nightdive's relationship with GOG, how GOG has grown and evolved over the years, the importance of game preservation, and more!
At 29:30 it’s got a nice little length to it, and if you’re like me and love YouTube but hate ads, I’m going to recommend either uBlock Origin on your desktop browser, or something like NewPipe on Android to watch it without a trillion shitty annoying ads. And I know, there’s probably no one here on Lemmy who doesn’t know how to circumvent ads but...better to warn for that possibility!
Anyway, here’s the video’s link, really worth a watch!
Nightdive Again:
There’s also an interview with Stephen Kick (Nightdive CEO) on Epic Games’ blog site. It’s really interesting – I’ve found so many interviews with big names behind the big games on Epic’s blog, irrespective of your (no doubt negative) opinion on their company – so I really encourage you to read this one!
It makes me very excited for the upcoming System Shock 2 25th Anniversary Remaster.
You can find that interview on Epic’s site by following this link!
Front-ends:
I’m not even sure if that’s something I should hyphenate or not. Is it a single word? Does it matter?
I’m just curious whether anyone here uses them, and if so what they do use?!
I just wondered what people might use, and what they think of them! There’s certainly a lot of options these days for desktop gaming :)
GOG & Pix:
Exciting news for our Brazilian gamers!
Pix payment is now fully available on the GOG store
Starting now, you can choose this popular instant payment method provided by the Central Bank of Brazil at checkout to grab any title you want – fast, simple, hassle-free, and yours to keep forever
Thank you for being a part of the GOG community – you rock!
As to what Pix is, you can find that out here
They already had an option called "Bank Transfer" for Brazil, which was actually paid with PIX through BoaCompra. The new method is listed directly as PIX on the cart. Its been tested and it's basically the same, only through other payment processor. Only real difference was that is hasn’t given an e-mail confirmation from the payment processor, only the standard GOG receipt.
Star Wars:
AND some more nice GOG news (they've been so busy lately!):
With Star Wars Day approaching, we want to honor this amazing franchise in the best way we can: by adding iconic classics from a galaxy far, far away to the GOG Preservation Program!
- STAR WARS™ Dark Forces (Classic, 1995)
- STAR WARS™: X-Wing Special Edition
- STAR WARS™ Battlefront (Classic, 2004)
- Star Wars™: Rebel Assault 1 + 2
- STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition
General consensus is that KOTOR would have been a nice one to have added to the program, but this is still amazing news to read.
You can find the latest games added to the program here with this link to GOG’s site
Junk Store turns one:
This was their own announcement, it’s just easier for me to just copy and paste their announcement straight-up here for you to read:
Today marks one year since we launched version 1.0 of Junk Store — and what a year it's been.
Version 1.0 was met with a lot of enthusiasm, with over 250,000 downloads to date. We also released a GOG extension, which has seen solid uptake. Since then, we’ve made countless updates and improvements to both.
Along the way, we rewrote Junk Store into a standalone version and even got it accepted onto the Steam Store — briefly. While that was a setback, it pushed us to build something even better.
Instead of relying on Steam, we created our own infrastructure: a full web portal, a storefront, new build and delivery pipelines, and a much-improved Junk Store. All the work we did preparing for Steam wasn’t wasted — it made Junk Store stronger and more flexible than it ever could have been tied to Valve’s systems.
We built our own installers, downloaders, and streamlined extension management (it’s now a single button click). We added support for Amazon, Epic, GOG, and any emulator you can call from the command line. There's even a global download queue — which, not joking, probably cost over 1,000 hours of blood, sweat, and code over the last year.
Now, we're closing in on a major launch. We'll have more details soon, including what the final release will look like and what the cost will be.
We know not everyone will be thrilled that the next version isn't free — but the original open-source version will remain available for those who want it. We're aiming for a model that’s both fair and sustainable, so we can keep building and supporting Junk Store for the long haul.
Thanks to everyone who's been with us on this ride. We truly appreciate your support, without you we wouldn't have made it this far.
The best is still ahead.
As always,
The Junk Store Team
Expedition 33:
Made by a small team of just 30 members, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has now sold over one million copies (as of three days after their launch). They also boast a nice fact that they reached over 120,000 concurrent players on Steam, too.
One thing is for sure, this is a beautiful game, and if you haven’t played it yet its so worth your time!
It’s also:
8BitDo:
Known for their 3rd party controllers for like...everything, which also happen to be quite high quality, 8BitDo has announced it is no longer shipping to the US from China. The 145% tariffs are once again to blame, as is the removal of exemptions for shipments under $800.
Last News Post I listed other companies in the same space (like Anbernic and Retroid) who have stopped shipping to the US after these dumb tariffs.
(you can see here the estimated tariff charge on the Retroid Pocket 5 from AliExpress – I found this image a user (No_Clock) posted which helps illustrate the cost you might expect)
U.S. buyers can still order items from *8BitDo’s U.S. warehouse, but the website doesn’t clearly indicate stock availability—only the checkout process reveals which products can’t be shipped. Popular items like the Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller, N64 mod kit, and mini Xbox controller are some of those currently unavailable.
