Posts tagged with "hardware"

A couple of days ago, thanks to some free time on a Sunday afternoon, I got round to setting up my newly acquired Steam Machine. While I don't have a lot to say about it, I thought I'd note here that the event happened and jot some notes about how it went.

On unboxing, two things struck me: just how small it is, while also how hefty it feels. I'm not a hardware person, as I've mentioned here many times before, so can't speak to the how and why -- but it feels like the whole thing is cleverly and densely packed. Having owned plenty of PCs over the years, especially a lot of towers and mini towers, it was pretty neat to hold in my hands a machine that would put most of them to shame.

I also really appreciate that it can pretty much hide behind a plant pot next to the TV. It's just... there. It's not a feature.

As for setting up, that was dead simple. I pulled the machine and cable out of the box, unboxed the controller that came with it too, plugged an Ethernet cable between it and my router, fired it up and followed the instructions. Logging in was the usual dead-simple QR code scan from the Steam app on my phone.

The only issue I ran into was when setting up the Steam Controller itself. While it worked perfectly with its own puck plugged in, right from the start (so I could do the setup without need for a keyboard and mouse), things didn't go so well when it offered to switch over to the internal puck. When it asked if I wanted to do that, the Pair button (I think that's what it was called) could be pressed but always resulted in an instant error. Then using Retry was an instant error too. I tried a few times, to no success, so then just carried on using the controller's own puck on the end of a cable.

After going through that, it then wanted to do updates on the puck and controller, which I followed. I had hoped that at that point it might repeat the process to move to the internal puck but that wasn't offered as an option.

Once through all that I was all up and running and my library was available. I tried a couple of games and the whole thing felt nice and fast. In fact, it felt like exactly what I wanted: a better-performing Steam Deck that is always plugged into my TV.

After testing a couple of games, I searched online and then dived into the settings and found that, from there, I could swap the controller over to the internal puck. The method for doing this wasn't obviously available in the settings, hence the search online. Annoyingly I can't find the page I landed on, but I seem to remember it simply involved directly plugging the controller into the machine (USB->USB, not connected to the puck) and then messing in the controller settings on the machine.

Overall, while there was that little hiccup, the experience pretty much felt like setting up a console -- which seems ideal to me. As for what I can do with it: the "Great on Machine" tab in my library looks to contain about a fifth of my total library, and a lot of that is made up of games I'm happy to play. I've not paid too much attention to the what and why of the other four-fifths -- I also imagine there are a good few in there that would also work but which haven't had the seal of approval yet.

Would I recommend this to anyone? Eh, if you're a full-on "PC master race" type who loves to build their own kit and cares about the hardware and stuff... I would imagine not. On the other hand, if you're someone who has a reasonable library on Steam and wants a low-to-no-maintenance PC that's almost invisible in your living room: I'd say it's ideal. Sure, the price isn't great, but that's the way stuff is at the moment¹. Additionally, you're getting a desktop Linux machine and something that can be tweaked and tailored how you like, if that's your thing.

Next up on my list of things to do with it, aside from playing on it more (currently low-key obsessed with Iron Nest and am also enjoying having more runs in Vampire Survivors), is to figure out the easiest and best way to record video (with audio and voice) and, ideally, also stream to YouTube. Given the nature of the machine (Linux box with gaming UI) I imagine it's as "simple"² as adding OBS and setting things up. To be fair to the consoles though: this is where they do win just a little; on both my Xbox Series S and my PS5 there are dedicated tools for streaming. I wish the Steam Machine came with similar built-in functionality so I could be extra lazy and also have a setup that is very unlikely to be disturbed by random updates.

Some might remember that, earlier this year, Valve made the Steam Machine available for purchase. I'd had my eye on one since they were first announced; I had it on my wishlist. Having had a lot of fun with my Steam Deck, I was sure I'd appreciate what was looking to be its bigger sibling (in terms of size and power, if not age).

