This week’s interesting bits and pieces in Steam Deck / Linux and general gaming that I have found is a lighter version. Just a small handful of things I found and wanted to share here. So don’t judge me too harshly!

As is now tradition (signed in blood) each time I swear this will become a weekly event, it is only a handful of days between it and the next!

So as always, this is just the bits and pieces of news I’ve spotted that made me smile, or made me interested, so I thought they’d fit in nicely here.

My aim is to phrase this in a more personal manner than most gaming sites do now. My ever-lasting inspo is the old, old video game sites, blogs and magazines that I never had the privilege of being alive for:

• image/gif/link heavy
• personal voice (no hard news here!)
• mostly news or articles or points you won’t find on the ‘big’ gaming sites, these are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to

This is a warning though, Boost has trouble displaying so many images per post. I am told however that the dev has fixed this, or is fixing this. I can say that Jerboa and Thunder have no issue scrolling these (same with the website)

So grab a cup of coffee, settle in and poke holes in my mistakes and formatting (or, idk, just enjoy this)!

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News / Games

Infinity Blade II:

Infinity Blade II now has a PC port! For a game which really shone as an example of both a mobile game done with high quality visuals (and production) and on how to make a touch-centric game play well…it’s hard to see this translating well to something like PC/Steam Deck. But, in the interests of my obsession of games preservation – it’s just a good thing to share the work some have done to ensure this has other ways of playing

The port targets 64-bit Windows, but the community has confirmed the following configurations to work:

Linux via Lutris, Proton, or Wine. macOS via Crossover or Parallels. Steamdeck via Proton.

Features:

• The original Infinity Blade II experience
• Keybinds for abilities such as dodging, blocking, stabbing, and more
• Standalone launcher to tweak graphical settings and controls
• Scroll menus naturally by dragging the mouse, or by scrolling the mouse wheel.
• Improved graphical fidelity over iOS
• Toggleable dynamic shadows and godrays
• Audio sliders to control music and SFX separately
• Easy save transfer between iOS and PC

There’s an announcement/guide on YouTube about this, which you can go to by clicking on this link right here!

I am neither affiliated with Epic Games nor with the creation of this port, which exists soley for the purpose of lost media preservation. This video analyzes of a publicly available website and file from the Internet Archive.

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Epic Games app:

Just a small note here, recently Epic has not only launched their app for Android and Apple, but they’ve been consistently updating it (I’d argue more than their PC experience, which years later is still lacking many of the QoL features others have had for eons -__-).

Their most recent update now shows the ‘discounts’ (sale prices) on their mobile games.

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Myst and Cyan

My father has a copy of Myst, in one of those ancient battered ‘big box’ style…boxes. It’s always been near his desk, alongside the others which are (forgive my ignorance, I just don’t know this series beyond the recent remaster ones) in the same universe? Sequels? Like Riven. He adores that game, like he adores the Portal games.

Being a senior programmer who has a reputation for COBOL, my father enjoyed the puzzle games, the ones which made him take his time and think.

Anyway, I only mention this because Myst, or rather the indie studio behind it called Cyan (which has remained a studio for 37 years now, and always remained independent) have announced that they laid off “…roughly half the team”.

As one user said though:

“You definitely hate to see it, but riding Myst at some point doesn’t pay the bills. When your iconic game’s release party would be closer in time to shaking President JFK’s hand than mine, it’s been too long…”

Further, Cyan shared a list of “impacted employees who are looking for new opportunities…” - you can read that list, as well as more information from Cyan via this Bluesky link where they made this announcement

Time passes, but this is still some very sad news to see, especially for such a long-running studio. I hope happier and brighter times are ahead for them.

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Croc on GOG

(No, not Steve Irwin)

Well, if you’ve been keeping up with this one, after almost 30 years the cult-classic Croc, as well as the remastered version, are now available on GOG. This one’s unique, in that it is only available on PC on GOG, whereas it is available everywhere on the consoles. Typical bitter weird comments are out there where people get angry (totally missing the irony that some games are available only on Steam), but overall things seem quite cheerful on this release!

