I know how difficult it can be to navigate the world of retro gaming if you’re coming into it for the first time. Sure, buying a CRT TV and an old N64 is the easiest route, but there are so many other options available for everyone’s individual needs, and not everyone wants to sit in front of a 13″ Toshiba TV like the good old days. On the other side of the coin, however, there are the PC gamers who want to play Retro Games and don’t want to mess around configuring settings, downloading programs, finding drivers, or tinkering with parts to build the ultimate gaming rig. It can be a confusing spaghetti junction of chips and processors, and for someone coming into it with no PC-building experience, it can all seem pretty daunting.
Some of you may have heard about EmuDeck before, especially if you’ve followed some of our guides on how to play retro games on your Steam Deck. Well, they’ve taken the stress out of finding the perfect emulator and brought Steam gaming off the computer and into the living room with their very first foray into the hardware market. It’s called the EmuDeck Machine, which while not the catchiest title is set to make things much easier for gamers to enjoy the titles they love.
We first discovered this Indiegogo project through our friends at Overkill (thanks guys!) and instantly became intrigued. If you know your retro consoles or more specifically your Sega retro consoles, then there’s no denying that EmuDeck has taken some heavy inspiration from the Dreamcast, but I’m certainly not complaining. The console itself looks amazing and even comes with a Gamesir Nova Lite controller to get you started. Here’s the best bit though – they’re going to ship on December 24th, so you can always have someone wrap up the confirmation email and unwrap it on Christmas Day. It would be rude not to, I suppose!
I can hear some of you saying, ‘I still don’t understand what this is… ‘. Essentially, the team at EmuDeck knows how difficult picking or building the best PC for gaming can be, so they’ve created a console that has all of the gubbins you need built-in, taking all of the hassles and stress away and leaving you to game to your heart’s content. Inside the EmuDeck Machine is a mini PC running Linux-based OS called Bazzite. It will come in two models – the EM1 and EM2, with the EM2 boasting better features and, naturally, a higher price point.
As you can see from the specs list above, the EM2 uses an AMD Ryzen 8600G whereas the EM1 reverts to Intel N97 APU. See what I mean; terms like that are already incredibly confusing if you don’t live in the PC gaming world, which is why EmuDeck has tried to bridge the gap with these two new consoles. The EM1 is great for retro emulation and comes with all of the Decky plugins you might need, whereas the dream for the EM2 is that it could do away with the gaming PC entirely.
Because of that AMD processing power, the EM2 can get up to 61FPS while using upscaling technology such as FSR and a whopping 200FPS on games like Hades. That means that the EM2 can cope with all of your Steam account games and more, all in a smaller, console-inspired unit with 4K HDMI output. And according to the Indiegogo campaign, if the full amount for the EmuDeck Machine is met, then production will begin on a dock that allows for an AMD Radeon 7600 desktop GPU, taking the FPS as high as 160 for titles like Cyberpunk! The EM1 can only cope with Hades, so if you have a full Steam library, you’ll want the EM2 every day of the week.
On the emulation front, the EM1 can run PCSX2 (PS2), Dolphin (GameCube/Wii), and CEMU (Wii U) at 60FPS. The EM2 replicates this and adds RPCS3 (PS3) and Xenia (Xbox 360), both at 40-60FPS.
As I said before, the price of the EM2 reflects what is possible with this machine, especially with the EM2 offering more than the EM1 in terms of eventually replacing the notion of the gaming PC with the inclusion of the dock. Consoles can be ordered from the Indiegogo campaign page and will be shipped to the US, Canada, and Europe for free. Early-bird prices for the EM1 start at $330, £302, and €359 (going off current exchange rates plus individual prices for shipping to different territories). The EM2 shoots up in price to $697, £638, and €759 with a controller included. We’ll be watching how this unfolds very closely and hopefully getting our hands on these exciting machines to give you a better insight into how they tick once released.