Also, having had success with buying the Steam Controller, I was all set to sign up for the "lottery" and see if I could get into the queue for a Machine too. But there was a wrinkle: the opening of the window to throw your hat into the ring, and the projected delivery date should you be lucky, coincided with our holiday in the Netherlands. If I'd been successful, delivery would have taken place while I was out of the country¹.

Given this, I waited until I got back and then put my name down for a 512GB machine without a controller. Unsurprisingly, I found myself on the waitlist, not a reservation list. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Along with a lot of other people.

Then, last week, I was scrolling through Reddit and saw a few people talking about how they'd left the 512/no-controller list, jumped on the 512/with-controller list, and then got a purchase invitation email pretty quickly; some within minutes, some within hours. After some wondering about this, I decided it was worth a try. What's the worst that could happen? I still have to wait, which I was anyway, or I get the offer to buy and I'm down about an extra £80 because I went for a controller too.

I decided that, just for the laugh if nothing else, I'd go for it. I removed myself from the 512-no-controller list, added myself to the 512-with-controller list, and... within minutes I had a purchase invitation email! Oh shit! Now I have to decide!

So I decided.

Fast forward to this afternoon and...

So, yeah, along with the Steam Frame, that's my toy budget used up for a wee while to come!

I've not had the chance to unbox it yet and likely won't get the chance until the weekend. While, yes, I could be doing it now rather than typing this, I'm rattling this out between routine family duties and unboxing it would not have given me the free time to actually have a proper play.

Once I do get the chance, I'll try and make a point of jotting down my initial impressions.

Hopefully, at some point soon, I'll get to hook it up with the Steam Frame too and see how well they work together. As I understand it, that's still a bit of a "coming soon" thing, with work in progress on the SteamOS beta on both hardware platforms.

So, at this point, I've somehow ended up with a reasonable little Steam ecosystem:

• Steam Controller (MkII) (times two)
• Steam Deck
• Steam Frame
• Steam Machine

Also, if we're going to throw in Steam hardware of old, I even still own a Steam Link. At this point, I kind of wish I had my hands on a first generation Steam Controller, just to be somewhat completionist.

Introduction¶

An occasional collection of things I've recently found on the Internet and added to my bookmarks.

Mechboards¶

I've enjoyed using the odd mechanical keyboard for a few years now. Nothing too fancy. Every once in a while I get the urge to really get into the mechanical keyboard world. Knowing that this shop exists might make it harder to resist falling down that hole.

Finger: the 1971 social network that never died¶

Great little blog post that is a good introduction to Finger, for those who might be too young to know about it.

Felony Bench¶

Site that tracks questionable behaviour, or at least claims of questionable behaviour, by LLMs/agents.

Stop Using Conventional Commits¶

Even though I use emoji-based prefixes for commits on my personal projects (mostly just for the shits and giggles of it), I detest the "Conventional Commits" thing. I sense this post captures some of why I don't like it.

Thinking in Python¶

There's a lot I see in this book that I like. I feel this is a good book to point folk at, either people who have never worked with Python before, or people who want to get better with it.

Configuring Emacs Eglot for Better Performance and Latency¶

I use Eglot lots, every day, and have been for quite a while now (even since before it was part of Emacs itself). However, I've never really paid too much attention to its performance or how it can be improved. This is a useful read.

What's New in Emacs 31.1?¶

Everything new in Emacs 31.1 that's worth knowing about.

DHH¶

An excellent lesson in how not to handle feedback and how to make yourself look like you align with the worst of the worst.

An unofficial guide to markdown-ts-mode on Emacs 31¶

I've had good experiences with various tree-sitter modes in Emacs and I use the Markdown mode in Emacs a lot. So this feels like something I need to try out.

termframe¶

I feel like this is begging to be wrapped up in a Textual widget...

Gerbil Scheme¶

This looks like a fun Scheme to play with at some point.