• A link to the GOG page is here
• The YouTube trailer from 5 months ago is here with this link
• The forum post for the launch on GOG is here, if you want to read what people said

One issue though was reported by GOG themselves at launch, with their announcement of the game’s availability:

Hey all! Please note that for the smoothest experience, right now we recommend launching Croc (remastered version) while logged into your GOG GALAXY client—whether you’re online or offline. Using only the Offline Installers without GOG GALAXY may lead to some issues when trying to launch the game. We’re aware of this and are working on a fix ASAP. This affects only the remastered version. We apologize for the inconvenience—this shouldn’t take long to resolve. We hope you’ll have a blast playing nonetheless!

…though this has obviously been fixed long since!

Fun fact: This was originally going to be a Yoshi game but Nintendo turned it down so they made an original game. This was by Argonaut Games who also worked with Nintendo to do Star Fox

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Live Stranding

If you’ve been following my Mastodon for any time, you’ll have seen my countless obsessive love letter’s to Kojima’s delivery game – Death Stranding. A absolutely adore it.

It took me a couple times of trying it before it really suck with me, but ever since it climbed (pun?) high into my list of Perfect Dark’s Fav Games list. Being made available for free via Epic Games’ weekly free games a few times, chances are you’ve got it in your library too.

What I have noticed is a trend of users replying to my posts saying that the combat takes their enjoyment away. The BT battles, the timefall, the ‘stress’. And hey, that’s fine! We all get to enjoy games our own way, if you’ve been avoiding playing it because of these reasons, and you want that pure, pure dopamine hit of delivering packages, re-building roads and finding the perfect route through a broken land, then I have the suggestion for you!

Nexus Mods has a mod by AspeerTheDog, which removes Bts and timefall (rain) – which you can find using this link

This mod removes most of the timefall areas and prevents BTs from spawning. Some areas are left to allow Chiralium farming

I heavily discourage people who want to use this mod to play the campaign. BTs and timefall are a very important part of this game and without them a lot of mechanics in the game disappear or become useless. The mod was made with endgame in mind, for people who want to chill and farm deliveries in peace. I will not stop anyone from playing however they want though.

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Miyoo Game Diary:

This one is just plain sweet. I found a user (Acrobatic_Age) whose efforts to detail their experiences playing Final Fantasy 1 were done by hand with watercolor and ink in a game diary. All while they travelled and played.

While riding the train from Łódź to Warszawa, I had some time to snap pics of all the pages from my Final Fantasy 1 game journal so far. If you’re planning to play it, feel free to check out the maps and drawings, but skip the text—there are plenty of spoilers in those dialogues and rumors.

They have their previous adventures and efforts all detailed here on their blog, this link is theirs: called PIXELS IN MY POCKET. It is utterly beautiful, and if I can convince you to follow one link I’ve shared in this post, make it this one. It’s such a nice and unique thing they’re doing :)

Anyway, here’s some images of theirs, so you can see just how beautiful it is:

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A journal:

The above one reminds me of a RDR2 journal / diary I saw someone made when Red Dead released all those years ago. That user was candority, and here’s a few images of it just because it’s rather lovely:

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PC Ports / Decompilations, and more:

A frequently updated list of PC ports, decompilations, remakes, and fan games—all verified as playable on the Steam Deck (and PC)—has transitioned from Reddit to a standalone website. Originally maintained through community contributions on Reddit, the list has now outgrown its format, prompting the shift to a dedicated site by the maintainer: OldMcGroin.

The new site adopts a minimalist design, prioritizing readability and ease of navigation. Whilst OldMcGroin (what a username) acknowledges its a bit janky to start with (citing this as their first web project), the focus remains on accessibility for us users searching for compatible fan-made projects. The list continues to expand thanks to community suggestions, and feedback on both content and site improvements is encouraged. Those interested can explore the project here: with this link to ‘the gaming emporium’

This is definitely one I recommend you bookmark!

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Lovecraftian Sale:

Every year there’s something called The Lovecraftian Days, which also tends to have a themed sale on Steam. They also have shown the art for this year’s event:

Fulqrum Publishing is delighted to partner with the great and terrible Cthulhu, to celebrate the third iteration of Lovecraftian Days - hosted and curated by Fulqrum Publishing, and joined by dozens of other developers and publishers. The event will celebrate the influences of the classic works of H.P. Lovecraft, and the cosmic horror genre in gaming. The celebrations will include new game releases, new announcements, game demos and discounts!

The site for this is here, with this link if you’d like to visit it!

