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Technical wonders are always a delight to see, and the people with a know-how on engineering never cease to amaze with the amount of creativity that they can put into already-existing devices when the dire need requires it.

Reddit user, mrblackm123, is currently the owner of a Steam Deck, but started experience some issues on the controller side of the device. Due to the lack of replacement parts to fully repair the Steam Deck, the user opted to instead do something rather ingenious... to install a couple of Joycon rails (and Joycons) right into the Deck console, or rather, the stripped down tablet/motherboard of it without the controller sections.

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The video showcases the Deck's tablet alone with the side rails installed, and then followed by the user promptly attaching the Joycons to the side of the Deck's table to start playing a variety of games with them, from using the Joycons to play Cyberpunk 2077, to Link's Awakening playing through emulation on the device.

The post itself is available on Reddit, under /r/Steam Deck. However, it seems the moderators of the subreddit might have mistaken the device for a Switch console of sorts, since they removed the post of the user. Hopefully the post itself can be reinstated once the mods realize their mistake.

 

[icantfly]

anyone got a link to OP

 

[slaphappygamer]

Reminds me of having Windows on PSP. Here

I mean, sure you can. Impress your friends!

 

[gnmmarechal]

Reminds me of having Windows on PSP. Here

I mean, sure you can. Impress your friends!

You could also run MacOS through Basilisk II!

 

[Hells Malice]

Engineer finds way to make steamdeck worse

The madman

 

[slaphappygamer]

Engineer finds way to make steamdeck worse

The madman

We’re all mad, here.

 

[CMDreamer]

For that mod no engineer is needed, just a modder. Crappy by the way, and useless at most.

 

[Hassal]

For that mod no engineer is needed, just a modder. Crappy by the way, and useless at most.

Watching this the second time now I'm also wondering where the "engineering" took place. An actual engineer would take the pins and map them physically onto the pcb board. It takes zero skills to stick some rails and connect via standard bluetooth connection.

No hate against this person but to call yourself an "engineer" for something my 12 year old niece can cook up using 3D printer seems going far beyond.

 

[isoboy]

This is the best of both worlds. The form factor of the switch with the "horsepower" of the deck. I like it.

 

[zireael9797]

He wanted to see if he could, didn't stop to think if he should.

Yep that's an engineer alright. I'd do the same as well.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Cool that it works I guess, but I have to say, this makes no sense practically speaking. Joy-Cons are not a great upgrade considering all things, yea some folks like them and all, but as someone who takes many things apart and or repairs such things, uses them, etc. Joy-Cons being one of the things I've dealt with, are quite frankly flawed and kind of rubbish controllers, their quality isn't great (though not the worst) compared to plenty of other solutions that existed in the past and even against some that exist currently, efficiency wise they tend to be hit or miss depending on the game(s) used with. This doesn't sit well in my mind right out the gate considering the Steam Deck is an expensive device, seeing such an expensive device getting this kind of treatment kind of hurts a bit, the proportions aren't even right, it's kind of ugly like this, I'm mostly asking why honestly. People will do whatever with their money but....this isn't even a novelty, it's just unnatural and weird. Yes, the concept of attaching controller sticks on the sides of a tablet isn't anything new, obviously we are talking about controllers made for a tablet system to begin with, it just seems awkward here. It's kind of like all those weird modifications people make to game consoles that basically traps a system in a different shell form factor, like a Nintendo DS that looks like an original Game Boy for example...just with an extra screen that sticks out obviously and looks ugly (I find that kind of modification horrible personally).

Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should. Many folks like to chime around with the concept that fun, existence, and or practicality doesn't need a reason to make something exist, or that there doesn't need to be any sense of doing anything, I beg to differ a bit considering we kind of waste potential doing stuff like this when something better could have taken its place. Granted I can't say this is the worst thing I've seen in existence in the hardware side of things, I just wish people were a bit more creative with their skill set(s). A custom controller probably would have been nicer here honestly, might even open the doors for a cooler modification of sorts in the future that other Steam Deck users could adopt as an actually nice option.

 

[HarveyHouston]

I can't see the Reddit video here.

 

[Foxi4]

I totally agree, the only way to play with them for me is with a silicon grip that I have, but doesn't necessarily make them good, I wish it had bigger joysticks and specially analog triggers, it ruined racing games completely for me

I personally can’t use Joycons in any setup other than on the tablet itself - the provided controller grip is too cramped. I don’t even consider it as an option unless I can’t find my Pro controller anywhere.

 

[Burorī]

Ah, yes. We aren’t allowed to have opinions because some rando on the internet will hurl insults. Makes perfect sense.

Here, since you're so butthurt

 

[Kioku]

Here, since you're so butthurt

He’s not gonna love you, bro.

 

[pustal]

 

[ShadowOne333]

The usage of Joycons of all controllers sure is iffy, but what's impressive here is the technical experience that went into basically repurposing a Steam Deck and parts of a Switch to create a hybrid of sorts, with the specs of the Deck and the controller "plugin" of the Switch.

I don't like the Joycons either, they're one of the worst controllers Nintendo has ever put out in the market with awful ergonomics and even worse lifespan (and I think joycon drift is already known at this point), but at least is nice to see when people manage to create some engineering achievements like this, it's a delight to see each time.

 

[YugamiSekai]

Considering the Steam Deck's controls look like... that, this is an improvement IMO.

 

[James_]

Funny thing is the fact that if the guy used Joy-Cons with hall effect stick replacements, nobody would be complaining in this thread.

 

[Foxi4]

Funny thing is the fact that if the guy used Joy-Cons with hall effect stick replacements, nobody would be complaining in this thread.

That only makes Joycons more durable, not more functional. They’re just not very good controllers - they’re simply the best they could come up with to fit the form factor and have the desired functionality.

 

[Kioku]

Funny thing is the fact that if the guy used Joy-Cons with hall effect stick replacements, nobody would be complaining in this thread.

Tiny range of analog motion, digital triggers, no dpad, spotty battery life.. they’re just not good controllers and honestly shouldn’t be used outside of their intended use case.