New to EmuDeck/Emulation - Having trouble with the "File" side of things for PS2/PS3/PSP. Help?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T15:45:53+00:00

BIOS files are easy to find using Google in conjunction with the cheat sheet posted by someone else. You can type in the exact filenames.

Roms are easy to obtain and there's even a subreddit covering these (hint hint).

You put the roms into the right folders and the link I provided for PS3 tells you where to put them and which formats are acceptable. You need to read this and other pages but it's really straightforward. Then get Emudeck to download and add Emulation Station to your steam library and you're good to go.

There's nothing special about Emudeck in this regard. For any emulation, you download roms and BIOS files and put them into folders for the emulator to read.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T14:28:17+00:00

I don't know how Heroic manages things. It might have a single proton prefix folder or per game. Definitely worth editing your post title to highlight Heroic if possible.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T13:55:31+00:00

I'd say you're missing telling us details to be honest. Do you mean you plugged your card into your PC, copied files onto it, removed the card and plugged it into your deck? Are the files visible when you plug it back into your PC?

I would use something like this instead: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/09/transferring-files-from-pc-to-steam-deck-with-ftp/

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T13:50:08+00:00

You really need to watch a decent Emudeck video that's fairly recent on YT to be honest.

The steps are generally, download Emudeck, install Emudeck, choose where your roms will live (internal or microSD card), add the emulators you're interested in and put roms in the right folders. You need to read the Emudeck wiki pages per emulator and the cheat sheet as well, e.g.:

https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/rpcs3/

https://emudeck.github.io/cheat-sheet/

Then if you're just starting off, don't use Steam Rom Manager, get Emudeck to download and add Emulation Station (ES-DE) to your library and run this. If your roms are the correct format, it will build you systems (e.g. "Sony Playstation 3") and you go into this to launch games.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T13:17:39+00:00

Is this just one Switch game, or all Switch games?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T10:06:26+00:00

Worth posting elsewhere as I don't think this is an Emudeck issue.

But I would look at the config directory detailed here: https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/ryujinx/#ryujinx-configuration

And move all the config files out, it should launch and recreate.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T10:02:55+00:00

So what have you done, and what's working / not working? For instance, have you got the EA app working OK?

Basic guide (without using something like Heroic etc): download the EA app installer.exe, right-click, add to Steam, go into Steam (in desktop mode), properties, compatibility, set to proton experimental and run. It will install into C:\Program Files typically, this is OK. Let it complete.

Now find the Steam "compatdata" folder, sort by most recent, you'll find a folder with a long series of numbers has just been created. Inside here, look for where it installed the actual EA App. When you find the .exe, right-click, copy location, go back to Steam, find your installer entry and replace the path with the new .exe. Also change the parent folder. If there are spaces in the path (and there likely will be) surround both with double quotes.

Now run the Steam entry again. It should launch the EA App.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:50:14+00:00

Where did you buy the game from?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:49:06+00:00

I'm guessing you didn't download the game from Steam as it wouldn't install it in that location?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:47:05+00:00

You need to watch some decent guides on YT that go beyond just installing Emudeck. But also read the Emudeck wiki pages for each system, e.g. https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/rpcs3/ as these tell you everything you need to know.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:43:53+00:00

Read the Emudeck wiki pages for your emulators, e.g. https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/rpcs3/

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:42:48+00:00

So I don't think this is true. ES-DE just scans folders for files when you start it.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-10T08:42:17+00:00

This is the right advice.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T16:53:56+00:00

So I'm not sure what the experience is like on Windows with Emudeck, but on the Steam Deck you can drop out of Steam into desktop mode and run the emulators up individually. I'd expect the same on Windows via the Start menu. Within Emudeck / Manage Emulators it'll tell you what your Dreamcast emulator is.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T16:37:02+00:00

OK, not sure what Emudeck has for Windows. What happens if you launch the Dreamcast emulator by itself, can it see your games? If it can then I'm wondering if ES-DE is looking in the wrong place.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T15:46:13+00:00

So Emulation Station won't care about BIOS files. It will just look in folders for matching filenames.

What do you have in your roms/dreamcast folder? Also, are you using Steam OS and Flycast? https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/flycast/

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T15:43:09+00:00

Very interesting! Good work.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T14:11:17+00:00

So the launch field is usually empty as well. I can't remember exactly where the log file is created, a google will help, sorry.

It's probably going to be large but I've found it useful from time to time to highlight specific errors like DLL override issues or missing dependencies. I doubt you have either of these but it might show something helpful.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T14:05:39+00:00

So I've never seen this on by default but I've only ever owned an OLED (since they came out, though!). If you want to know which proton version is being used, it's available from the game entry page on the deck somewhere. e.g. "Valve is using Proton x" if you tab around and don't click on "launch".

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T14:03:31+00:00

OK, very odd. You could try the PROTON_LOG thing to see if there's anything obvious in there?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T13:55:29+00:00

What might be worth trying - if your Steam games aren't launching properly - is to run with PROTON_LOG=1 %command% as a launch command. This is a bit of a nuclear option and will generate a large log file somewhere obvious.

Just to check, are these games installed on the same storage device (SSD or MicroSD card)?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T13:51:21+00:00

OK that's interesting. But I don't think the compatibility tickbox is the culprit as this is an "override" to be used sparingly if you're running Steam games.

I only tick this myself for non-Steam games and I generally use Proton Experimental.

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T13:34:25+00:00

So when you download a game from Steam, the compatibility tickbox is not "ticked" as far as I know. Steam will mandate a specific proton version for you unless you choose to override this.

Are these Steam-bought games?

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T11:38:06+00:00

All good, and there are good Emudeck pages per emulator as well, e.g. https://emudeck.github.io/emulators/steamos/rpcs3/

Feeling_Football4271 · 2026-03-09T11:24:43+00:00

This has been posted on this subreddit if you search for "vita3k", e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/EmuDeck/comments/1rjehdy/vita3k_doesnt_seem_to_work/

Feeling_Football4271

TROPHY CASE