This is a bit of a longshot, but I'm going to try anyway. Are any of you aware of a way that I can play PC games on the go?

"Use a laptop, duh!"

Before you go there, this is not quite what I meant. I've got a rather long backlog of PC games that I'd like to play on the go, during my daily commute, so I need a form factor that can allow me to play while standing up. Obviously, this won't work for anything keyboard-heavy, but there are plenty of controller or touch screen friendly titles that'd likely be playable. I'm not looking to run this year's AAA titles, so processing power isn't too much of an issue.

"Just buy portable games!"

Some of the games that I want to play are PC-exclusive (and maybe on home consoles), not likely to be released anywhere else, so this isn't an option.

For example, I've got these waiting for my attention:

Life is Strange
Telltale Games's stories
Oddworld: New 'n Tasty
Sonic Lost World
Valkyria Chronicles

"Stream them from your PC!"

Due to part of my commute being underground, I need something that works without an Internet connection.


Some of these are annoying limitations, but maybe there's something out there that I haven't heard about or haven't considered. Something shaped like the original nVidia Shield would probably work if it supported PC games. Or have you used something else that you could recommend?

I'm curious to see if anyone has a suggestion for me!

I thought I'd offer a follow-up for anyone who might be interested in this.

After some looking, and posting a similar message in other locations, I was given some information about the GPD Win, an ultra portable Windows 10-based PC. Clamshell form factor with a 5.5" 720p touch screen, solid Xbox-like controls, decent battery life (5+ hours), that looked like a perfect match! To give you an idea, it's about the size of a Nintendo 3DS XL. I placed my order after a few days of thinking about it.

Now that I've had it in my hands for a few weeks, I can happily say that it's a winner, and pretty much exactly what I was after... and I didn't even know that something like this existed! Of course, in that small a unit, game performance isn't extraordinary. It's got Intel HD graphics and 4 GB of RAM, so I won't run this year's AAA titles on this, but it still packs more punch than I expected, and the vast majority of my backlog is compatible! The keyboard works nice for logins, passwords and minor data input, but I wouldn't want to write long e-mails on it.

Out of the sample list I provided above, only Oddworld: New 'n Tasty turns out not to be playable: the game is too slow and outright crashes at times. I haven't run tests on all of them yet, but other owners have reported that they work just fine. Among other titles, the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth turns out to be perfect - it's like the game was designed for the GPD Win! The fact that most runs tend to end pretty quickly makes it a great portable game! Platformers like Rosenkreuzstilette and other Mega Man games play nicely, and RPGs like I am Setsuna run at 100%. I installed Steam and GOG Galaxy on the unit, so I can easily check through what I have. The PC port of Final Fantasy X is apparently very playable too, so I might finally get a chance to play that for the first time.

All in all, I must say that I've been very happy with the GPD Win so far, and I'm looking forward to many hours to gaming with it!

Edited by Masterlink on February 28, 2017 at 7:40:27

Attached image:

Just for fun, I thought I'd revisit this with an history of the devices I've been through.

I started with this interesting device here, the Viliv S5, back in 2009. It was part of the range of devices called UMPC, for Ultra Mobile Personal Computer. Running Windows XP, it let you install and run any program (or game!) you wanted. Of course, it was a bit slow, so you had to choose carefully. Its main downside was that it didn't have many buttons, and none of them were designed for gaming. What you see on the above image is what you got, without any extra shoulder buttons or anything. I could make some things work by reprogramming the existing buttons, at least, and it was better for low-power emulators or other simpler games.

If you thought that modern PCs had lousy touch screen support, you didn't experience what limited support Windows XP offered!

I eventually stopped using the Viliv S5 since it was too slow for many games and had poor controls. Later on, I wrote this topic and got my hands on the GPD Win (1), featuring proper Xbox-like controls and a much faster processor. I already wrote about my experience above, so I'll keep this short. A few years later, I had to put it aside after its battery got damaged in a fall (thanks, cat) and I couldn't find a replacement. I got it back in working order, much later. It never was a speed demon, but you could make a wider range of titles work.

Not finding much of anything on the market to replace the GPD (and not wanting to get a replacement, at the risk of having the same problem), I went in a different direction and got a Surface Go. This is a tablet, not a portable PC, so all you can rely on while standing is the touch screen. This isn't half-bad, though, as I had been meaning to play through several JRPGs on the go. The lack of physical buttons ruled out most action games, but I could totally handle slower paced titles after configuring a virtual touch pad. After some trial-and-error, I settled on Tablet Pro from the Microsoft Store, which let me create virtual buttons and place them as I wished. This worked well enough for me to go through games in my backlog.

Nowadays, of course, there's a much better option: the Steam Deck! I would totally have ordered one if I was still doing a daily commute, but being in a remote work setting, I wouldn't have as much opportunities to use it. I'm still thinking about it once in a while, though, especially with the top tier support Steam is putting into it.

Just announced is also the Asus ROG Ally, with a similar form factor. It's nice to see some devices like this finally coming to the mainstream, with larger companies backing them and ready to offer real support should you need it. I really hope that the trend continues in this direction, this is exactly what I had been longing for!

The one suggestion I can make in this case is to install Steam then switch it to Big Picture mode. The larger interface is designed to work with a controller, like the one built-in to the Asus device, and the text is larger so it's easier to read. That's how I used it on the GPD Win.