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From: ant@zimage.comANT (Ant)
Subject: Re: Hey, my SteamLink still works
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I couldn't get its iOS app to work in my iPhone. :(


Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

> Do you remember Steam Link? Odds are, probably not. It was a
> brief-lived hardware device released by Valve in the mid 2010s; a sort
> of cheaper alternative to the even shorter-lived 'Steam Machine' PCs
> that ran an early version of SteamOS. The latter devices weren't made
> by Valve directly; they were a partner program between Valve and
> various PC OEMs (Alienware, Falcon Northwest, etc). in an attempt to
> jump-start gaming on Linux. 


>    [The whole escapade itself was a direct reaction to 
>     Microsoft releasing an app store on Windows 8, which 
>     threatened Steam's hegemony. Steam Machines were Valve 
>     saying, 'try to encroach on PC gaming, Microsoft, and 
>     we'll pull the whole market over to Linux, you just see 
>     if we don't.' When the Microsoft App store proved such 
>     a dismal flop, Valve felt safe in backing away.]


> The SteamLink devices, though, were much simpler machines. With a slow
> 1GHz ARM processor, it was intended as a full-fledged computer but as
> a set-top box that would stream games from a PC in another room to the
> big screen TV in the living room. All it really let you do was run
> Steam and games, and it required you to have a fairly hefty gaming PC
> somewhere else nearby. It's main advantage was it's cost; it sold for
> $50. Assuming you already did own a solid gaming rig, it was an
> inexpensive way to get your games to the living room without having to
> move your whole PC (with all the associated wiring and noise) out of
> the study.

> Steam Link --and indeed, the whole Steam Machines concept-- never
> really caught on amongst gamers. The Steam Machines themselves were
> too expensive and too underpowered to justify themselves, and
> SteamLink never really found a market. I guess people who owned PCs
> beefy enough to run games and stream it over the local network either
> weren't interested in playing on the couch, or had the dosh to just
> buy a second dedicated computer for that purpose. Steam Machines
> disappeared from the Steam storefront in 2018, and SteamLink was
> discontinued shortly afterwards.

> Not before I got my hands on one, though. In the trailing days of the
> device, they could be picked up for $5 USD, and I grabbed one at that
> price. I never really _did_ anything with it though; I had no need. My
> PC was already hooked up to a big-screen TV. But it was just too good
> a deal to not take advantage of.

> I was impressed with the hardware --and the packaging!-- but after a
> few months of it hanging off the back of the living room computer, I
> packed it away and there it say, all but forgotten in the back of the
> Closet Of Old Hardware. Until today when, on a whim, I got it back
> out.

> I honestly didn't expect it to work. It's been seven years since I
> touched the thing, and I assumed that either the hardware would have
> failed, or the back-end software (e.g., Steam) would no longer be
> compatible. But no; I plugged the thing in and it cheerfully came to
> life. A few updates later (the latest released just a few weeks ago!),
> and it was ready to go.

> I paired the device with one of my older PCs (an old i5 with a GeForce
> 770 that I mainly keep around because it has hot-swappable drive bays
> that makes it really useful for wiping/formatting old hard-drives) and
> fired up "Alien Isolation". It ran a treat; except for the briefest
> flash of the server's desktop when it first started, there was no
> evidence that the game wasn't running in the same room. No compression
> artifacts, no latency that I could tell. The little SteamLink device
> didn't even get warm from the effort. 

> Which is to say, I'm _still_ impressed with the hardware. It's an
> eminently capable little device.

> With that said though, it became pretty obvious that -by the end of
> the day- the thing was likely to end up back in its box in the closet
> again. I just don't NEED it for what it does. If I ever really want to
> play PC games regularly in the living room, I have the spare hardware
> to just attach a proper PC. The fact that I'd have to keep a separate
> PC running -probably all the time, on the off chance I'd want to
> suddenly want to play- in the backroom doesn't endear me to the
> SteamLink either. As much as I love the little device, it's an answer
> to a problem I just don't have.

> Still, props to Valve for still supporting the SteamLink six years
> after they stopped selling it. I have to admit, I was surprised to see
> it still working, and that simple joy made the effort of dusting off
> the device worth it.
-- 
"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.'" --1 Corinthians 11:23-24. Go USC & FUCLA!
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