Turning Your Steam Deck Into a Proper Retro Machine (Without Breaking Anything)

Your Steam Deck can play decades of retro games alongside your Steam library. Here's how to set it up properly — no bricked systems, no wasted evenings. A lot of Steam Deck owners don't realise how much retro power is sitting in the device they already own. Underneath SteamOS, it's a full Linux PC — which means it can run emulation software just as well as it runs your Steam library, if you set it up the right way.

The word "set it up" tends to scare people off, so let's take the fear out of it.

The safe way in: Desktop Mode

Everything happens in the Deck's Desktop Mode, not inside your regular Steam library. Think of it as a separate space that sits alongside your games rather than interfering with them. As long as you stay inside the tools built for this (rather than digging into random system files), there's nothing here that puts your Deck at risk.

EmuDeck does the heavy lifting

Rather than installing and configuring a dozen individual emulators, most people use EmuDeck — a setup tool that installs the major emulators for you and drops them straight into your Steam library as if they were games. You click, it configures, and you end up with a "Retro" section sitting next to your normal one.

The part people skip: BIOS files

Some older consoles — PS1, PS2, Saturn — need their original system files (BIOS) to emulate properly. This is the step most beginners either miss entirely or get stuck on, mostly because nobody explains where these files need to go or how to check they've landed correctly. Get this part wrong and a game will refuse to boot for reasons that look nothing like a BIOS problem, which is exactly why it trips people up.

Controllers, storage, and comfort

The Deck's built-in controls are already excellent for retro games, but three add-ons make a real difference for anyone doing this properly:

• Extra storage — retro libraries add up fast, and running everything off a fast microSD card keeps load times sane.

• A dock — useful if you want to play on a TV screen once your library's built out.

• A grip or case — longer sessions are a different experience with better ergonomics.

Our [Steam Deck Emulation Kit] bundles all three with our written setup guide, priced better than sourcing each piece separately.

Our take

Don't try to set up every console system in one sitting. Get NES/SNES-era emulation working first, confirm it's smooth, then work your way up to the more demanding systems. It's a much less frustrating way to learn, and it means one BIOS hiccup doesn't derail the whole evening.

Full walkthrough here: [Steam Deck Emulation Guide].