The tariffs classify video game consoles and accessories as toys (not tech), making them subject to high costs. This has caused panic (which is my understatement of the century) in the gaming world, leading to layoffs and halted operations for some companies.
MAME:
Have you been wondering what MAME 0.277 will bring? Well, now you can find out! First of all, we’ve added support for compiling on 64-bit ARM-based systems running Windows 11 using the MSYS2 CLANGARM64 environment. Updates to included third-party libraries should resolve some issues people were having with new compilers and development environments.
In improvements that you can see, Konami GX blending effects are now looking much nicer, Sega Model 2 3D geometry is behaving better, and some remaining issues with Philips CD-i graphics decoding have been fixed. You may be able to hear improved sound emulation in some Famicom, WonderSwan, and Game Boy games, too. If that’s too subtle, you should be able to hear the difference in the DMX and LinnDrum percussion synthesisers.
There’s a big update for the Apple II and Macintosh floppy disk software lists this month. A lot of Macintosh NuBus cards have been overhauled as well, so let us know if we’ve inadvertently broken your virtual Macintosh setup. There are plenty of other software list additions, including a batch of tapes for Sinclair computers.
That’s all we’re going to cover here, but much more has happened this month in MAME development. You can read all about it in the whatsnew.txt file
Epic Games:
Teased a free game coming soon, in-line with other Star Wars announcements, it looks like you’ll get a free-to-claim Star Wars title!
Delta Force:
If you were hoping Delta Force might be supported on Linux, then don’t hold your breath:
La Quimera:
...has been quietly delayed. Worth noting is that this happened on their release day, with no official announcement as to why, or when to expect it to arrive. More odd is that it was posted by the devs to their discussion board on Steam, but it was quickly deleted. So...who knows.
Custom GameBoy:
I’ve shared MaSaKee’s work before, but this is a user who hacks hardware and creates their own ‘versions’ of handheld consoles.
This time they have GBA built into a Wii Classic Controller! Images as follows:
Game Pass:
Seven games have been announced for Game Pass for May 2025 (so far!):
- Anno 1800 (May 1)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (May 1)
- Dredge (May 6) one of my fav games of all time!!!
- Revenge of the Savage Planet (May 8)
- DOOM: The Dark Ages (May 15)
- To A T (May 28)
- Spray Paint Simulator (May TBD)
Wizordum:
Wizordum is finally out of early access!
The Ancient Seal of Terrabruma has shattered, unleashing the forces of Chaos once more. As one of the last Mages of Wizordum sanctuary, you must embark on a quest to find the source of this corruption and push the Chaos back before they consume the kingdom in a speedrun-friendly fantasy FPS tearing a page from the spellbooks of ‘90s fantasy FPS classics like Hexen and Heretic.
You can read their announcement here on Steam!
GOG error:
Have you seen the cute lil GOG display? I adore it!
Coming Soon:
I’ve been asking my friends if they’ll agree to me ‘interviewing’ them (this is a very loose term, it’s just going to be a question-and-answer which might be the least professional thing you’ll ever see) and posting those here.
I’ve done this before in the past (back when I was on Reddit), but I suppose I want to expand the idea and post them here.
I like the idea of getting to know the people – the devs, support and community managers behind the projects you use on Steam Deck and Linux. I feel like sometimes those people are forgotten, and its the end product you see, not those behind it.
A peep behind the curtains, so to speak.
To start with I’m organizing this with Lazorne (and the RetroDECK team), but will also be doing this with AA (of Decky Loader), the Junk Store team, two YouTubers who create content on Linux and the Steam Deck...and so on.
Hopefully this will be fun, at least it’s something unique to Lemmy, and again – I think the people who spend countless hours behind the projects get the least attention, I’d like to change that a little
Finally?
Any thoughts on my posts? I get asked a lot if I have a site for these, and for now the answer is ‘no’, but I will heed the advice and back these up somewhere. Unsure why exactly, but that’ll be less-than-little effort to do, so I’ll get to it eventually!
But what do you think? Have you any suggestions? This will be the 13th of these I’ve posted, and I’d love to hear if you’d want me to do something (anything) differently!
One reminder, since this is the 13th of these, and here are the others:
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
- [Steam Deck / Gaming News #12(https://lemmy.world/post/28805444)
p.s. if you wanna find me on Mastodon because I'm constantly sharing nonsense - you can find me here:
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[Game] Infinity Nikki on Steam works on Steam Deck LCD, but not OLED Deck or Desktop Linux
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
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This 'edition' (I feel a bit odd calling it an edition, like I'm selling you a newspaper or something) might focus more on some GOG news, so consider this more of a 'lite' news version I guess?
Try keep in mind:
- I'm no professional, I just love gaming news
- I write these in a certain style: trying my best to replicate 'old' gaming sites, forums or articles (which tbh I wasn't even alive for), since to me it feels that even the better sites covering gaming are constantly vying for your support or showing ads
- These are image and GIF-heavy posts (sorry!)