Further, here’s a couple images of the previous two years art:

(above is 2023)

(above is 2024)

And finally? A couple Lovecraftian games I’d recommend for the Steam Deck:

• Call of Cthulhu

• Darkest Dungeon

• DREDGE (my fav!)

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Gameboy Camera

This one’s quick, but twofold because its fun:

User Marurun shared an image of their Gameboy Camera pictures they’ve been taking, and those he took a step further to colorize:

I recently got back into taking photos with my Game Boy Camera since I can now save my photos. I don’t use a Game Boy Printer emulator to get my pictures from it since I don’t own one yet, but I found a different way using my GameCube and GameBoy Interface. I wrote about how I figured out how all of this works and how I colorize my photos on my blog:

https://marupanda.art/blog/posts/tech/gameboy-camera/

& I also recommend you check out this video on YouTube by Becca Farsace, showing them taking the modern ‘remake’ of the classic Nintendo Gameboy Camera, the 2BitToy which you can look at in more detail on their site, here! around.

It’s a wonderful and fun video, I really recommend this one here’s the link to YouTube if you wanna check it out!

And here’s an image of that camera set-up:

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Quick Links:

These are just bits and pieces I have absolutely no doubt most of you have seen, but maybe going forward this will be a handy thing (at least to look back in retrospect as time goes on) – having them in one place? IDK, let me know if you like this lil section:

• Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 – 4.2.2025 – my takeaway above all else was the sad departure of an entire game being stored on a game cart, now seeing them instead be a typica; ‘digital license’. It’s a sad thing to see for me. Also, up to $90 USD for Mario Kart? WTF is that?

• Loci is now a part of Epic Games. Loci being a algorithm which generates metadata for 3D assets (maybe so FAB will be less shit?)A link to the announcement article is here, if you’re interested in the details

• Enter The Gungeon 2 now has a page on Steam, and you can find the page here with this link if you want! Enter the Gungeon 2 is a reloaded, high-caliber sequel to the iconic bullet hell dungeon crawler, reinforced with a new 3D art style, new weapons and enemies, and new gameplay tricks.

• If you’d like a little more info on why Warner Bros. cancelled the planned DLC expansion to Hogwarts Legacy, then you can read a bit more about it here on Bloomberg with this link to the article. TBH I’m just jaded and figure whatever it is or was will be recycled as a sequel.

• The GitHub for Citra, the most well known of the 3DS emulators has been closed down. If you’ve been running it via EmuDeck or RetroDECK, then you’ll see it’s disappeared completely. Azahar is now the default 3DS emulator for all.

• Atomfall is the most successful game launch for the developers (who are known for Sniper Elite) at Rebellion. They’ve been making games now for 32 years! This is an article about that, its on IGN

• Nightdive Studios’ CEO said ‘we stands ready’ – to remaster Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era games. The artcile giving more details is here via VideoGamesChronicle if you’d like to read more!

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Prime Gaming List for April:

The full list of games you can redeem, when and from where – for your Prime Gaming subscription for the month of April is as follows:

• Now Available: Mafia III: Definitive Edition [GOG Code]

• Now Available: Minecraft Legends [Xbox and PC via Microsoft Store Code]

• Now Available: Gravity Circuit [Amazon Games App]

• Now Available: Paleo Pines [Amazon Games App]

• Now Available: Clouds & Sheep 2 [Amazon Games App]

• April 10: DreadOut 2 [Amazon Games App]

• April 10: ENDLESS™ Space — Definitive Edition [Amazon Games App]

• April 10: God’s Trigger [GOG Code]

• April 10: New York Mysteries: Power of Art Collector’s Edition [Legacy Games Code]

• April 10: Projection: First Light [Amazon Games App]

• April 10: Faraway: Director’s Cut [Amazon Games App]

• April 17: Gloomhaven [Epic Games Store]

• April 17: The Last Spell [GOG Code]

• April 17: Fashion Police Squad [Epic Games Store]

• April 17: Genesis Noir [Amazon Games App]

• April 17: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain [GOG Code]

• April 17: Berserk Boy [GOG Code]

• April 17: The Last Show of Mr. Chardish [Epic Games Store]

• April 17: Wild Country [GOG Code]

• April 24: Thief™ Gold [GOG Code]

• April 24: Troublemaker [Epic Games Store]

• April 24: Kraken Academy!! [Amazon Games App]

• April 24: Priest Simulator: Vampire Show [Epic Games Store]

I’m gonna harp on about it again here, I just love the deal which Amazon’s Prime Gaming gives. For most who subscribe (at least this is my own personal experience), this whole add-on of free games titles you get to keep forever, regardless of the subscription status is a Godsend. To me this is the single best deal in gaming right now.

