Well, it’s that time of the week where I share a roundup of all the interesting things I have spotted in gaming news. There’s a big variety this week, with a fair section of Nintendo Switch news, some GOG, some Steam Deck, Linux and just gaming in general.

My aim is to format these posts 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 (I’m a big GIF fan – and I pronounce it with a hard ‘g’)
• personal voice (no 1930’s nasal radio presenter voice here!)
• mostly news or articles or points you won’t find on normal gaming sites, these are the smaller, lesser things that I’m drawn to. I know you’ll have spotted the big news articles, so I’m hoping some of these smaller ones might have been missed by you.

So grab a coffee? Or a tea? Or a glass of wine? And enjoy <3

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Steam Deck / Gaming News:

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GOG Galaxy Alternative:

I found this extremely detailed post on someone who has created (or is creating rather – it is a work in progress) their own alt to GOG’s Galaxy.

There’s been a few of these projects lately, which are bringing more options to the GOG scene. I’ve covered them in previous News Posts here on Lemmy, but briefly set out, they are:

• vangogh/theo
• Gamesieve - (whose dev is here on Lemmy!)
• Gogg Downloader

Anyway, since the post itself has so many images and has everything explained so well, I’ll just shut up and paste the entirety of it here so you can read below:

6 months ago I wanted to play a GOG game I have hosted on my server, but as an expert in sophisticated procrastination I started building my own game launcher instead.

Before doing so, I tried the options out there; Playnite (amazing software), Launchbox, GOG Galaxy 2 etc. I soon realized that none of the options had the features I wanted, namely:

• A clean, customizable UI without tinkering with code or juggling multiple addons
• The option to check whether your games are offloaded to the cloud or not. I have a NAS and often offload my DRM-free games to the cloud. I wanted this cloud “installed state” to be visible in the app.
• Portable mode and a simple database structure that allows syncing between devices. In my case, a PC and a handheld device.
• A clean overview page showing which games you’re currently playing and statistics
• Own-cloud hosted save backups out of the gate
• A screenshot viewer for all your games
• The ability to add Emulators to the app and launch games using them
• How long to beat data out of the box … list goes on.

I first built my app using Powershell script, but I quickly realized how ugly that was. It was so fun coding so I continued and instead switched to a Electron / React stack, which my app is built on.

I can talk about this for hours, but I just wanted to get this out there. I’m a guy with many ideas, and this is the first thing I ever release to the public. I’m my worst critic so it’s been tough to actually settle on something.

It’s not out yet, but will be very soon. I’ll be releasing an 1.0 version with most functionality for free, and an optional paid download with all functionality (custom themes etc). It’ll be for a very fair price, a one time cost without any darn DRM!

(and that’s the post)

They have a Discord link here (since I am not on Discord, I have no idea the quality of discussions) if you’d like to see what the dev is saying

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Smelling Glue:

I can’t believe I have to remind users again, but sniffing the fumes from your Steam Deck vent is literally inhaling burning adhesives. That’s how it works! Fresh adhesives applied in the factory, and when the hardware is ‘spun up’, the heat will burn off the excess – giving that strong scent. I’ve seen these images shared around this week, and its just…only causing you harm. I can hope that this is just a joke
Don’t do this – and for fucks’ sake, please don’t 3D print something to direct the smell of excess burning glue into your nose.

Anyway, images as follows:

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Kingdom Come

As Warhorse Studios have put it, they have reached a huge milestone!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has officially surpassed 3 million copies sold, with a 93% user score on Steam. Combined with over 10 million lifetime sales of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the franchise has cemented Warhorse Studios’ position as one of Europe’s leading AAA studios and a rising force in the RPG genre.

10 million and 3 million respectively, for a independent studio and the level of quality those games have (both available on GOG I might add!) is just breathtaking.

