How To Install EmuDeck On Steam Deck

Wondering how to install EmuDeck on your Steam Deck? We have got you covered!

You may sometimes wish to play the retro games you played on your Dreamcast or Nintendo 64 as a kid. That's where EmuDeck comes in.

EmuDeck is one of the best emulators for Steam Deck. With it, you can play your favourite titles from years past on your Steam Deck.

It is a great way to relive your childhood while enjoying retro classics like Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as other games that you might have forgotten about.

So today we are going to show you how to install EmuDeck on your Steam Deck.

How To Install EmuDeck On Steam Deck

EmuDeck is a script that installs various emulators automatically, so you don't have to install them one by one. It installs around 160 emulators and supporting utilities to your Steam Deck including Game Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Gear, NDS, 3DS, Dreamcast, Playstation, Nintendo 64, Wii, GameCube, Wii U, and more.

Here is how to install EmuDeck on your Steam Deck.

1. Switch to Desktop Mode and click here to download the EmuDeck app from the official EmuDeck website. After the download is complete, move EmuDeck onto your Desktop and run it.
2. Once the installation starts, you will see a changelog dialog with all the recent changes and fixes. Review them if you are interested in them and then close the window.
3. You will then be asked if you want to run the installation in Easy Mode or Expert Mode. Since this is your first time, we recommend you go for Easy Mode.
4. Next, you will need to select where you would want to install EmuDeck: Internal storage or SD card (if you have one). We recommend you install it on your SD card, but it is up to you. If you plan to store your ROMs on an SD card, format your SD Card in Steam UI. SD Cards need to be on ext4 (or btrfs) to work on EmuDeck.
5. At this point, EmuDeck will start to install various emulators as well as EmulationStation-DE and Steam Rom Manager. It may take a while so sit back and relax.
6. Once complete, you will see a dialogue box saying "Yuzu is not configured." It is no big deal, just hit ok and ignore it.
7. Afterwards, you'll receive a prompt showing where to put your games and bios. Also, it will ask you to open Steam Rom Manager. Don't mind that! Just hit the Exit button.

You have now successfully installed EmuDeck on your Steam Deck. If you go to your Desktop you will see 5 new icons: Update EmuDeck, Steam Rom Manager, EmuDeck Compression, EmuDeck Tool Updater and Uninstall EmuDeck.

Update EmuDeck and Uninstall EmuDeck are pretty self-explanatory. Steam Rom Manager is one of the programs that make emulated games accessible in Game Mode.

An EmuDeck Compression is a tool that we can use to compress certain games. Finally, EmuDeck Tool Updater allows you to update certain tools and emulators installed from EmuDeck.

• Read more: How To Fix The Steam Deck Desktop Mode Not Working Issue

How To Run Games On EmuDeck

Now that everything is installed, we will quickly go over how to run games. Steam Rom Manager is used to import your games into Steam so you can access your emulated games from the Steam library.

Here is how to run games on EmuDeck:

1. Close Steam and run Steam Rom Manager from the Desktop.
2. Click on Preview, then Generate app list, wait for all the images to download and then click Save app list. The first time it could take some minutes, check on the Event Log tab to know when the process is finished.
3. Close Steam Rom Manager and the Installer window, click on Return to game mode on your desktop and you are good to go.
4. Open Steam and you will see your emulated games in the library sorted into system categories. Choose a game you like and hit Play.

Where To Put ROMs In EmuDeck?

If you go to the storage where you installed EmuDeck, you will find a folder called Emulation. When you open that folder, you will see 3 (or 4) subfolders: bios, roms and tools.

Within the roms folder, you are gonna have subfolders for each of the systems like 3DS, Gamecast, Atari, etc. Inside the respective system folder, you are supposed to put game dumbs or ROMs. For example, if it is a Gamecast game, then you would put that in the folder Emulation/roms/Gamecast.

If you go here, you will find an EmuDeck cheat sheet that will show you a specific system, what the standard emulator is for it and what file types are accepted.

Since you are here, have a look at how to change the Steam Deck controller order and how to get the Steam Deck keyboard in Desktop Mode.