Well, this week didn't quite go according to plan, so I didn't get to test out the Steam Controller straight after it arrived. This afternoon, after messing about with code and agents for a few hours, I decided it was high time I stopped doing coding things (and to some extent day-job learning things) and instead did gaming things.

I dragged the Steam Deck and its dock into the living room, hooked everything up, and had a few hours of running and shooting and stuff. Before I could get started I had to plug the "puck" into the Deck with the supplied cable, and let it update. I then had to unplug the puck and plug in the controller to do the same. Finally I had to plug the puck back in (I hadn't quite realised, but it's the wireless connector for the controller) and I was good to go.

I messed around with a few things, including Brotato, DooM II, Cyberpunk 2077 and a lot of Suit For Hire. All felt good. All worked well. For some reason, this more than ever, makes me look forward to the Steam Machine.

I have a funny feeling I'll be joining the reservation queue when I get the chance.

As for the controller itself: it's a controller. It feels good in the hand. It feels comfortable. All the buttons feel in the right place. As someone who's used a Deck for a while it feels like having all the benefits of the Deck without having to hold the Deck itself. If you are already partly in the Valve hardware ecosystem it makes perfect sense as a thing to own.

Yes, I did try dropping it (carefully). No, I didn't manage to make it scream.

It has arrived!

I feel that Valve have upped their presentation game a little. Even the box feels quality; I don't remember my Steam Deck turning up in such a nice box.

I might give it a go tonight. I probably should. On the other hand there's some coding I want to mess with so I have competing desires!

The plan, at the moment, given my Windows gaming PC is still kind of packed up after moving late last year, is to pair this up with either the Deck, or perhaps even my MacBook (it's got Steam on it now too) and try out a couple of games and see how it feels.

Looks like my Steam Controller is close! Very close!

Good job I updated the OS on the Steam Deck yesterday. It's almost like I anticipated this.

Not that I'm avidly tracking it because I'm envious of all the pictures I'm seeing on Reddit, but...

One step closer to getting my hands on my Steam Controller!

Well, that was pretty quick. This morning it was in the packaged state and, checking just now:

When I've bought hardware from Valve before, I'm pretty sure it's taken around 3 days to get here, coming from the Netherlands. I can see this is shipping from there too, so I'm going to guess about the same amount of time.

So, some time early next week at the latest, perhaps?

After a day of no movement, I wake up to see this:

One step closer to getting my hands on it!

I'm oddly kind of invested in getting my hands on this. A regret I have is that I never bought one of the originals. Back in the day I did buy (and still own) a Steam Link and it served me well for a while, 4 homes ago. The 1st gen controller would have been ideal with that but somehow I just never got round to grabbing one.

And, sure, while I have Xbox and Sony controllers kicking around (I especially like my Death Stranding 2 DualSense controller), there's something very appealing about a controller that feels the way the Steam Deck does; I find it a really pleasant gaming experience in the hand.

So, this time, I'm not missing out.

My primary intended use at the moment is to pair it with my Steam Deck and use it as my "Steam Console", plugged into the TV while I game from the sofa. Eventually I hope to be pairing it with a Steam Machine, of course.

Meanwhile, since moving last year, I've not set up my Windows gaming machine yet. It's a bit bulky to have in the current living room setup, but not impossible to set up in the office. Perhaps... perhaps I should actually dig out the Steam Link again and set it up with that!

After dropping one in my basket at 18:00 (UTC+01:00) yesterday, it took around 70 minutes of trying and trying and trying to get to a point where I could pay.

It paid off.

Now I just need to wait however long it takes for it to turn up.

When I first dropped the controller in my basket it was showing that shipping would be within 3 to 5 working days; by the time I managed to pay it was saying 6 to 10 working days.

Which is fine, it's not like I need this right now. My plan is to use it with my Steam Deck in console mode, plugged into the TV; eventually though I hope I'll be using it with a Steam Machine.

So, yeah, I can wait a couple of weeks.