Further, I just love that devs from other studios have chimed in on the LinkedIn post they made to announce this:

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South of Midnight:

The rather crazy (amazing in atmosphere and setting, not to mention such a beautiful and unique art-style…not so amazing with the basic combat – imo anyway) game has reached over 1 million players, since launching almost one month ago on April 8th.

They took inspiration from Louisiana, Tennesee, Mississippi and Georgia, and of this, Compulsion Games CEO and Studio Head Guillaume Provost said

Obviously, when making a game that’s so heavily tied to a specific region and culture, you’re going to have a lot of sales that are proportionately based on that region.

And

When we had the discussion originally, I thought that that specific region was pretty underserved in the video game market. Kentucky Route Zero is a good example, and you’ve seen it portrayed in Red Dead Redemption. But no one had really kind of dived in and mined the mythology of the area and looked at what made it iconic.

…which I thought was interesting! Anyway, one million players is an amazing feat! And a game well worth trying (I’d recommend Game Pass, if you have that option)

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The Gaming Emporium:

I did cover this a few weeks back (or a few News Posts ago, at least) when they relaunched their site with a fancy new overhaul. But they’ve made another chance!

What is this Gaming Emporium?

Well, its a site put together to give easy access to:

• PC ports
• Decompilations/recompilations
• Texture packs
• Remakes/females
• Fan games

It makes searching, finding, installing and checking over these games and projects as easy as it can be, and puts them all in one place, which is the biggest benefit. I’ve played countless games which are shown on this site on my Steam Deck, and some on my desktops also.

This is a great resource.

This latest change to the site is a ‘recent additions’ section, making the newer projects easy to find!

The site itself is here with this link :)

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Zelda64 Recomp:

One such example of this kind of thing is the newly update Zelda64 Recomp:

Version 1.2.0 brings:

• Mod & texture pack support—drag & drop or use the mod menu!
• MacOS now supported
• Linux Flatpak added
• Performance boosts for weaker GPUs

A link to the GitHub for the project is here

And a handy link to mods you can install with it are here, too

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EmuDeck:

The most recognizable of the emulation options for the Steam Deck, EmuDeck has had a new guide and overview posted by Russ of Retro Game Corps on YouTube.

You can find the video here, but it takes you through everything you might need, and also mentions the other options available for emulating on the Steam Deck, like RetroDECK and Batocera.

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33:

Twelve days since launch, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has crossed two million copies sold!!!

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Leisure Suit Larry:

Honestly, these games seem aesthetically horrifying, and rather niche (perhaps suited to an older audience?), but games being de-listed is never a good thing for gaming. From their announcement made on Steam which you can find here, their statement is:

Dear Larry Fans,

After decades of questionable pickup lines and unforgettable adventures, it’s finally time for Larry to hang up his leisure suit—at least the retro version of it!

The following classic titles will soon be leaving the Steam store and will no longer be available for purchase:

• Leisure Suit Larry - Magna Cum Laude Uncut and Uncensored
• Leisure Suit Larry 1 - In the Land of the Lounge Lizards
• Leisure Suit Larry 2 - Looking For Love (In Several Wrong Places)
• Leisure Suit Larry 3 - Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
• Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
• Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Shape Up Or Slip Out
• Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Modded:

Modders for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 have achieved a major breakthrough by enabling 12-player co-op, far beyond the game’s original three-player limit—with full support from developer Saber Interactive.

The mod, currently in testing, allows for battles against Tyranid bosses, with plans to expand into raid-style missions featuring tough bosses requiring teamwork. The modding community, including Tom of Astartes Overhaul, were pretty thrilled with Saber’s openness, which has enabled ambitious projects like this.

In the meantime, Space Marine 2 continues to grow with upcoming updates, including a horde mode, new class, and maps. Alongside a pretty extensive modding scene gives us a good look at the usual PC gaming method – a game that can have endless life after the initial offerings from the studios!

There’s an article on IGN here with this link, if you want to read more about it, and get the links too!