- I'm currently on holiday on a small island off the south coast of Thailand, where 'velium' (not valium) is happily handed over the counter like candy with no prescription. So this may make zero sense
It's Just GOG?
I've seen some interesting GOG things these last few days, and thought they deserved some attention. It's natural in gaming and particularly with the Steam Deck that your focus would be on Steam. But one thing I keep on harassing people about is GOG. I love it, and I love them!
GOG Preservation Program:
25 years after its original PlayStation 1 release, Breath of Fire IV finally returns, available right now on GOG, thanks in part to the (semi-recently revamped) Dreamlist system that GOG has in place
You can grab it and keep it forever now: https://www.gog.com/game/breath_of_fire_iv
This wouldn’t have happened without the support of over 22,000 passionate Dreamlist voters and the fantastic team at Capcom, who trusted us to bring you this masterpiece in its very best form.
And what do we mean by its “very best form”? Well, Breath of Fire IV also joins the GOG Preservation Program. Our release is fully optimized for modern PCs, with Windows 10 & 11 support, both English and Japanese localizations, upgraded DirectX rendering, new display options (Windowed Mode, V-Sync, Anti-Aliasing, refined gamma correction), a reworked audio engine (with restored missing environmental sounds & added new sound configuration options), and more improvements.
Simply put, this JRPG classic is now made to live forever :)
But, GOG didn't stop with just one. Like last time they brought games to the program, there was a bunch at once. Eight other games, each over 20 years old are now 'as good as they can be':
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Ultima Underworld I+II & Ultima 9: Ascension (completing the Ultima series in the Program)
You can find all the new arrivals here with this link
Oh, and we’ve also prepared a special video that goes more in-depth on bringing BoF IV back, as well as introducing all the other titles to the Program. We hope you enjoy it! If you do, consider following the GOG Classics Vault channel for more content like this.
This video can be found with this link!
Gogg Downloader:
A few weeks ago, a user named Hassan Abedi created Gogg: an open-source tool for downloading game files from GOG:
It's a minimalistic command-line tool I developed to help people download games they own on GOG for offline play or archival purposes. Gogg is written in Go and uses the GOG API. It's available for different operating systems, including Linux and Windows.
The most recent new version, 0.4.1-beta includes a major improvement for their service - a GUI built with Fyne.
This means you can now choose how you want to use Gogg:
-
Stick with the existing Command-Line Interface (CLI) for scripting and terminal use
-
Use the new GUI for a more visual experience, which might be more comfortable for some people.
Besides the GUI, Gogg still has features like:
- Downloading game files, extras, and DLCs.
- Resuming downloads.
- Managing a local catalog of your GOG games (list, search, refresh, export).
- Calculating required storage space and hashing downloaded files.
- Running on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
New release's download link on GitHub is here
(You can find the latest code and the documentation on the GitHub repository with this link, too)[https://github.com/habedi/gogg]
Planned for the future is support for Safari and Edge
Comet:
A little while ago I convinced my friend imLinguin that Halt and Catch Fire is one of the best TV shows around, and by far the best which is focused on computers - software and hardware.
Without spoilers, there's something in the show called Comet. And, if you know Heroic Games Launcher (a method of playing GOG, Epic Games and Amazon titles on your Steam Deck, Windows, Mac or Linux desktops with!), you'll know it uses something called Comet:
Open Source implementation of GOG Galaxy Communication Service for SDK bundled with GOG games
After watching Halt and Catch Fire, imLinguin worked on a little logo for his own Comet, which you can see here:
It's a nice little nod, and is now something of two things I adore!
Relisted:
Maybe you're used to the sad news that games are being de-listed. It's sadly quite common with every platform, and is always due to the publishers, never the store-fronts.
This time however we're seeing good news, with a few games now relisted onto GOG:
These were delisted in March, but back now. So thankfully it was only a short wait!
Gamesieve:
This one is rather impressive, and has already had a few little changes which help users. I'm just going to format and paste the info here as it is, since the hard work is done for me already (and there's no room for my own nonsense opinions being thrown in!)
This one is quite long, and detailed, so beware!
What is it?
Full-text search for the entire GOG game catalog, with advanced filters and price-tracking for 12 currencies. I've tried to optimize for information-density without reducing usability. I also put a lot of effort into correcting and enriching the data from GOG's API. Lots more of all of that to come.
Why?
Because I wanted to prove to myself I could, and because I keep discovering new gems on GOG which I wish I'd known about years ago already. The way GOG surfaces games keeps throwing up the same old titles I already know - but there are simply too many games there for me to try and browse through them all without any direction. GOG's search and filtering is acceptable - but not more than that, while so much more could be done in this space.
Searching:
- The search field will search through most of the information you see on a GOG game page - though not the reviews or the technical requirements (those I'll try to expose as a filter at some point down the road).
