Portable Gaming Devices They’re great for playing modern games on the go, but arguably an even better use is for retro games. Many older games can now be played perfectly on low-power hardware with virtually no drawbacks compared to the original experience, and having built-in controllers makes the experience even more natural.
When it comes to emulation, one of the most common solutions for modern gaming laptops is On deckbut there is actually a great alternative that you might prefer. is called RetroCoverand I decided to try it to see how good the experience is. And I think it’s great.
Set up RetroDeck
it’s very easy
Getting started with RetroDeck is pretty easy. This solution is designed for portable Linux gaming devices, like Steam Deck (as the name implies), and you can download RetroDeck from Flathub, using an interface like Discover or Bazaar. From there, the initial setup is pretty simple. You will be asked a few questions about where to store your data and whether you want to download firmware for a PlayStation 3 and Vita emulator. I wasn’t interested in either of these platforms, so I skipped both.
You have the option to add RetroDeck to Steam, but you can also go ahead and enable Steam Sync, which adds the games you favorite directly to the Steam UI so you can access them more quickly. I decided to skip this as well, since I don’t mind going through the RetroDeck UI, but it’s a touch of convenience that I appreciate. EmuDeck does something similar, but by limiting it to your favorites, RetroDeck gives you a clear separation between what’s added and what’s not.
One small detail I appreciate (more than I probably should) is that once set up, RetroDeck appears in your chosen folder and most of the parent folders have different icons so you can easily tell what’s what. For ROMs, each platform has its own icon, which is both a nice visual treat and an aid, so you can tell what’s what at a glance.
This made it a little easier to configure my ROMs the way they should be. I tried several Nintendo platforms, from NES to Nintendo DS, and finding each one wasn’t a big problem. EmuDeck has its own benefit: it can automatically create system folders on a USB drive, so you can bring in ROMs from a different PC if you want, but I’d say this is probably most useful if you’re setting up your library for the first time.
ES-DE does the heavy lifting
With a dose of personalization
Once set up, RetroDeck is a very familiar experience because it’s based on something you’re probably already familiar with: Emulation Station or ES-DE. RetroDeck comes with a custom theme that has clear retro vibes and looks fantastic on a laptop screen. As you’d expect from ES-DE, the presentation is extremely stylish, displaying game logos and screenshots organized by platform, along with an easy-to-use UI that works perfectly with a controller. The only challenge I had was figuring out how to switch back to ES-DE after launching a game, but you can do this through Steam’s overlay UI with relative ease.
At the backend of the ES-DE experience is RetroArch and its many cores, which allow games to be played from all types of platforms. The only thing I wish I could do more easily is open the settings for specific emulator cores while gaming, specifically while using the controller inputs. I may be missing something, but it would be nice to, for example, change the way Game Boy games are displayed on the fly.
The default presentation simulates the pea green color of the original Game Boy hardware, but I’d prefer something closer to proper black and white, but as far as I know there’s no way to easily access that option. Of course, that’s no different on EmuDeck, and you may only need to access these settings in desktop mode if this is a one-time deal.
Performance is great
As expected
Obviously, the platforms you can reliably play on will depend on your hardware, but as far as RetroDeck is concerned, everything seems to be set up perfectly here. As a Nintendo fan, I mainly focused on their platforms for my testing. I tried games for the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, different versions of the Game Boy, and even the Nintendo DS. I also did this because these platforms do not require additional firmware downloads or anything like that, unlike some platforms.
In general, my An Xplayer X1 Mini – which, by the way, has an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U – ran all the games perfectly. Of course, that’s to be expected on most platforms, but I thought I might run into emulation issues here and there, especially with games that use 3D graphics.
star fox on the SNES was one that I thought might give me some problems, but it worked as well as expected, and was a great experience, other than I’m terrible at the game. Likewise, the Nintendo 64’s 3D games ran perfectly fine for the most part. I experienced a strange slowdown on the home screen during Super Mario 64 where you can twist Mario’s face, but in the game itself, everything worked perfectly. Pokémon Stadium 2 It also worked without any notable problems.
On DS, I tried a ROM hack called Super Mario Run DS and it worked fine too. The platforms you want to play on may have different experiences or require a little more work, but RetroDeck, ES-DE, and RetroArch come together to offer a great experience.
EmuDeck is not the only game available
Retro gaming can be a lot of fun on modern hardware, and while EmuDeck seems to be everyone’s preferred solution, it’s not the only one. RetroDeck offers a great experience and I’m more inclined to recommend it after trying it. I felt the initial setup was faster and the custom skin for ES-DE is more attractive than the one for EmuDeck. Both options are great, of course, but I have a new favorite and I recommend you check it out too.