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Ocean Keeper:

An early access game I picked up on a whim a fairly long time ago (and I never get early access games, this might be the single one I ever did? And only then because it was about the ocean which I love?!) has their full release now!

What was called Codename Ocean Keeper is now titles Ocean Keeper Dome Survival:

Explore dungeons, fight hordes of monsters and survive on a huge map. This is Ocean Keeper - an action roguelike with tower defense elements. Mine resources in caves, customize your Mech Spider, upgrade different weapons and face dangerous bosses that won’t leave you a chance!

They’ve made announcement on Steam:

Today, we’re proud to officially release version 1.0 on Steam. Thank you for being part of this journey — whether you’ve been with us from the start or just joined now. Welcome to the full Ocean Keeper experience!

The link to which is here!

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An Article and a Video:

There’s two recent things that caught my attention, which I found super helpful, informative and fun – they both make what is ‘under the hood’ easier for users.

The first of which is here, this is just a link to a link – but I posted here on Lemmy: The Definitive Guide to Steam Play Tools. Check it out, because this blog post is so good, written by Gardiner Bryant.

The second is a technical video made by MonroeWorld on YouTube, called Shader Caches 201 – Learn More About This Helpful Steam Deck Feature. It’s just 10:02 long, and really helpful for people wanting to learn what is behind what they’re playing, and how it makes things work so well

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Zarya:

I just found this on YouTube as well a few days back, a fun gameplay teaser (running at 2:02 long), it looks really fun, and unique! But it looks ironically very, very, very slow.

I really love off-the-track (pun?) car games, like #Drive Rally, Art of Rally, and Old School Rally (can you tell I am a rally girl?), and this one fits in nicely with that:

Welcome to Zarya - a captivating narrative simulator that takes you through the picturesque landscapes of a post-Soviet rural setting. In this immersive experience, you’ll:

• Navigate the tranquil country roads as a dedicated rural driver
• Deliver crucial packages and aid the friendly villagers
• Earn your livelihood in a meaningful way
• Collect an array of classic cars, each with its own story
• Immerse yourself in the rich, nostalgic atmosphere of your homeland

[Anyway, the trailer link is here on YouTube if you’re interested!]

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A 10th Anniversary:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has now been around for 10 years, or to be precise…a little over 10 years!

It’s very much in my top 3 games of all time, and one I won’t ever uninstall!

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LegionGo

On the Polish Lenovo forum they officially announced that SteamOS will appear on May 15th. Nice to have an update on SteamOS working with a full official build on other handhelds!

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Xbox Showcase Possibilities:

This one’s a fun comprehensive list put together by mo-par, and details everything that Xbox is working on. The original set was was too extensive, so I’m going to pick and choose the least subjective (and hopeful) and post these ones here.

There were so many sections, which I’m going to have such fun formatting for Lemmy (lies):

There’s games we’ve gotten updates on recently:

• Doom Dark Ages (out May 15th)
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 & 4 Remake (out July 11th)
• Gears of War Reloaded (out August 26th)
• Ninja Gaiden 4 (out 2025)
• Outer Worlds 2 (out 2025)
• Fable (out 2026)
• Clockwork Revolution (gameplay reveal 2023)
• Perfect Dark (gameplay reveal 2024)
• State of Decay 3 (gameplay reveal 2024)
• Blade (revealed 2023)
• OD (revealed 2023)
• Gears of War E Day (revealed 2024)

There are games we haven’t seen for awhile:

• Everwild (revealed 2019, rebooted 2021)
• Elder Scrolls 6 (revealed 2018)
• Contraband (revealed 2021)

Upcoming DLC:

• Starfield
• Indiana Jones
• Avowed

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Tariffs (or ‘are you tired of all that winning yet?’)

One of the big names in the SBC (single-board-gaming, but that term is now quite loosely reserved for all retro handheld gaming devices) gaming scene is Retroid. Recently released, the Retroid Pocket Flip 2 (you can watch a review on it here, if you’re interested was retailing for around $220 USD.

