The Steam Deck: Rekindling the Importance of Handheld Gaming Article

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The Steam Deck: Rekindling the Importance of Handheld Gaming

Apr 23, 2023 | 0 Votes

by jose - rate Your vote Being able to play on the go anytime, anywhere convenient has always been an issue for many gamers. To this, handheld gaming devices were made to address the need. Through the years, these devices have upgraded and evolved in terms of graphics, sounds, and performance. Let's take a look at the latest newcomer created to rekindle the importance of the handheld gaming scene. WWGDB - The Steam Deck: Rekindling the Importance of Handheld Gaming

WWGDB - The Steam Deck: Rekindling the Importance of Handheld Gaming

One of the foremost issues the gaming industry has had to tackle is the ability to play games on the go. This means being able to play games not only in remote locations but even in the busiest and most unexpected places. The ability to take games with you wherever you are without having to stay at home in front of your TV or computer screen is tremendously beneficial in terms of continuity of gameplay and convenience for gamers. It would also widen and enhance the scope of the gaming market, which would not only be profitable but also allow the industry to keep developing and making games. Thus, handheld, mobile, or gaming on the go has proven its importance, accessibility, and practicality in a gamer’s daily life.

Let's take a quick look at how the handheld gaming scene began and what it is now with the introduction of the latest handheld gaming craze, the Steam Deck gaming console.

The Beginning

Handheld gaming as we know it today began in the 1970s. Electronic battery-operated games, considered children's toys then, were developed and manufactured by companies like Mattel and Coleco. However, in 1979, a Japanese individual riding the Bullet Train had the idea for a dedicated pocket game that was easy to use, had a longer battery life, and could be carried around in pockets. He pitched his idea to his bosses at Nintendo, and a year later, the Game&Watch was born. This little device had many games to choose from, and though quite dull by today’s standards, it was a blast back then that yours genuinely just had to have one called "Trojan Horse." Pity the guy in class who didn't have his own Game&Watch.

Then the handheld gaming craze picked up, and here are some highlights that shook the gaming world. In 1989, the Atari Lynx was released, a complete all-in-one portable color gaming system. The same year, Nintendo released the Game Boy, which, although it did not use a color screen, gave the Lynx stiff competition. In 1990, SEGA released the Game Gear, which also had color and strong backing from SEGA-based development and ports, giving Nintendo a run for its money. Nintendo struck back with Pokemon in the mid-1990s with the release of the advanced Pocket Game Boy, capitalizing on their strength in the number of available games.

In 1998, Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, followed by Game Boy Advanced in the early 2000s. In 2005, Sony joined the handheld gaming market by removing the PSP (PS Portable). At this point, both Nintendo with its Nintendo DS handhelds and the PSP competed in the same market. Finally, after many upgrades and iterations of further Sony and Nintendo handheld gaming systems, Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch in 2017. In all these instances, the portable units relied on both game ports (from PC and consoles alike) and specific games developed for them, giving the mobile gaming device a broader reach on the variety of games that could be played.

Enter Sandman

Through the years, Steam has become a powerhouse in the gaming industry. Steam has practically monopolized the online gaming distribution world.

Suppose you need to buy a game, go to Steam. If you need a game demo or to test one, go to Steam. If you want seasonal discounts that practically half or bargain the game price, go to Steam. If you want the latest game, go to Steam. Play VR, go to Steam. Do you want to see Gaben? Go to Steam! Steam makes the gaming world go round and around and around. So, when Nintendo released the "Switch," you didn't go to Steam, horror of horrors! You went to Nintendo!

For PC users and die-hards who play PC games, one seems to have been left out of the handheld gaming "on the go" scene. If you wanna play a game, use your iX processor and your super duper GPU. Playing your PC games (especially the ones in your Steam Library) on a mobile device sans a Laptop was a practical no-go. There was no Switch-like device that did this. Well, as of 2022, not anymore; handheld gaming has finally come to the dedicated PC crowd. The Sandman is here, the "Steam Deck"...oh, what the heck!!!

Yes! The device which could be considered the Metallica of the mobile gaming world! A handheld computer, gaming console, and all-out multimedia access device that bridges the gap between Steam PC and video gaming on the go.

Heavy Metal Hardware

One glance at the Steam Deck will elicit thoughts of an oversized game controller pad with a seven-inch color LCD screen in the middle of it. In essence, that would have been an apt description. Also, the word handheld would make one chuckle, as mobile would rather be a better description for it. Nevertheless, the device is still arguably classified as a handheld mobile gaming system.

