Remember the NES Zapper? How about the gun accessories for Wii you’d slot the Wii Remote into? Well, now you can turn your Steam Deck into a virtual gun thanks to the aptly named Steam-Gun.
The idea behind the gun is to let players make use of the Steam Deck’s gyro function to let them aim and shoot in real-time through the $200 accessory. Think old-school arcades, only set in your living room. And with something that weighs close to a brick stuck to the top of it.
The Steam-Gun comes equipped with two joysticks, mouse buttons on the back grip, a mode shift button on the front grip, and has in-built gyroscopes and accelerators designed to detect body movement that then somehow translates into game inputs.
It also connects via Bluetooth and houses a 10-hour battery, which means it’ll last five times longer than the game it’s playing. Yes, that’s a dig.
Games that the Hong Kong company KellyJohn Studio Ltd has tested with the Steam-Gun so far include:
- Back 4 Blood
- Black Squad
- Battlefield 2042
- Battlefield 4
- Battlefield 5
- Borderlands 3
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Modern Warfare 2
- Rainbow Six: Siege
- Star Wars Battlefront 2
- Team Fortress 2
- Zombie Army 4
Check out the video at the top of the page to see what’s what, or have a look at the Steam-Gun website for more information.
In other Steam Deck news, I recently tested out Sons of the Forest, Atomic Heart, and Disney Dreamlight Valley. The latter two surprised with solid performance, while the early access nature of Sons of the Forest means it doesn’t handle particularly well on the Steam Deck just yet.
That said, it’s still early days, so there’s plenty of room for it to grow, and playing at 50 frames per second on low is perfectly acceptable for now.
