A lot of people want to know about emulating
Switch on the Steam Deck. Rightfully so. The Steam Deck is good enough that in most
cases, I won’t be needing this thing anymore. But unsurprisingly Nintendo is taking down
emulation videos. I’ve come up with a Switch emulation video that Nintendo can’t take
down…. I hope. Let’s get into it.
What’s good, Deck Gang? First of all,
shout out to The Phawx who already put up a Switch emulation video that
Nintendo subsequently had taken down. Thankfully, it can still be found on reddit
and on the Internet Archive so we’re seeing shades of the Streissand Effect here.
In any case, I’ll include links below. Notably, Linus talked about this saga on the WAN
show and indicated that he will challenge Nintendo on this by making his own Switch emulation video
basically daring them to have it taken down. He thinks Nintendo doesn’t have a legal leg
to stand on and he’s probably right.
Unfortunately, I’m a small creator and don’t
have the means to challenge Nintendo so I’m going to get around this problem by not showing
any Nintendo games at all. I’ve put together a comprehensive guide that includes connecting
controllers, preparing files, installing the emulator, running it in Gaming Mode, and
configuring some hotkeys using SteamInput. And to go through all of that, I won’t be
showing a single Nintendo game. I’ve found 5 hidden gems that are currently not playable
on PC outside of emulation. For the most part, they’re not going to showcase the performance
of emulation on the Deck but they’re gonna help is compatible with both Windows and SteamOS even
if it’s not a particularly performant file system. If I was thinking about this as a console,
it’d a be a perfectly suitable solution and in fact I believe all modern consoles can read
exFAT. So this decision made sense to me.
We’re installing Yuzu today and you’re going
to need two sets of files. First you need key files that Yuzu uses to decrypt game files. These
files are called prod.keys and title.keys. Yuzu’s quickstart guide includes instructions on how to
dump these from your Switch if you’ve modded your console. If you haven’t modded your Switch, you
can technically find and use someone else’s but you’re on your own on how to get those files. Next
you need your games. Yuzu’s quickstart guide also shows how to dump your games; again if you have
a modded console. So you’ll want to put all these We need to get to Desktop mode. You go to
Desktop mode by hitting the Steam button, going down to the Power menu, and selecting Switch
to Desktop. This is going to close Gaming mode and the taskbar. I typed in Yuzu to find it but you
can also navigate the menu by going into Games, then Emulators. Once installed, I pinned it to
the taskbar for ease of use without a keyboard. At this point, you can also add it to Steam. Open
up the Steam library, click Add a Game, then Add a Non-Steam game, then find and tick Yuzu. Click Add
selected program and boom it will now be available in Gaming mode when you go back to it.
For now, let’s open Yuzu up in Desktop mode. You’ll get an error that the encryption
keys are missing. But first, make sure to switch the backend from OpenGL to Vulkan.
In any case, as the Yuzu quickstart guide says, you need to put your encryption keys in the keys
folder of the Yuzu directory. If you don’t know how to get to the Yuzu directory, Yuzu actually
has a convenient shortcut for you. Just click File > Open yuzu folder. From here open the keys
folder. This is where you need to put your keys so and navigate to Non-Steam apps. Here you’ll see
Yuzu. Open that bad boy up. You’ll see the same Yuzu window with your games loaded up. You can
navigate with the d-pad and press the B button on the Steam Deck to launch a game. Now one thing
to note is that you’ll probably want to use Steam Input to enable some things. In particular,
I set up the right trackpad as a mouse, and I set up the left trackpad with a radial menu
that will allow me to toggle fullscreen using F11 or stop emulation using F5. You may want to use
some action layers or something like that so you don’t accidentally stop the emulation. And you
may want to set up something for save state, load state or some other hotkeys.
So I want to talk about some of the games I’m showcasing here. These are third party games
that are currently not sold on PC. The only way to play them on PC is to use emulation.
First is Ninja Saviors - Return of the Ninja Warriors. This is a sequel to Ninja
Warriors, the SNES-based beat em up. I bought this on the Switch but have desperately
been wanting to play on my handheld PC. Now I finally can! Even though I beat it a couple
times on Switch, this is a game I can keep coming back to in order to unlock all the characters
and eventually complete a 1cc run.
Next up is 13 Sentinels. Originally it was on
PS4 and it’s currently on its way to the Switch. This is a Japanese demo of the game and so
far it’s running well but there’s no telling how it’s going to run in those late game
mega-mecha-battles. This is my favorite game from Vanillaware and really a gripping visual
novel mixed with solid tactical battling.
Crash Team Racing was remade for consoles in 2019.
Unlike the Crash Trilogy Remastered before it or Crash 4 after ihas yet to make its way to
PC and continues to be stranded on consoles. That’s a shame because the original is a classic
and still holds up today in this remake.
I bought but admittedly had never
played Golf Story. It got a lot of praise but I waited for a PC port that
never came. Now I can play it on Deck.
Prinny Can I Really Be the Hero 1 and 2
are extremely underrated and overlooked platformers. Previously stranded only on PSP, it’s
now stranded on PSP and Switch. You could emulate the PSP version if you prefer but I decided to go
with the slightly updated Switch versions.
There are plenty of other games of course. But
sadly most of them are published by Nintendo. Even ones you may not think of like Triangle Strategy,
and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. But that doesn’t mean I’m done. This is just the beginning. Hit
subscribe and slap the bell to make sure you’re here for my next Switch emulation video.
Deck Gang out. Goodbye.