- You can use "phrase searches", which are also useful for searching for special characters, e.g. for ultimate 'intellectual property': "™" "®"
- You can exclude -terms -"and phrases", e.g. space shooter -warhammer -"star wars"
- I've tried to be intelligent with the way search works - really thinking about which results you might want. E.g. you can search for rpg or roleplaying game and get the same results. I might have blind spots though, so let me know if a search doesn't return something which you think it should.
Grouping:
- By default all editions, expansions, demos, goodie packs and bundles are grouped together into a single result for the main game. You can toggle this off in the top left for a more classic search (as on GOG). The one usecase I've personally identified where this is really useful is when searching for specific goodies like soundtracks.
- Search will return a result if any grouped product matches. Filters only apply to information about the "main game".
- If there are three or more products grouped with the main game, they'll be collapsed. (The 3 editions and 65 expansions for Europa Universalis IV take nearly two full screens to show!)
Product types:
- I've manually identified all editions, demos and goodie packs, and given them separate categories. It's always possible I missed - or misidentified - something. If so, please let me know about it. (N.B. I did apply a broad brush to what is a "demo". Prologues and similar free "tasters" also got lumped in there.)
- There've been a few cases where I made a call on what's most useful which goes against the way products are actually structured; e.g. the chapters of Higurashi When They Cry Hou are technically standalone games, but I decided that they make more sense grouped together as expansions. Lust From Beyond (NSFW) is grouped as an edition of the "M Edition" remake (rather than the other way around), and so on. I'll be happy to discuss the merits of specific cases if anyone cares.
Sorting:
- Default sorting when browsing (and on the homepage) is percentage difference of current price to the best from the last 365 days, followed by percentage difference of current price to the all-time low, followed by release date on GOG (most recent first; taking the date of the full release for early access games, where possible). So this preferentially exposes the best "new" deals, rather than the same old discounts you see during each and every sale.
- Default sorting when searching is "relevance score"; that is how similar each matching game is to the search terms.
- More sorting options are coming very soon.
Filters basics:
- There are two types of filters:
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Regular drill-down filters, which can overlap with each other. You can exclude each of these with the "X" to the right.
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Multi-select filters, which have no overlap (with the exception of "never"/"none in the last year" for "frequency of sales"), which allow you to pick multiple categories independently (so that's effectively an OR operation).
- All filters are just regular links, so you can open them in a new tab to browse multiple paths. This does mean all filters trigger a full page load (no fancy JavaScript here), which can be annoying if you want to enable multiple multi-select filters. I might revisit this decision, but for the moment the tradeoff felt worth it.
More about filters:
- The "exclude NSFW" filter is special, in being applied by default (also applying to the recent releases in the sidebar). It's a single click to turn it off, and that's remembered for followup searches. Once it's turned off, the "NSFW" term shows in the Tags filter and can be "required" as usual for any filter.
- If you're not certain what a specific filter does, try hovering over it for a tooltip (if you're not on a touch device), or simply enabling it. The resulting page will frequently have an explanation at the top, e.g. that the "rarely" filter for "frequency of sales" indicates that the game has been on sale 1-3 times in the last year.
- It's a lie that I added the "At most 10 expansions" filter from the "About the game" section purely to exclude Paradox games. You can after all also exclude that filter to get all games with more than 10 expansions! (And then you'll see that of the 30 results, 'only' 5 are published by Paradox.)
Price tracking and currencies:
- I have price history for the US since April 2021, with massive thanks to gogdb for providing that. Whenever you see "all-time low", that means "since April 2021".
- I have price history for Canada, Brazil, the UK, Germany, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, China and Australia since early December 2024. I extrapolate price differences before that based on US price history, but this is pretty crude, so take it with a grain of salt.
- For the moment I only present price information in a single currency for each country. If you have a usecase for wanting a non-default currency for one of these countries, let me know about it?
- As far as I know, prices in the entire eurozone are identical, so if you're from France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, etc, you should just be able to look at German prices. (If anyone knows an example to the contrary, I'd love to hear about it!) At some point down the road, I intend to actually compare prices for all products for all eurozone countries to make certain of this, but for the moment this isn't a priority.
Data quality:
- Besides badly chosen defaults (the many release dates of xmas 1991 and NYE 2000 and so on), data entry at GOG is obviously the work of humans who occasionally suffer from fat fingers. I've identified and corrected a lot, but I have no doubt there's a lot more to find. I'll be happy to take a look at any errors you know about, and since I'm also a human, please let me know about my own fat-fingered mistakes as well! (I'm also thinking about a way to contribute fixes back to GOG, though I suspect I'd really need a more rigorous process for that to actually be useful / something GOG would actually want.)
World of Goo 2:
Available now on GOG! Sadly still a higher price than on other store-fronts, but what can we do. The price for DRM-free joy is higher than the alternatives, I suppose!
Amerzone Remake:
Amerzone - The Explorer's Legacy has released also on GOG.