As for Heavy Metal, the Deck is heavy, although it is doubtful that metal has anything to do with it. The Steam Deck is built like a Laptop with the Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 gaming notebook closest to its dimensions. Now, not delving into the intense technical details that the Steam Deck brings to the gaming table, let's just say that the device can more than rival the Switch or any other current-day handheld in terms of performance and usability.

The deck comes in three different versions in terms of storage capacity which are 64, 256, and 512GB. What's more, an external microSD card can be added to expand the deck's storage power a lot further. With 16GB of Ram, gaming on the Deck gets as close as you can to a real PC. Aside from a USB-C port for charging and interface needs, a 3.5mm headset jack is available in case you want to forego the deck's own speakers.

The LCD screen has a resolution of 1280 X 800 Pix (just like a standard PC screen) running at a 60Hz refresh rate, so the images have a bright and vibrant quality to them. Regarding processing power, the deck is powered by a Zen2 AMD CPU and an RDNA2 GPU, which can be compared similarly to the current AMD Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU performance. This is a lot, although it definitely will not be able to compete with the performance of current-day high-end home gaming consoles like the XBoxX or the PS5 that can go up to 3840 × 2160 display capacity (4K).

Mobile Controls

Controller-wise, Valve/Steam has made it a point to make things easy as possible for the user. There are some redundant functions to give the user the option to choose which control or interface would be more convenient to use. The presence of two touchpads under both left and right analog thumb controllers as well as a directional keypad at the upper left, are provided for motion/pointer control sans a real PC mouse.

Moreover, the XYAB buttons are provided at the upper right, ala XBox controls, as well as the combination L1 R1, and L2 R2 trigger buttons along the top edges. L4/L5 and R4/R5 triggers are located under for easy reach when holding the device with both hands. You also have the Steam and Options buttons and the menu buttons on the front panel. It's easy to spot them as everything was designed with ease of use in mind. Likewise, both the power and volume controls are within easy reach to start and get your gameplay going.

Connections and Access

The Steam Deck has online access and connection to other peripheral devices via dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. Aside from this, it can be parked on a console docking station. Aside from the official Valve/Steam docking station, there are third-party dockers like the original and upgraded Jsaux Docking Station. Deck docking mainly provides two major functions: continuous solid power and a connection to other output devices and those that require constant power to function. Foremost of these is the T.V. or Monitor output option in case you want to play it on the big screen.

The Beauty of the Deck

If you're a PC gamer, you will appreciate what the Steam Deck has to offer. If you're a console or mobile gamer, then the benefits of owning and using a Steam Deck will intrigue you more. Actually, it is more attractive to non-PC gamers who would be interested in joining the PC gaming crowd. If you buy or acquire games from Steam and have them in your Steam Library with a Steam Deck, you can access and play them. However, not all is perfect, rosy, and cheeky in the world, so a very small percentage of games may not work or function properly if ever they do. The majority, however, will look like you're just playing them on a regular PC.

Operating system and software

Another interesting feature is the way the software works. It uses the Valve SteamOS 3.0 operating system, which runs on top of Linux and works with the Proton software compatibility layer to run Windows games. This lets you easily access your Steam account, and if you have games in your Library on your main PC, you can access them, which usually include the saves that you did.

If you are familiar with Linux, you can opt for the KDE Plasma desktop instead of using SteamOS. This will afford you a wider range of access to software apps and resources like emulators that can run retro games similar to doing the emulation via Windows on a PC. To simplify that which is complicated, if you are the techie kind who loves to tweak this and that, the Steam Deck will let you do so.

Is the Steam Deck worth it?

To sum things up, with the Steam Deck, handheld portability is unfortunately out of the picture. It's kind of big and bulky and can compete with a folded-up Laptop in dimensions and size. However, just like a laptop, it's mobile but designed to be held with your hands as you use it. Thus, it is still a handheld gaming device.

The new features that it brings to the current gaming scene are an advancement in how we play games. It bridges the gap between the PC and the mobile handheld gaming world by bringing over games without the need to port them and run/play them as they are on a PC. This saves time with a lot of compatibility issues since if it's on the PC, then it's on Steam Deck. With this, Valve/Steam has given another user-friendly option for everyone to expand their current gaming experience.