Luxtorpeda is a Steam Play compatibility tool for allowing a certain set of games on Steam (mostly pertinent to older titles) to run using a native Linux engine, rather than having to use Proton for a Windows-only game. For instance, Ocean’s Heart has a Windows-only icon on the Steam store page. But with Luxtorpeda, we can force the game to use the native Linux version of Solarus, the engine that powers the game.

Steam Deck QR code for logging in could be coming soon need a guide on emulating Switch games? LTT has you covered (and the video is still up!) new Deck client (which is currently beta) can now automatically scale the Deck UI when connected to an external monitor, plus night time mode can be scheduled avoid using the stock version of Firefox until we get an update to SteamOS I did a quick comparison between the Portal series running on the Deck and the Switch.

This had been Tweeted way back in October, but Pavel Djundik, founder of SteamDB, discovered via datamining that QR code scanning could potentially become a thing on the Steam Deck when logging into your Steam account, as you can see in the cover photo. Well, turns out it could become a reality…within the next couple of weeks I would imagine, as Pavel recently replied to his own Tweet and said:

Whelp, looks like LTT beat me to the Switch emulation guide I was planning on doing. But that’s not the point of this post. Content creators – and small ones, at that – have had their videos ripped off their channel from the DMCA-hungry lawyers at Nintendo just for showing off gameplay footage of Switch games being emulated on the Deck. Well, Anthony from LTT decided to take matters into his own hands, braced himself, and put up a full guide on how to emulate Switch games on Deck (mind you, he’s doing it through a completely legal means).

A new beta update is now available for the Steam Deck client. Notable features with this update are the ability to schedule when night mode should turn on and off (no need to install the plugin anymore!), and the option to scale the Steam Deck UI when the Deck is connected to an external display. There’s also a toggle to automatically scale the UI to the appropriate size when connected to said display.

Another week, another update for the fabulous Proton Experimental. Newly playable titles with this update include: Aquarist - My First Job Trove Disgaea 5 Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 Bug fixes include: Monkey Island 2 and UNO should now be playable after an experimental regression Hardspace: Shipbreaker should now connect to online services See the patch notes on GitHub. Changes in bold are the latest to be added. Cover image credit: cgmagonline.

UPDATE: Valve will reportedly be using the Flatpak version of Firefox with the next update to SteamOS 3.3, according to an update from GamingOnLinux. Well, at least the stock version of Firefox supplied with SteamOS. It’s come to my attention, thanks to Quinn from our Matrix channel, that SteamOS is using a highly outdated version of Firefox. The latest version is 102.0.1, which came out today. However, the latest build on SteamOS, even on the beta 3.

About a week ago during the Nintendo Direct Mini, Nintendo announced Portal: Companion Collection for the Nintendo Switch, and it came to the eShop the same day. Curious George (that is, me) wanted to do a comparison between running the games on the Steam Deck and on Nintendo’s current-gen console, and see how each platform fares. I couldn’t help but find it ironic that Valve would partner with Nintendo right around the time the Steam Deck embargoes were lifted earlier this year, and I had concocted some theories as to why they were doing this.

Last week I had been working on a script for Gardiner Bryant on how to get DOSBox games running on Steam Deck. I had gotten a start on it…but I struggled with getting the sound to work, as well as getting the games to run in fullscreen. Gardiner figured it out better than me, and just yesterday he posted a video on his YouTube channel (he also has the video on Odysee, if you prefer that video platform instead).

Exactly a year ago I had conducted an overview of how Xbox Game Pass fares on Linux, over on Boiling Steam. One of the critical remarks I had about it was the streaming quality being terrible. Even if you had Gigabit Ethernet, you were forced to use Microsoft Edge to get that so-called “Clarity Boost,” and while it helped a little, the overall image quality was a disappointment. Well, perhaps to no one’s surprise, it appears Microsoft deliberately throttles the video quality on Linux.