Answer the call of exploration as you travel to Amerzone, a forgotten Latin American country, to fulfill the last wishes of a late explorer. Investigate the ruins of this secretive land reclaimed by nature, meet intriguing characters with deep backstories and solve intricate puzzles to uncover the truth. Will you unveil the mysteries surrounding the mythical Great White Birds?
The link to the store page on GOG is here!
Junk Store:
My preferred method of playing GOG and Epic Games titles on my Steam Deck is Junk Store.
I like the UI and how it so closely resembles Valve's own for the Deck - it feels about as native as I could hope, and like it is an extension of the official Deck's UI/UX. I love it.
Anyway, Junk Store is turning one year old tomorrow! Since their first release, 12 months have passed. Nice to see that a project which began as a method for playing Epic and GOG for the dev and friends was released to the public.
If you're interested in some more Junk Store info, then check out:
Top Lists:
The recent bestsellers on GOG are:
- Breath of Fire IV
- Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Ed.
- DOOM (2016)
- Control Ultimate Ed.
- Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection
- In Sound Mind - Deluxe Ed.
- Alien Isolation Collection
- Homeworld Remastered Collection
The top wishlisted in the last 30 days are:
- Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
- Silent Hill 4: The Room
- System Shock 2: 25th Anniv. Remaster
- Sudeki
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Resident Evil Bundle
- Dino Crisis Bundle
- F.E.A.R. Platinum
A Recommendation:
If you've not played it before, I can't recommend Islets enough. Its one of those games to me - which feels uniquely perfect on the Steam Deck (like DREDGE, Art of Rally, Hades and so on!)
Its such a cute lttle indie Metroidvania that stands out thanks to the charming hand-drawn art style, and cozy atmosphere.
The game’s unique hook is its interconnected floating islands, which you gradually piece together like puzzle pieces.
Combat is smooth and satisfying, with upgrades that add depth without silly overwhelming complexity, while the small but dense world encourages backtracking in a way that never feels tedious. Add the quirky characters, and you get a game that’s both relaxing and engaging—perfect for players who love exploration-focused adventures like Hollow Knight or Ori, but prefer a more approachable, breezy experience. It’s a short game, but I just love it.
And Lastly?
If you missed their blog post last year, GOG shared 10 fun facts about GOG themselves. I love these, and maybe you will too, if you're looking for some quick entertainment!
https://www.gog.com/blog/10-fun-facts-about-gog/
That's all folks
Sorry its so brief compared to my other efforts. I just thought it nice to focus on a space which rarely gets the attention (I think) it deserves.
I love GOG and their DRM-free stance. I love how GOG takes games preservation seriously, and most importantly I love the color purple - so that means this one wins hands down :)
News Links:
You can check my previous (and far longer) News Posts here - I’ll link them for you so if you’re curious:
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
Mastodon
If you want to follow me on Mastodon, I’m posting there every single day (typically), so come join in if you’d like:
...anyway, I hope you enjoy some of this! My next News Post will be back to the regular a-little-bit-of-everything content. I hope you're all having fun playing whatever games you're loving at the moment, too!
💜
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Reminder if you're leaving Discord for this Revolt server ( Linux + Steam Deck devs / creators)
(infosec.pub)
There's been quite a bit of...unsettlement (totally a word) regarding the news that Discord has a new CEO and the company is going public (typically a sign of things going shittier than before).
I'd just like to re-post this which I shared some time ago, if you'll indulge me in my rare post which isn't a Steam Deck / Gaming News # post - a rarity for me.
In the end, this is not the be-all-and-end-all alternative, it won't be for everyone. Matrix exists of course. But this is a nice place. And I thought considering recent events I'd recommend it regardless!
Following is just a copy of what I posted last time. It's mostly Linux chat, gaming, handhelds (like the Steam Deck), movies and...general chats. Anyway, here's the post:
So...this one is a bit left-of-field.
A friend of mine (Gardiner Bryant of YouTube - who reports on Linux and the Steam Deck) has started a Revolt server.
What is Revolt?
It's kinda like a FOSS alternative to Discord. You'll see the layout is almost a direct copy, and it's far less polished...but then again you haven't got the downsides of Discord's constant upselling either:
Why is this relevant?
...I can hear you ask? Well, so far its just a few developers and creators in there, but I thought of all spaces...maybe those very devs and creators whose work you use and watch...well it might be nice to join in there?
My personal friends who are in here so far are:
-
imLinguin whose GitHub is here - but you may know most as a developer of Heroic Games Launcher
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Eben Bruyns whose GitHub is here - but you may know best as the dev of Junk-Store
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Gardiner himself, of course whose YouTube link is here,
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Lazorne whose project is RetroDECK - my personal fav emulation option for the Steam Deck
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Kyle Gospo whose project is Bazzite
What is the damn link to the damn server, woman?
I mean, you will have to make an account on Revolt, but it might be interesting to some here. You're all very welcome!