Since the tariffs have kicked in making America so great, it now costs over $600 to buy it in the ‘States.

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Custom PS2:

A user by the name of PaleRestaurant shared their custom PS2. There isn’t much that can be said, except I adore how hardware hackers take their time, and make their consoles the best they can possibly be. There’s a couple images of their efforts, and I know I’m impressed:

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Limited Run:

…Limited Run Games GBA cart for Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has been found to have used recycled chips for the internals that are scratched, damaged and dirty…on a NEW product! Three different buyers have received carts with obviously used and in one instanced physically damaged chips. Note: Three instances makes a pattern. Everyone needs to see more carts opened to see how many are affected

A nicely detailed video covering this is here, if you want to check it out!

(And I LOVE Shantae, I loved playing those games)

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Losing Preservation:

The Japanese Game Preservation Society (GPS), a non-profit dedicated to saving Japan’s gaming history, is on the verge of collapse due to severe financial struggles. With just £2,100 left—not even enough for a month’s rent—the organization, supported by legendary developers like Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado, risks shutting down by September without more monthly donors. Despite preserving thousands of rare games and documents, strict Japanese laws prevent sharing ROMs, limiting fundraising options and public engagement.

Efforts like crowdfunding, auctions, and high-quality documentaries have failed to attract enough support, compounded by language barriers and lack of global outreach. GPS head Joseph Redon stresses they don’t need massive funding—just 400 more supporters donating £2/month—but also volunteers to help communicate their work. Without urgent action, a vital piece of gaming history could disappear forever.

Utterly devastating news, and there is a lengthy article covering this via timeextension, I urge you to read up on it since it’s important to us all who love gaming

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Party Cannon

Party Cannon, a Scottish band have released a single on a Mega Drive/Genesis cart!

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Epic Games:

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As ever, there is precious little to share on the Epic Games front. While they’re still a significant factor in gaming (love or hate them, they are a big part of things), progress on things like their newly launched mobile app, their own launcher etc come at a glacial pace. But what I have found, I’ll leave here:

All The Games:

Easily the one thing they’re most well known for is their weekly free giveaways of games. While it’s clearly in place to make a user spend time (and obv money) on their platform, there’s workarounds to play all those free games far, far away from Epic.

Junk Store Heroic Games Launcher

These are both my recommendations if you want to play the games on desktop or Steam Deck and play their games.

Anyway, want a handy reference of every free game has ever given away? (476 of them!) Here’s an image a user put together of every single game they’ve given away. I uploaded the very high-res image onto Catbox, via this link, because its too big for Lemmy to want to upload!

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Sweeney’s Big News:

Tim Sweeney (Epic’s CEO) announced that there would be some ‘big news’ coming a few days back.

While there was some speculation on what it’d be (Epic Games’ own Game Pass, GTA V being free again – the typical nonsense), it ended up being more news for developers publishing their games on Epic. I’ll link this post, but all you’ll see is the short quotes here anyway, so…don’t bother:

We’re making some exciting updates to the Epic Games Store to provide an even better deal for developers, starting in June.

0% Store Fee For First $1,000,000 in Revenue Per App Per Year Starting in June 2025, for any Epic Games Store payments we process, developers will pay a 0% revenue share on their first $1,000,000 in revenue per app per year, and then our regular 88%/12% revenue share when they earn more than that.

Epic Games Store Webshops In June 2025, we are releasing a new feature enabling developers to launch their own webshops hosted by the Epic Games Store. These webshops can offer players out-of-app purchases, as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases, where Apple, Google, and others charge exorbitant fees. With new legal rulings in place, developers will be able to send players from games to make digital purchases from webshops on any platform that allows it, including iOS in the European Union and United States.

As an extra bonus, players spending in Epic Webshops will also accrue 5% Epic Rewards on all their purchases.

Here’s the link on their site if you’d like it looking prettier than I can possible make it!

