A First Look at the Smach Zero SteamOS Console

[vcoleiro1]

Here's a recent story on it, looks like they are aiming for a $299 price tag and release date of Q4 next year. Be interesting to see if it eventuates.  Strange that the control scheme leaves out the left stick that's on the Steam controller

Update, reading the story, they say it will have a stick. But its not in the render below, weird. They couldn't  do an updated render before going to press, come on.   This just screams vaporware to me for a number of reasons

http://www.polygon.com/2015/8/10/9128997/steam-machine-portably-smach-zero-steamboy

 

[pmprog]

Just bad reporting m'fraid

Edit: article

 

[ElPoco]

I'm surprised by the price tag. I wonder if they've already started production, or if they're just being as overly optimistic as the Pandora team was during pre-orders. I suspect the latter, but you never know.

 

[ekianjo]

They still don't have any prototype either


At this stage it's almost vaporware I'm afraid

 

[WizardStan]

Craig is building another handheld?

 

[Alperoot]

Did anybody tried Steam on the Pyra Devboard? I hope some wizards of the community will be able to port Steam (and its libs of course) to Pyra

 

[TrashyMG]

Did anybody tried Steam on the Pyra Devboard? I hope some wizards of the community will be able to port Steam (and its libs of course) to Pyra

Yeah I have with the x86 Linux version of steam, it's promising, but abysmal without 3D acceleration working yet.  

https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-pPkpIDNnM?feature=oembed

Edit: By the way this isn't a port, it's using x86 emulation... porting would be near impossible and possible get some negative attention from Valve if it was done... Also porting Steam would be useless unless they start having ARM versions of games. 

 

[fusion_power]

I'm surprised by the price tag. I wonder if they've already started production, or if they're just being as overly optimistic as the Pandora team was during pre-orders. I suspect the latter, but you never know.

The $299 is only the preorder price, the later retail version will be more expensive.

Let's wait and see how that thing really performs, especialy when it comes to batttery life, it's still an X86 CPU. I'm also interested in how well the Steam OS performs and how it really works. Because it's Linux based, Valve must make sure it supports all the fancy Hardware out there that make games fast onto Steam machines.  This could mean a big step in Linux gaming, depending how much of their mojo they release as open source.

 

[gadgetoid]

Are the weird analog sticks really portals to Gabe's nipples?


Seriously, though, has anyone tried them? I tested Dell's "we can't be arsed to wait for Steam to get their shit together" Alienware Alpha, which I loved, but it came with an Xbox 360 controller and wireless adapter ( why are those adapters so hard to find? ) which was awesome. I'm not sure I understand why we need another controller type with weird nipple portals.

 

[fusion_power]

It is reported that these sensor pads work surprisingly well. At least with first person shooters and mouse like input profiles.  So these Controllers are designed to be a middle way in between crappy Gamepad movement and perfect PC device movement when it comes to first person shooters. I personaly never understood how people can play FPS shooters with a gamepad, it's still hilarious imho. Maybe because I'm a dedicated PC gamer or I have not  much talent in Gamepad FPS gaming (tried Halo, it was a nightmare for me!)

So in short, the Steam controller may be better than it looks.

 

[ekianjo]

See this


http://boilingsteam.com/the-steam-controller-hands-on/

 

[gadgetoid]

Dear Valve. They make wireless keyboard and mouse combos now. -Phil, aged 8.


Let's just say I'm now convinced. But I love the PC games console concept and I've been itching to get an Alienware Alpha since I tested it.


The main problem with leaving the ball in Valve's park lies with all the games which are not on Steam. Sure on a linux based OS you could probably run a small sample of those pretty comfortably with WINE, but good lord it'd be tricky to set up.


A drop-in, self configuring, console-UI-like WINE wrapper launcher for Steam OS would be brilliant. You've got a standard console so the configs could be "crowd sourced" and it'd "just work" with the trove of classic gaming that is GOG.


Such a problem would seem exacerbated on a handheld. Which is why I love Pandora, and just how many playable classics we've got available even from this smallish community.

 

[ekianjo]

but good lord it'd be tricky to set up.

With playonlinux, meh, pretty easy to run a good number of games right out of the box without much setup needed.

console-UI-like WINE wrapper launcher for Steam OS would be brilliant

you don't need that, you can add shortcuts to the steam client even for non-steam applications, and they would appear just like Steam games. No need for any additional launcher.

 

[DougOnEarth]

Craig is building another handheld?

It is always better to talk good about others no matter what they have done. Forgiveness comes from within. None of us are saints, we are all sinners.

I am sure that Craig is sorry for what happened. But if people keep bashing others how are they to get better? I bet you have done things that you wish you had not have, I know I have.

Think about that...

 

[ekianjo]

Craig, sorry for what hsppened? Lol you dont seem to remember who we are talking about.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Can you guess which one is the evildoer? And yes I had to use the one picture that depicts that one, true, shining moment of solidarity between the old pandora team.

Oh what could have been.

Wistfully reaches for a hanky...

 

[WizardStan]

I bet you have done things that you wish you had not have, I know I have.

Of course I have, and when called out on them I admit to my mistakes and hope to learn from them.
Craig, to the very end, claimed that he'd done no wrong even when presented with copious amounts of evidence to the contrary. I was only making a little joke but if you want to get all serious then I will drop the joke and point blank say I have no sympathy for him whatsoever: he lied and cheated and then tried to push the blame on others. He failed and learned nothing from his failure and that is not something worthy of the amount of respect needed to gain forgiveness. If he'd admitted where the mistakes were made and how he would do things differently in the future (or at least how he would have done things if he'd known different, hindsight being 20/20) it would have gone a long way to restoring the community's faith in him.

 

[ekianjo]

he lied and cheated and then tried to push the blame on others.

Exactly. Glad to see not everyone is forgetting what happened.  

 

[DrHAX]

Can you guess which one is the evildoer? And yes I had to use the one picture that depicts that one, true, shining moment of solidarity between the old pandora team.

Oh what could have been.

Wistfully reaches for a hanky...

It's obviously the one with long hair... I suspect he's a dragon. h34r:

 

[Alperoot]

Did anybody tried Steam on the Pyra Devboard? I hope some wizards of the community will be able to port Steam (and its libs of course) to Pyra

Yeah I have with the x86 Linux version of steam, it's promising, but abysmal without 3D acceleration working yet.  
https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-pPkpIDNnM?feature=oembed

Wait wait wait... You were able to stream even Borderlands 2 without 3d acceleration! Yes, it lagged a lot but Half-Life did, too. So, does that mean we will be able to stream all Steam games with exagear (and lagging a lot)? (and playing some of them maybe??)