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Lenovo - Legion Go S with Valve's SteamOS gets a price increase at Best Buy
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
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Valve continues preparing the Steam Deck OS to release for more devices with SteamOS 3.7.4 Preview
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
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This week’s interesting bits and pieces in Steam Deck / Linux and general gaming that I have found, all compiled by me :)
One reminder is that these pieces of news I’ve spotted are just those that made me smile, or made me interested, so I thought they’d fit in nicely here. I’m not here to share the things you’ve most likely spotted (though I’m sure they’re in here, too), more the ‘little things’.
My aim is to phrase this in a more personal manner than most gaming sites do now. My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:
- image/gif/link heavy
- personal voice (no hard news here!)
- mostly news or articles or points you won’t find on the ‘big’ gaming sites, these are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to
This is a warning though, Boost has trouble displaying so many images per post. I am told however that the dev has fixed this, or is fixing this. I can say that Jerboa and Thunder have no issue scrolling these (same with the website)
And one more thing. Each of these I write makes me quite nervous. I’m never sure people will like what I write, or more importantly how I write it - these posts aren’t meant to be taken like they’re a new source, it’s just...me having fun. So I hope you might grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy them alongside me?
GOG / Epic Games News:
You’ll no doubt know I like to at least try find some fun GOG and Epic bits and pieces. Far from the typical Steam Deck user I find 90% of the library of games is via GOG, and even the odd Epic (or Amazon too, I’m that kind of weird girl) game too.
What I use to play these is:
Junk Store on my Steam Deck (I love the interface and UI being so unobtrusive and almost feel it is a part of the native Steam Deck)
Heroic Games Launcher on my desktop PC
GOG:
vangogh & theo:
A user called boggydigital has dropped the first release of vangogh and theo - a 'local library of DRM-free games' for your GOG library + for the Steam Deck. A link to the GitHub page is here if you want to read an overview of what it does. But further:
https://github.com/arelate/vangogh https://github.com/arelate/theo Nice to see a new option provided to the community!
DOOM
Obviously you have all seen the DOOM news: 2016’s FPS title has been brought over to GOG after nearly 10 years. Selling on GOG at -80% off for their 'launch' on GOG, I'm looking forward to playing it when I clear a few games from my current-and-what-I’m-playing-next list. There’s a lot of reviews already on GOG’s page for DOOM, and to no one’s surprise they’re all good ones.
One caveat to getting it on GOG is that it does not come with the multiplayer option, since that is built with DRM. But you do get an amazing campaign, which to me is the point of DOOM, anyway.
Right now it is leading the recent ‘bestsellers’ list on the site.
Bestsellers:
Just to make it easy to see exactly what’s been selling best with GOG’s recent sales, here’s their bestseller list here!
- DOOM (2016)
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete
- Heroes of Might and Magic 4: Complete
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – GoTY ed
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete ed
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate ed
- DOOM (2016) + OST Bundle
- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
- Cyberpunk 2077
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Ed
Further, their top wishlisted games on GOG in the last 30 days are:
- Croc Legend of the Gobbos
- Kingdom Come Deliverance II
- Silent Hill 4: The Room
- System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster
- Sudeki
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Resident Evil Bundle (1, 2 & 3)
- Dino Crisis Bundle (1 & 2)
- F.E.A.R. Platinum
World of Goo 2:
The release has been confirmed for GOG to launch there on the 25th of April
Epic Games:
Chuchel:
This week’s freebie on Epic Games is the second Amanita Design game in a row, being Chuchel - available on the 24th of April.
Assassins Creed:
Assassins Creed Shadows has added Epic Achievements to the title, a link to which his here if you’re interested on Epic’s own site
Update:
There will be a EGS Session this Unreal Fest in June which will touch on the “new social ecosystem”
You can read more about what they’re planning for 2025 with this link: the 2025 roadmap for Epic
2 pt
Finally, Two Point Campus has been added to the Epic Store
General News:
Selaco:
Selaco is maybe my fav FPS game in recent years. It’s a beautiful little game made with the GZDoom engine, and I’ve poked people quite a few times over the previous instalments of my news to go and get it.
What caught my eye though is a user (Red_SnowflakeMX) who has created their old-style ‘big box’ PC game box for the game:
I'm not so good with handywork or designing on computer, but for myself it's okay. Hope you like it and maybe someone else here gets inspired and makes a better one, would love to see that :) Almost all of the art and artworks are from the game and the press kit. the only thing I "designed" is the ArachnoCola can in paint, which I think is very noticable ;) Just want to show my appreciation here, hope the use of your art doesn't offend you, if so, I would of course delete this post. Thank you!
Here’s a few (okay, a lot ‘coz I adore this) photos of the project:
One of the devs found this and has shared it themselves, I spotted it afterwards on bsky which was nice to see!
Virtual Boy Rediscovered:
Did anyone see the recently discovered Nintendo Virtual Boy photos? They are of the canceled Mario game they'd made for the abandoned system.
