Emulating 3DS games with a Steam Deck proves that the Wii U was right
One screen bad. Two screens good.
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Through the magic of software emulation you can use aSteam Deckattached to a monitor to play Nintendo 3DS games, something I am now aware of thanks to tech video creator GameXData. In a tweet they posted, GameXData shows off a hilarious image combo using the Steam Deck’s touch screen and Pokemon X/Y.
A ton of people brought it up. So, I thought I’d confirm: Yes, you can play 3DS games dual screen with a Steam Deck as the bottom screen. pic.twitter.com/RQjMpSpcLqAugust 26, 2022
Through the power of linux, emulation, and the Steam Deck… we have reinvented the Wii U.
It’s a testament to the versatility of the Steam Deck as a piece of hardware that it can be used this way. The touch screen lets you actually emulate, and play, some of the 3DS' games as they were when first released—maybe grab a stylus that works well on the Steam Deck screen first, I guess.
No joke, you can emulate the Wii U’s style well on the Steam Deck and a monitor—which is great. (Which the same folks at GameXDatapointed out as well.) That’s super dope, because games designed similarly to Breath of the Wild make excellent use of that second screen as inventory and the like. Cemu supports this with a little checkbox that splits the gamepad to its own window.
Speaking of Cemu, it went open source recently—which isa big deal for Wii U emulation. You can find GameXData onTwitterand onYouTube—thanks to them for bringing this vital piece of information to our (my) attention.
In other Steam Deck news, Valve says thatproduction has outperformed estimates, so your Steam Deck is probably on the way sooner if you’ve been waiting. Clearly that’s pleasing to Valve, since it has confirmed that there will be more open and more capablegenerations of the Steam Deck.Oh and they’ve madea nice little bookletabout the Steam Deck as it launches in Asia. (You can read it in English, though.)
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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he’s not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.
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