For the record RetroDECK also got Matrix instance as well. But Revolt have so far been more active then Matrix (even tho we had that one for a long time).

But I do agree with that Discord is not a replacement for forums. You should not use Discord as your primary information hub.

For us our own wiki is the master of information. If something relevant is said in Revolt / Discord / Matrix we will add it to the wiki, people should not need to register various accounts to access the information.

Github is also where we handle “real” issues, while Discord / Matrix / Revolt is helpful for community members helping other with minor issues or general banter.

One reason why forums died out was the need for direct engagement and a sense of active community belonging, that they simply did not offer.

We also did not create all of these spaces from the beginning. Some community members did it, like the subreddit. Then you have a choice either you create it and own it, or a fan will.

Bazzite, Aurora, Proxmox and Ubuntu Server.

The marketing was really weird. I tought it also was a Zelda / God of War heavy metal game. They showed tons of trailers with the first boss but little after that. But the entire game was an RTS game and I did complete but… But was a little disappointed.

All of this is true. RetroDECK also have existed since the before EmuDeck as it was born from some of the AmberELEC team members.

You can read a lot more on our wiki: https://github.com/XargonWan/RetroDECK/wiki

In short

RetroDECK is an full application (still in beta) and not just an emulation bundle install script. All of the moving parts of RetroDECK are inside of the sandboxed flatpak.

As we are building several emulators from source it allows us to add features, hot fixes and uniformity to the emulators themself for a more cohesive experience in what we call the RetroDECK Framework.

Our focus is Steam Deck, SteamOS, Linux Desktop and future SteamOS / Full Linux based handhelds.

Some examples in development and stable are:

• The multi-user system that allows you have different emulation profiles / saves / states / configurations per Steam Deck user account OR a local RetroDECK user account for the Linux desktop (in development).
• Tiny things like hard patching various hotkeys that the emulators don’t allow the users to change in the GUI, changing hard coded folder names etc…

Mindset

This is biased but but I think the team is also approaching problems differently from others.

One example:

Mod and texture pack support for various emulators:

It has been a pain for users to get them up and running. We looked at the problem and said how can we make this easier and more accessible for all?

HD Packs for Mesen, Mupen64Plus texture packs and mods etc…

Now all you need to do is put them into the corresponding mod / texture pack folder and follow the guides on the wiki and you will be up and running in no time.

When doing this we also engaged with the texture and mod community.

Another example is:

How the framework is handling configurations is quite unique and allows us to add and remove specific things when emulators does changes and try to keep as much of the users settings when possible.

This allows us to multi change settings inside the application across many different emulators: You want borders in Genesis but not in Super Nintendo? - You can

For us it is about making emulation accessible for more user but at the same time provide new tools for hardcore tweakers in the long term with our RetroDECK Framework.

This is just the beginning.

But:

That said this complexity adds time between patches and the users can not add their own emulators into RetroDECK, have to wait for us to do the updates and add features.

That said we are always developing and if you want to help out check our wiki and join our discord. We need devs, artists, ambassadors and good community members :)

End note:

We have great discussions the entire emulation community and have close relations with ES-DE, Batocera and others. We also plan to move our reddit blogposts over to Lemmy so look forward to that in September.

Thanks, updated! :)