Steam on ARM handhelds is currently making a big impression on content creators and the handheld community.
One topic has been dominating the handheld community since last weekend: Steam games on ARM handhelds.
Major YouTubers in this space, such as Retro Game Corps and ETA Prime, have released videos on the topic, sparking a bit of euphoria in the community.
The content creator “Cyber Dopamine,” well-known in the scene, speaksin a commenteven refers to it as one of the“biggest pieces of news ever for handheld consoles”.
This development not only shows how the Steam Deck works with PC games, but also what potential “Steam Deck Lite” handhelds might look like.
What is Rocknix and why is it impressing so many people right now?
Recently,the Linux distribution Rocknixhas become compatible with Steam on some ARM handhelds.
The operating system was primarily developed to run older games on retro handhelds, but now it is among the first to enable real PC games on these devices:
- AYN:Odin 2, Odin 2 Portal, Odin 2 Mini, Thor
- Ayaneo:Pocket DMG, Pocket DS, Pocket EVO, Pocket S 2K, Pocket S2, Konkr Pocket Fit
- Retroid:Pocket Flip 2, Pocket 5, Pocket 6
Why this matters:Valve’sSteam Framecould work very similarly. The standalone VR headset will run on SteamOS (i.e., Linux) and will also rely on a Qualcomm ARM processor.
The first steps with Rocknix already show how Valve’s VR headset aims to make PC games playable.
Even more important are the implications of this project. Many handheld fans agree that this has opened the floodgates for potential “Steam Deck Lite” handhelds—that is, Linux devices with energy-efficient ARM processors that are still fast enough for light PC games.
Some of the compatible handhelds are equipped with very fast and, above all, actively cooled processors; on paper, these are good prerequisites for running performance-hungry PC games.
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Initial tests quickly reveal that there is still a lot of work to be done, but also how much potential this area holds.
- Games likeSlay The Spire,Hollow Knight Silksongand evenDoom (2016)run at high frame rates. Community members are currently testing which games are particularly well-suited for this.
- For some games, the handhelds’ built-in controllers aren’t recognized, or they control Steam Big Picture mode in the background instead of the game.
- Some titles display incorrectly on the screen; for Russ from Retro Game Corps, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge was only displayed on half the screen (on an AYN Thor).
- Many games generally do not launch.
That was it. Within a few minutes, Linux was up and running on my handheld. I installed Steam and started downloading a few games.
Since I installed the operating system on a microSD card, the download speed was extremely slow. It also takes a few minutes to launch the games. For this reason, I’ve only been able to test five titles so far:
- Guilty Gear Strive launches and is theoretically playable, but even at 720p resolution and the lowest settings, the frame rate hovers around 20.
- Coral Island is playable on the lowest settings, but even here, 30 FPS is rarely achieved.
- Paranormasight a Mermaids Curse is a visual novel and therefore not technically demanding. The game runs smoothly and without issues.
- Don’t Starve Together and Kathy Rain 2 won’t launch, which surprised me. Both games ran without issues on Android and GameHub.& nbsp;(Click here for my review of the AYN Odin 2 Mini with Android and PC games).
I still need to experiment a bit myself, but it’s definitely exciting to see things happening in this area.
Maybe ARM really will become the architecture of future handhelds, and YouTuber Cyber Dopamine is right? Maybe we’re seeing the important beginning of what lies ahead.
Could future Steam Decks use ARM processors? Do you think that’s plausible? Feel free to let us know in the comments!