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4 Free Games:

As a part of Prime Gaming’s monthly giveaways, there is 4 games from Epic being given away this month.

I wrote a post giving the entire list of games – be they Xbox, GOG (my fav), Epic or otherwise the other day, which you can find here if you’d like. It certainly made people a bit cross, I even got some quite abusive messages about it away from Lemmy. But…here’s the link

And the four games from Epic are:

• Amnesia: Rebirth
• Doors – Paradox
• Chessarama
• Liberté

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Next Weeks Free Games:

• We’ve got two games this week (tomorrow-ish depending on where you are in the world!):

• Deadtime Defenders (initially blacklisted to be unavailable to claim in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia and South Korea, but now all blacklists have been dropped – available to claim everywhere!) for PC

• Touch Type Tale

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Nintendo Switch News:

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Just a few things that might be of interest in the Switch scene.

We’re really on the cusp of a changing Nintendo landscape right now. I picked up a Japanese OLED the other day (and am going to chip it if I can find a space here in Thailand where I’m travelling that has the proper equipment for me to shoulder them out of the way and do it myself!), rather than investing in their iterative Switch 2 – I’ll just customize my OLED to be the best it can be! I’ve seen equal numbers clamoring for the sequel, and those getting an OLED instead.

I’m curious, what are your thoughts on the new model?

Anyway, on to Switch news:

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Litigious:

Nintendo is suing gaming accessory manufacturer Genki (probably known best for the Shadowcast) over Switch2 mock-ups it showed at CES, claiming trademark infringement.

Genki allegedly implied it had insider access to the unannounced console’s design — which it later admitted was false.

Nintendo also criticized Genki’s ‘infiltration’ jokes and a misleading ‘Direct’ video.

Here’s a link to the case

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Switch performance:

A user by the name of Septive13 shared the site they have been working on, called handheld-performance (the link to which is here if you want to check it out yourself!):

For the past couple of months, I’ve been building a website to collect and organize performance data from Nintendo Switch games (resolution, frame rate, and overall stability).

The site is called Handheld Performance. It’s meant to be a quick and simple way to check how well a game runs, without having to dig through videos or forum threads. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m updating it regularly and plan to include the upcoming Switch 2 once it’s out.

It’s a nice idea! It might be somewhat subjective, but if you’re not using a modded Switch (something called sys-clk is able to be used on a Switch running Custom Firmware, Sys-clk is a system module for the the Switch that allows users to overclock or underclock the CPU, GPU, and RAM for better performance or battery life), if you’re using it stock and want to know exactly how games are running? This is a great resource for you. Check it out!

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Super5 OLED touch update:

What is this Super5?

SUPER5 OLED is a DIY OLED screen upgrade kit for the Nintendo Switch Lite. It boasts significantly higher brightness, contrast ratio, and color gamut when compared to the standard Switch Lite™ IPS screen. This kit contains everything you need to upgrade a standard Switch Lite™. It also includes the SUPER5 HDMI mod to allow the Switch Lite™ to output 1080p HDMI video. This kit does not require shell modifications or soldering.

You can find a link for it here, if you want to see the site

What’s been happening?

There’s been a delay. This project is that of Taki Udon (of YouTube ‘fame’) – (here is the link to a video where he is showing it off installed in a Switch Lite), which itself is a massive undertaking. He sent an email out to those who have ordered, and I’m just sharing it here because in the Switch scene this is beyond interesting to me. Hardware hacking the console en masse because they want it to be the best it can possible be:

Delays and Shifting Production

Our original intention was to ship out your order in or around February, but we ran into cascading issues that we have only recently managed to fix. To fill Mega Kit preorders, we planned to use SUPER5 OLED Touch Batch 1 buffer stock. This wasn’t possible due to production issues.

While producing the first batch of SUPER5 OLED Touch, our screen factory caused a 40% failure rate in the displays they sent us due to issues in their factory. Making matters worse, the factory finished production one month behind schedule without delivering our entire order.

Based on these issues, we started exploring shifting production to a separate screen factory at the end of February. The biggest challenge in doing this is that our first screen factory was the only one capable of making a working glass touch panel. It took us many months to create a working one with them, and it is not a guarantee that we would have success doing it again with another factory. This is why you may have seen me say that we would discontinue the Touch version of this product.

In February, we spent several weeks trying to get a working glass touchscreen from another factory, but the progress was too slow. At that point, I placed an order for glass touchscreens with our original SUPER5 OLED factory. The idea being that those parts could be used by another factory for the final OCA assembly. That order arrived almost two weeks ago.

While this was happening, we were auditing a second factory to complete this order. This is a time-consuming process that culminated in an acceptable retail prototype last week. Yesterday, I placed a production order with them, which means a shipping date is almost here.

Shipping Schedule This section will give you an overview of our shipping timeline based on the information that I have right now. It will take around 7 business days to make the FPC used in SUPER5 OLED. After that, it will take an extra 5 business days to assemble the number of screens in our order. We have a Labor Day holiday from 5/1-5/4, so the FPC order won’t start until May 5th. Based on this, we should receive shipments from the screen factory on or around May 16th, with the entire shipment done by May 25th.

Assuming there are no issues, we should finish all customer shipments by the end of May based on the time it takes to do internal QC.

Sorry this was lengthy – but again, the whole topic is so interesting to me I had to share it!

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Firmware Update:

The latest Nintendo Switch firmware update arrived 5 days or so ago; 20.0.0 and promptly bricked some consoles.

Nintendo released an announcement themselves that they’d fix this, but some users are reporting on a range of places (here is one example on Reddit where a user has had issues) that things have gone wrong.

So since this, 20.0.1 has been released on the 2nd of May, promising fixes – you can read the release notes from Nintendo themselves on the Nintendo America site here if you’re so inclined

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Switch 2 Software Screens:

This is really a bit of nothing, but still interesting regardless. There’s been a supposed ‘leak’ of a couple photos of the internal software.

Nothing particularly exciting or earth-shattering, but with all eyes waiting to see what vulnerabilities might come out from the launch models, any info is good info.

I do so love hardware hacking (which is why season one of Halt and Catch Fire is my true love!)

There is only two photos, and they’re here:

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And to wrap things up:

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What I Have Posted:

2 days ago I posted an interview I did (well, again, a ‘Q&A’ is a far more appropriate term for what it was!) with two of the team behind RetroDECK.

I’ve got a few of these set up, but they’re going to be done and posted on a slower scale than perhaps you’d like. All with devs of Steam Deck and Linux programs you might know or use, and also with some creators like YouTubers. Its just my way of giving the devs behind the projects we love a bit of the spotlight, since I feel we rarely hear from the people themselves.

I made it its own post here on Lemmy:

Which you can find here with this link if you missed it!

But they will be posted on SteamDeckHQ also, this one will be there some time this week (if you want it to be readable in a prettier way than Lemmy lets me format things!

Again, I want to thank my friends Lazorne and Xargon for doing this, I do so love RetroDECK <3

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That’s that!

I think that’s all I’ll include here. There’s more I’ve spotted, but I’m sure if you made it even this far you’re built of stern materials (is this the English saying?)

As ever, I’d just love to hear from you about what games you’ve been playing. The words Steam Deck are in the title, but this is (clearly) not limited to that. If you’ve been playing on a Tiger handheld I’d still love to hear it!

What game have you been having fun playing recently?

Previous News Posts:

To make it slightly easier, if you want to find my previous news posts, just follow these links!

• Steam Deck / Gaming News #2
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #3
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #4
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #5
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #6
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #7
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #8
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #9
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #10
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #11
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #12
• Steam Deck / Gaming News #13

And If you’d like to have me spout gaming nonsense every day, you can also follow me on Mastodon: