RetroDECK 0.11.0 will add 23 components, from Xenia Edge to a MUD client, in its "Everything Explosion" update

The Steam Deck and Linux emulation package previewed its next release: Xenia Edge, Amiberry, standalone Flycast and ScummVM, Doom 3 and Quake engines, a MUD client and a ROM-hack patcher. No date yet.

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RetroDECK, the emulation package that ships every emulator and frontend for the Steam Deck and Linux as one tested download, has shown what its next release will carry. Version 0.11.0, which the team calls the "Everything Explosion", adds 23 components, and the list it gave Steam Deck HQ on 8 October goes well past consoles.

What is on the list

On the console and arcade side there is Xenia Edge for Xbox 360, a standalone build of Flycast for the Dreamcast (RetroDECK has carried the RetroArch core for a while) and GameTankEmulator, for a homebrew 8-bit console that the team says it has not seen packaged anywhere else. Old computers get the biggest share: Amiberry for the Amiga with the AmigaVision frontend, KEGS for the Apple IIGS, Tsugaru for the FM Towns, Zesarux for the ZX Spectrum Next, the Commander X16 emulator, Oricutron, SDL2TRS for the TRS-80 and SimCoupé for the SAM Coupé.

Then come game engines, each with its own launcher format for mods: ECWolf for Wolfenstein 3D, dhewm3 for Doom 3, Ironwail for Quake, UZDoom replacing GZDoom, standalone ScummVM, Visual Pinball X and Open Surge, whose separately made Sonic-style games can now be launched on their own. Gargoyle brings interactive fiction, with a new folder for it. Two clients are there for playing online: Quake3e for Quake III Arena, which the list warns has weak controller support, and Mudlet, for connecting to the text-based multi-user dungeons that came before MMOs. Delta Patcher is included for applying .xdelta ROM hacks.

Why a MUD client

Lazorne, RetroDECK's community manager, told Steam Deck HQ the aim is to be "a Retro Gaming Platform" rather than only an emulation package, and that the team is "fewer than a handful of people" working in their free time. The Amiga was the hardest part: work started on FS-UAE and moved to Amiberry when community advice changed. Of Mudlet, they said most users may never open it, "but there is always a chance that a few will enjoy it enough" to join a MUD community whose servers have run for decades. They also named two unexplained projects in progress, Project Universe and Project Bug.

No release date was given, and the team said the 23 are not the final list. RetroDECK has historically moved slower than EmuDeck because each component is tested before it ships, so expect this one to land when it is ready rather than soon.

Sources

Image: RetroDECK

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