Called Mario Smash, only a few shots exist (they're nice, high quality!) Super interesting seeing something that just ended up shelved, but still a nice footnote in the history of gaming. The photos are here (but only 3 of them exist!):
SEGA Model 2:
Major Sega Model 2 improvements are coming to MAME soon.
Hadrians:
Hadrian's Wall is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadria.
It’s also where someone stuffed a SNES console. I think it might be bricked?
Photo from the user SKEEMON
Donkey Kong Country 3:
Also loved this physical recreation of DKC3's cover in diorama form.
Seeing the care and attention someone put into this, making it a piece of art for a game they adore makes me happy to see. I find that retro games can have such a bright, cheerful and happy atmosphere to them (like that ‘beachy’ setting so many old early 2000’s games have!) - DKC3 is the perfect example of it.
There is also a little YT clip of the process here:
Devolver:
Devolver Digitial themselves shared a pretty little graph (which is pretty surprising to me) of revenue figures for several of their franchises.
Cult of The Lamb is their highest earning, with the revenue exceeding $90M USD. (I think this is probably because it's a beautiful little cozy gaming gem of a game? I sank a 𝘭𝘰𝘵 of time into that one on my Steam Deck) Astroneer too is a high-high number. Fun way to show how the games you support are doing, though. Talos seems a lil low though?
Anyway, the graph itself is here:
Bazzite 42:
Bazzite’s new version has launched, but the changes are extensive and I’m too lazy to summarize them. So, you can go here and read about them from the dev himself: Kyle!
https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/bazzite-42-is-now-available/7861
Intravenous:
Intravenous 2 is celebrating over 100,000 copies sold, with over 2,000 reviews now.
It's a great little stealth game, and you might remember the first being given away everywhere like GOG and Steam some months back!
Anbernic and shipping:
Anbernic, a company known for making Game Boy clones (which has a rather dedicated following and fandom), has suspended all shipments from China to the US due to potential tariff changes. The company advises customers to purchase products from its US warehouse instead, as those shipments aren’t affected by import duties. Anbernic had already warned buyers last week about possible high customs fees, but it has now halted Chinese shipments entirely, joining other companies like RetroTINK that are uncertain about how tariffs will be enforced. While customers can still add items from the Chinese warehouse to their cart, they can’t complete the purchase.
Anbernic’s affordable retro handhelds, often priced around $70, may become significantly more expensive if the proposed 245% tariffs take effect. For now, the devices remain available through US third-party sellers like Amazon, though these often include preloaded ROMs, raising legal concerns. The company’s decision reflects broader uncertainty around how new tariffs will impact Chinese imports, with Retro Handhelds noting that Anbernic is the only manufacturer so far to completely suspend US shipments. The situation leaves the future of affordable retro gaming devices in question.
Predictably there’s been a lot of comments I’ve seen defending this brilliant negotiating tactic from the orange slob, so we’ll see how much fun those gamers are having in the coming months.
A link to an article going into detail is here (The Verge)
Ayn and shipping:
AYN, the company behind the popular Odin 2 handheld, is joining Anbernic in pausing shipments to the U.S. due to new tariffs on Chinese goods. Unlike Anbernic, AYN hasn’t made a public announcement but instead shared the news via a customer service email in its Discord server. The company plans to halt shipments after April 25th for a week while seeking alternative shipping methods, aiming to resume by May 5th. The move comes as Hongkong Post will stop accepting U.S.-bound airmail packages starting April 27th, affecting other Chinese manufacturers like GoRetroid as well.
If AYN finds a new shipping solution, U.S. customers can still order its products, but prices may rise due to the end of the de minimis tariff exemption on May 2nd.
Retroid and shipping:
Finally, Retroid is also stopping shipments to the ‘States, sharing a similar statement on their Discord server, stating that this coming Friday will be the last they’ll ship out.
Hand of Hexes:
This beautiful art is called Hand of Hexes – made proudly with entirely free software. And its hand-drawn, too!
Made by emmdieh, I found the video they shared and it looks incredible. I’m hoping it will be able to be added to this post, but I’m not sure if the size is too big, or if Lemmy will host it at all in the format it is in.
(edit - GIF too big to attach here!)
𝘜𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘒𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘹 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝟤 𝘪𝘯 𝟣 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦
This is the kind of gaming I love - the little things with heart and soul!
The Steam page is here, if you want to see more
DREADMOOR:
Looks like there's a new Lovecraftian fishing game which copied the homework of DREDGE but this one is in first-person.
This one looks okay, but I'm curious how much of their trailer is pre-rendered and whether it can stand on its own fishy legs since it really seems to have left out the 'cozy' aspect of DREDGE's horror.
It’s very much just...copying DREDGE, and they recently posted a little ‘AMA’ but I can’t for the life of me find it now (since they had a handful of questions, and the one which was highest was that of whether it is pre-rendered in the trailer), anyway, time will tell.
For someone who is terrified of horror, I'm weirdly looking forward to seeing more. I hope it plays nice on Steam Deck.
The trailer is here with a link to YouTube
DREDGE
...also just wanted to share this lovely art. I saw Black Salt Games shared this, which is by kelgrid
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
...has a new update! The 7.0 ‘Trygon Update’ has gone live. Luckily this image has all the information, so I don’t have to fumble with the words to make this little post sound interesting, you can just read it!
007 + Nightdive:
Nightdive Studios (known for higher-quality remasters like Turok and Star Wars: Dark Forces), pitched a full remaster of GoldenEye 007 but was blocked by Nintendo.
Despite securing approval from James Bond rights holders MGM/Eon, Nintendo refused to allow any third-party studio to work on its properties, shutting down the project. This isn’t the first time a GoldenEye remaster was canceled—Rare had also developed an enhanced Xbox 360 version that was scrapped due to licensing issues.
While GoldenEye 007 is now available on Xbox and Nintendo Switch via emulation, it lacks the modern upgrades Nightdive had planned, such as improved graphics and controls. Nintendo’s strict policy on third-party remasters means fans may never get the definitive version they hoped for, though the abandoned Xbox 360 remaster has surfaced online for those willing to seek it out. Nightdive’s experience highlights the ongoing challenges of reviving classic games tangled in complex licensing disputes.
You can an article on this here – videogamer.com
Game Boy DMG:
A user (Pleasant_Waltz3041) has modded up an original Nintendo DMG to be as close to the style and look of the original packaging’s depiction.
I bought the new case at Retrohahn for 30€ some time ago. Unfortunately, it was sold out very quickly (understandably). It is a UV print that goes over the D-pad and A and B. Start and Select are rubber transparent. In addition, there was an IPS mod and an LED backlight mod for the buttons. I'm infinitely happy with the end result
The photos of their efforts are as follows:
Tomb Raider Anniversary Remake leaked renders:
Crystal Dynamics & Virtuos Shanghai's cancelled remake of “Tomb Raider: Anniversary” is resurfacing, with very early assets from its development (dating back to 2019) which have been leaked.
There’s a couple of photos, and also a link if you want to read more which is this sentence here!
Oblivion
No, not the Tom Cruise film (though I’ve always adored Olga Kurylenko. Did anyone else watch Magic City? Not super popular...I guess it was a bit of a copy/paste to Mad Men at the time?), but the remaster we’ve seen ‘shadow dropped’ (to the surpirse of noone, since it was leaked)
But what I want to share is how nice it is seeing older gamers sharing their game guide books they’ve had for a long time. I love physical things, and modern games see far too few of these, sadly.
Anyway, these two made me smile:
Denuvo:
Just some titles here which have Denuvo news:
Denuvo has been removed from Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
Super Robot Wars Y will be implementing Denuvo DRM in their game, which is due out 27th August, 2025.
Me:
First, I’ve had some users asking me how to find my news posts. I’ve had recommendations for having my own site, or making an easier-to-spot resource to find them. I understand that this makes total sense, too.
My typical reason why I wouldn’t, and haven’t is that I work too much, Being primarily a social engineer who works as red team on pen tests, my work really does take a lot of time. But...as of a few weeks back I’ve been on a rather unexpected and self-indulgent escape from ‘real life’. I’ve now been to Rome, Tokyo and Phuket in my desperate attempt to avoid the world.
Why are you telling us this? No idea really, but the real reason behind the ‘no time’ reason for me not hosting my posts on a site is that I don’t really want to take something away from Lemmy.
It sounds arrogant, but I do like to think my posts bring some value, and since I believe so strongly in FOSS, I like that they are available in their entirety here on Lemmy.
Second, which is actually just like a bit more of the first, is that I’ll link them for you so if you’re curious about my previous news entries, you can find them here:
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
- Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
What are you playing?
Now...my fav thing is asking you all what you’ve been enjoying lately! I’ve been playing a bit of The Last of Us Pt. 2. Again, since I am travelling I am using my Steam Deck (and can see that this isn’t giving me the best look at how the game can be) I’m ‘making do’, but this is my first time playing it, and I love it.
It’s actually given me an appreciation for single-player experience and narrative driven games again. I’ve been playing this, and Death Stranding (my obsession).
What have you been enjoying? On any platform you’re using, what games have you been enjoying? Something AAA? Or an indie? Emulating something fun?
Share!!!
Mastodon
If you want to follow me on Mastodon, I’m posting there every single day (typically), so come join in if you’d like:
If I made any errors, they’re all mine. If a link is not working, do tell me (there always seems to be just one I don’t format correctly in there! Every single time!) – all the crazy little rants and opinions are just me.
I hope you enjoyed this though, because I love writing them and sharing them!!!
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Build to survive in the first-person horror Confronted - latest update makes it Steam Deck playable
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
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Inspired by Slavic folklore Deathless. Tales of Old Rus improves text sizing on Steam Deck
(www.gamingonlinux.com)
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[Game] The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered revealed, it's out now and Steam Deck Verified
(www.gamingonlinux.com)