I get to build my GOG library (my fav of all!), as well as the others. I typically find at least one title per week which I’d never buy for myself, but am looking forward to trying! Gloomhaven especially is one of my fav board games ever made. And I am so very excited to try the video game! Enjoy!

Medium has done a small article detailing the list of games released this month for Prime Gaming, if you want to read up on it further, this is a good link for it!

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Epic’s Upcoming Freebie – April 10th:

Next week’s (or one of since there is three in total – though one of them is just in-game currency for a free title) standout game to me is River City Girls.

Free from April 10th to 17th and not available to claim in:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Russia
• South Korea

A beat-em-up, this one is rated highly on Steam, and looks like a great one to claim for free!

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Nintendo Power

Again, something incredibly niche, but I had fun discovering a backup of every single Nintendo Power release which was hosted on archive.org, but now whose link is dead. So, there’s a magnet available for those who want it:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:8a1a883270f3f094150ce258a26b4ca581839153

Every issue, from 1 to 285. Enjoy!

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The Last of Us Pt. 2 on the Steam Deck:

As it stands, while being better than the disaster of Pt 1 on PC, it’s still not ideal for Steam Deck. The video for the Digital Foundry review on performance is up and linked here, and here is a few things Alex points out:

• TLOU2 has it’s own Steam Deck preset
• Has trouble locking to 30 fps on the SD
• Frametime issues makes the game feel jerky, even if the average FPS is about 30 fps
• Framecapping is recommended given the CPU performance issues (not just for SD, but for all PCs in general)

Discussion on the Steam Deck is from the 9:58 mark in the video, which is linked here

Having never played the second game, I’m really looking forward to it on PC, but for the moment perhaps I’ll wait until I am home with my powerful desktop, rather than now (travelling) with my Steam Deck.

…and finally, as a bonus, here’s a video from YouTube by Girlfriend Reviews, where they detail how a Redditor on r/TheLastofUs2 sent death threats to himself and blamed them for it. The best case ever of incels going fucking crazy over a game and getting caught out. I can’t recommend enough that you watch this, if only to see a beautiful ‘gotcha’ for the incels.

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A Recommendation:

I try recommend a game I figure not everyone has tried and might enjoy on their Steam Deck. I really loved a game called RKGK or Rakugaki. It’s a beautiful, bright and fun 3D platformer – think (to me anyway) a little bit Bomb Rush/Jet Set and a little bit Sunset Overdrive.

A link to the trailer is here, if you want to get a better idea of gameplay – the link is to YouTube

Extremely bright pops of color, a cyberpunkish setting, fast platforming movement, graffiti art, and beautifully fluid character handingly: I really enjoyed this one. It also plays amazingly well on the Steam Deck (link to the ProtonDB page), and is a fun pick-up-and-play game. From the store:

The city is your canvas. Join the rebellious Valah and her RKGK crew to free the neo-brutalist Cap City from evil B Corp’s control. Collect secret treasures, find hidden paths, and light up the cold and grey concrete with your graffiti.

How fast can you go? Chain together jumps, dashes, glides, and grinds. Reach the perfect flow state in Defacer mode – where Valah’s world becomes her animated wonderland. Master routes and speed through levels as you take down Mr. Buff’s cronies with style.

Break through enemies, overload your senses, and take back control. Use Valah’s paint abilities for stylish traversal, chaotic mayhem, and leaving your vibrant mark on every corner of Cap City.

…don’t overthink it, this game is just fun!

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Krysten / Sonic:

Just a cute photo of Krysten Ritter from when she was doing a fan signing even for her new novel. Someone brought along a copy of Shadow the Hedgehog for her to sign (she played Director Rockwell in Sonic 3).

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…annnnnd that’s it!

I’ve always got to emphasize that if there’s any errors, be they formatting, spelling or phrasing - they’re all my errors (and sorry!). I hope you might find some fun in this, even if it’s a ‘lighter’ version of what I typically share.

Thanks as ever for letting me get away with these rambling posts <3

And don’t forget, if you want more of my inane posting, then I’m on Mastodon here: