Maple Legends on Steam Deck in Gaming Mode

Hey everyone! This is version 2.0 of my guide for getting MapleLegends running on Steam Deck in gaming mode. I wanted to do a better job explaining each step, including more information for those who want it, and providing better overall organization and clarity. I will still include the old text for no other reason than posterity and so that anyone curious can see it.

This new guide will be divided into multiple parts using spoilers for those who may want to skip certain sections and to include pictures along with the steps but keep the pictures optional. The following is a layout of this post with the names of each section:

-Why This Guide Exists

- What is a Steam Deck and How to Get One

- How to Navigate and Use the Steam Deck in Desktop Mode

- Installing MapleLegends on Steam Deck

- How to Update the Game

- How to Find and Set Custom Steam Artwork

- How to Configure Game Controls

- How to Use This Guide for Non-Steam Deck Linux Computers

- Old Guide - Archived

- Update Log


Why This Guide Exists

Spoiler

I made this guide for three main reasons which I’ll list here:

1) I just wanted to help anyone else who likes this silly mushroom game and likes this server play it on their Steam Deck.

2) I saw Theaceae’s guide ( https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/installing-ml-on-the-steam-deck.46930/ ) for their experimentation and that told me it was possible to get it running on the Steam Deck. However, I am a brand-new Linux user who only started when I received my Steam Deck. I did not know how Linux worked and honestly am too old and busy to be bothered with messing with the OS and possibly bricking it and needed to reimage my Deck because wanted to play MapleLegends. I wanted a method that didn’t mess with the OS at all, didn’t require any console commands, required very little upkeep, and would work in gaming mode. I spend the time to do all the steps for myself and figured I should share them with others. As a sidenote, I do want to thank everyone who has worked on getting MapleLegends running on Linux and who posted about their experiences on these forums. Without the multitude of guides and comments this guide would not exist as a synthesis of my knowledge.

3) I wanted a guide that was easy to follow for non-Linux users or for non-computer savvy people in general. While the Steam Deck is doing wonders for Linux gaming as a whole, and introducing a ton of new people to Linux, most non-power users will be intimidated by the OS. Similarly, as much as many people assume others are like them, I would wager that most people who want to play MapleLegends simply run the .EXE and don’t think about it. A lot of people are not particularly tech savvy but still want to play PC games. That is the great thing of the Steam Deck in general is that it is a PC that functions like a console. However, given that you have to use it like a PC to get non-steam games working and even more work for older games like MapleLegends it leads to most not even bothering to try. This guide is aiming to be simply to follow and not intimidating for these types of users.

4) To help the Steam Deck userbase grow even slightly. I love my Steam Deck, and I basically don’t use my gaming PC now. I think it is probably the single best way for non-PC gamers to get into PC gaming. If MapleLegends happens to be the tipping point for people that pushing them to buy a Steam Deck, then I am doing a small part in making the device, and by proxy the realm of portable PC gaming, a success.

5) This guide technically will work for all Linux users. You will have to ignore most of the Steam Deck specific stuff, but if you are Linux Savvy and just want to play MapleLegends on Linux then this guide should still work.

What is a Steam Deck and How to Get One

Spoiler

Without getting too overly technical with the specs, the Steam Deck is a handled gaming PC made by the company Valve which runs a version of Linux called SteamOS. Valve is a gaming development company which owns the gaming distribution platform Steam. The Steam Deck uses a compatibility software called Proton which lets Windows programs run on Linux. While this works pretty well, and is constantly getting better, it doesn’t work for 100% of games and sometimes takes additional fiddling. If you want to know what games work on the Steam Deck then I advise you to check out the ProtonDB website ( https://www.protondb.com/ ).

The Steam Deck has a screen with a resolution of 1280x800 and I would describe it as very similar to the Nintendo Switch in terms of size and clarity if you have one of those. Similarly, it has a built-in controller and plays much like a Nintendo Switch in handheld mode; however, you can buy a docking station, mouse, and keyboard, and hook it up to a monitor to use it like a regular PC.

You can purchase a Steam Deck through Steam ( https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck ) and they come in three models: 64gb, 256gb, and 512gb. These numbers refer to the size of the internal storage of the Steam Deck but there are a few differences between each model. The 64gb has a slightly slower hard drive, the 256gb has a faster hard drive and a carrying case, and the 512gb has the faster hard drive as well as an anti-glare etched glass screen and a slightly fancier carrying case. Which model you buy is up to you and your gaming needs. You can technically open the Steam Deck up and replace the hard drive with a larger one, but that is way beyond the scope of this guide. The most important point to note is that all models of steam deck have the same gaming performance so the 512gb isn’t more powerful than the 64gb. You can also put a microSD card in all of them to expand your storage space without needing to upgrade the internal storage. I personally got the 256gb and have a 512gb microSD card, but you do what is right for you and your budget.

How to Navigate and Use the Steam Deck in Desktop Mode

Spoiler

Even if you have a Steam Deck and have been using it for a while now you might not have attempted to mess with desktop mode and have just been using it in gaming mode. By default, when you turn on your Steam Deck it will default to gaming mode and looks and functions much like a console. This is great for most users and uses, but to get MapleLegends working we are going to have to do some work in desktop mode.

To access desktop mode you can either hold down the power button on top of your console and when the power menu appears select to enter desktop mode or you can press the Steam button and when scrolling through the menu open the power menu and select to enter desktop mode.

Once selected, your Steam Deck will boot into desktop mode and will look similar, but not identical, to a Windows PC desktop. You have familiar things like icons on the screen, a taskbar at the bottom of your screen, and a mouse pointer. Left-clicking and right-clicking work very similarly to a Windows PC and SteamOS has some programs that function very similarly to Windows counterparts. I will go over them below:

1) Controlling Desktop Mode

By default, the touchpads on your controller will move your mouse around and you can left-click by pressing on the right touchpad and right-click by pressing on the left touchpad. You can configure you controls in desktop mode if you want, but that is outside the scope of this guide. To open up the virtual keyboard you can press the Steam button and the X button at the same time. The keyboard will appear at the top of your screen if your mouse cursor is in the bottom-half of your screen while the keyboard will appear at the bottom of your screen if your mouse cursor is in the top-half of your screen. You can close the keyboard with the hide key in the lower right corner of the keyboard.

2) Discover

This is an app that comes pre-installed on SteamOS and is pinned to your taskbar by default. You can think of it as being a Linux App Store much like how an iPhone has the Apple App Store and an Android phone has the Google App Store. This app lets you search for, install, and update apps on your Steam Deck’s desktop mode. Unless you want to use your Steam Deck as a computer replacement all you really need to know about Discover is that it is what we will use to download a program called Lutris in the installation steps below.

3) Dolphin

This is an app that comes pre-installed on SteamOS and is pinned to your taskbar by default. You can think of it as being the Windows Explorer of SteamOS. It will open up a GUI that allows you to look at, copy, past, move, and delete files on your Steam Deck. It works pretty similar to Windows Explorer but it is important to note that Linux has a very different file structure to Windows—you won’t find a C: Drive or a Program Files here (at least not ones that function the way you think they do). The most important thing to note are the directories in Dolphin. Directories are basically the places on the hard drive where files are stored and you have some common ones pinned on the left sidebar of Dolphin such as Home, Downloads, and Documents. You can view your full directory at the top of your Dolphin window much like you would when using Windows Explorer and you can copy and paste in and out of here if you need to.

The main directories uses in this guide are going to be your Downloads directory where the files you download off the internet will be located and the Home directory. Inside the Home directory will be a Games directory which we will also be using.

4) KWrite

This is an app that comes pre-installed on SteamOS and is a text editor. Think of it as the SteamOS version of Notepad. It will be how you can open and configure the Legends.ini file later in the installation instructions below.

5) Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is a web-browser that comes pre-installed on SteamOS. You might be familiar with it due to the fact that it is also available on Windows. It functions identically to its Windows counterpart and will let your browse the web like you would expect. You can actually do everything in this guide with the Steam Deck alone and Firefox so long as you download all the files directly to your Steam Deck. This allows you to skip having to transfer files to your Steam Deck that you downloaded on some other device.

6) Lutris

As mentioned above, this is the program that will be downloaded via Discover for the purposes of this installation guide. It is an app that allows you to organize and run Windows games on Linux. Now, you might wonder why we need this when I explained Proton earlier in this post. Well, without getting too detailed, Proton doesn’t work 100% of the time like I mentioned above; however, it is not the only compatibility layer for running Windows programs on Linux, there is also WINE. I won’t explain what all WINE is here, but basically, we are using Lutris to configure a special and specific version of WINE that we set-up to specifically run MapleLegends. Lutris also has the option to allow you to run games added to it via Steam which is how we will ultimately play MapleLegends via gaming mode.

Installing MapleLegends on Steam Deck

Spoiler

Now that we have gone over all the background knowledge and points needed, we can move onto the guide proper. This guide is broken down into 20 steps. Each step is relatively simple and straightforward and should hopefully outline everything you need to do in the step. A few of the steps are a little bit more involved, but overall none should be too complex on their own. I also have screenshots that are edited to show what you should be seeing and doing for steps 1-17 in case the text itself is not enough or if you are confused by some of my wording. Steps 18-20 are very simple and shouldn’t need screenshots for them.

Note: I will be using Double Quotation Marks to denote the specific names of things throughout this guide. DO NOT actually type the quotation marks when naming anything. They are simply here in the guide to delineate between the words of my steps and the text you will be seeing and typing.


Step 1: Download and Install Lutris from the Discover App.


Step 2: Download the current Wineskin version of MapleLegends off of the official MapleLegends website. DO NOT download the Windows version or the Crossover version, neither of these will work.

Step 3: Download the following Windows .DLL files (ws2_32.dll and ws2help.dll) from the provided links. These files are necessary for configuring WINE within Lutris to run MapleLegends.

https://www.mediafire.com/?bvt20olayvfbgw7

https://www.mediafire.com/?7c9tee7fhvebopc



Step 4: Open Lutris and click the “+” button in the top left of the window and select “Add locally installed game”. This will open a new pop-up window.


Step 5: On the “Game info” tab, name it “MapleLegends”. Select “Wine” as the “Runner”.


Step 6: In the same window, swap to the “Game options” tab. Set the “Prefix architecture” to “32-bit”. Set “Wine prefix” to “~/Games/MapleLegends”.


Step 7: In the same window, swap to the “Runner options” tab. Disable “Enable DXVK”. Disable “Enable VKD3D”. Enable “Windowed (virtual desktop)”. Set the “Virtual Desktop Resolution” to “1024x768”.


Step 8: In the same window, swap to the “System options” tab. Enable “Disable Lutris runtime”.

Step 9: Click the “Save” button in the bottom right to save your setting changes. This should automatically close the pop-up window, if not close it manually.


Step 10: In the main Lutris window you should now see a rectangle labeled “MapleLegends”. Left-click once on this rectangle to select it. Left-click the “Up Arrow” at the bottom of the screen next to the WINE icon that looks like a wine glass. In the pop-up menu, left-click “Wine Control Panel”. Wait a moment as Lutris creates and installs the custom WINE prefix, you should see a small processing box appear. Once it is done installing, lutris will open the wine control panel is a separate window. Simply close the control panel once it is open. This will take you back to the main Lutris window.


Step 11: In the main Lutris window, left-click the “Up Arrow” at the bottom of the screen next to the WINE icon again. In the pop-up menu, left-click “Wine Configuration”. A new window should open. On the “Applications” tab of this new window, change “Windows version” to “Windows 98”. Left-click “Apply”. Left-click “OK” to close the window. This will take you back to the main Lutris window.


Step 12: Note: This is a slightly complicated step but should be simple as long as you follow the steps exactly as they appear. This will open and close multiple pop-up windows, but you can always cross-reference what you are seeing with the screenshot should you get confused.

In the main Lutris window, left-click the “Up Arrow” at the bottom of the screen next to the WINE icon again. In the pop-up menu, left-click “Winetricks”. A new window should open. Follow these steps, each step is denoted by a greater than symbol:

Install an application > click cancel > Install a Windows DLL or component > check "vcrun6sp6" > click OK and let it install > click OK to close that window.

If you followed all the steps properly you should be returned to the first pop-up window and be able to left-click “Cancel” to close out of the pop-up window completely and return to the main Lutris window.


Step 13: Do not close Lutris. Open the Dolphin App and navigate to your “Downloads” directory. Copy both of the two .DLL files from step 3. Navigate to the following directory: “Home/Games/MapleLegends/drive_c/windows/system32”. Paste the two .DLL files in this directory. A pop-up will appear noting that these .DLL files already exist in this directory. Select “Overwrite” and your downloaded .DLL files should properly copy to the directory.


Step 14: In the Dolphin App, navigate to the following directory: “Home/Games/MapleLegends”. Right-click inside the directory and create a new folder called “Game Files”.


Step 15: In the Dolphin App, navigate to your “Downloads” directory. Right-click the MapleLegends.pkg file. In the pop-up list left-click “Extract Autodecting Subfolders”. After a moment of processing this will create a new folder in your “Downloads” directory. Open this folder and extract the “Payload” file the same way. You should now be able to locate the decrypted payload file. Right-click the decrypted payload file and left-click on “rename” in the pop-up menu. Rename the file to “DPayload.xar”. Extract this newly renamed file one last time the same way. This will create a new folder.


Step 16: In the Dolphin App, navigate inside the new folder extracted in step 15 and locate the “MapleLegends” folder. To ensure this is the right folder, check to see that it includes all the game files, dlls, and exes that should be there. Right-click the located “MapleLegends” folder. Cut this entire folder (not the files inside the folder, the folder itself). Navigate to the following directory: “Home/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files”. This directory should be empty. Paste the cut “MapleLegends” folder into this directory.


Step 17: In the Dolphin App, navigate to the following directory: “Home/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files/MapleLegends”. Double Left-click the “Legends.ini” file to open it in the text editor. Set “HDCient” to equal “1”. Save the file and close it.

Note: You can change some other settings in the “Legends.ini” file to suite your preference; however, do not change the resolution or change it to windowed mode. These settings allow it to run best on the deck on gaming mode and changing them may lead to unstable or dysfunctional outcomes.


Step 18: Close the Dolphin App. In the Lutris app on the main window, Right-click the MapleLegends game shortcut (the rectangle labeled “MapleLegends”). In the pop-up menu, left-click “Configure”. This will open a new window. In the new window, go to the “Game options” tab. Set “Executable” to “~/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files/MapleLegends/MapleLegends.exe”. Left-click “Save”. This should close the window, if not close it manually.

Step 19: In the main Lutris window, Right-click the “MapleLegends” game shortcut. In the pop-up menu, left-click “Create Steam Shortcut”.

Step 20: Close Lutris. MapleLegends is now playable on your Steam Deck in gaming mode. You can go back to gaming mode via the shortcut on your desktop now, or you can follow some additional steps to below to set custom artwork for the game (optional) and configure your controls (required to use the controller) before playing.

How to Update the Game

Spoiler

One of the main strengths of this method of installing MapleLegends on Steam Deck is the relative ease to update your game files whenever there is a client update. You do not have to follow the whole guide again to update your files. All you have to do is repeat steps 2, 15, and 16 without any other steps or changes. Once you have done it a few times it becomes extremely easy and isn’t really any trouble. Below are those steps again for convenience:

Step 2: Download the current Wineskin version of MapleLegends off of the official MapleLegends website. DO NOT download the Windows version or the Crossover version, neither of these will work.

Step 15: In the Dolphin App, navigate to your “Downloads” directory. Right-click the MapleLegends.pkg file. In the pop-up list left-click “Extract Autodecting Subfolders”. After a moment of processing this will create a new folder in your “Downloads” directory. Open this folder and extract the “Payload” file the same way. You should now be able to locate the decrypted payload file. Right-click the decrypted payload file and left-click on “rename” in the pop-up menu. Rename the file to “DPayload.xar”. Extract this newly renamed file one last time the same way. This will create a new folder.

Step 16: In the Dolphin App, navigate inside the new folder extracted in step 15 and locate the “MapleLegends” folder. To ensure this is the right folder, check to see that it includes all the game files, dlls, and exes that should be there. Right-click the located “MapleLegends” folder. Cut this entire folder (not the files inside the folder, the folder itself). Navigate to the following directory: “Home/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files. Paste the cut “MapleLegends” folder into this directory.

Note: Since you already have a “MapleLegends” folder inside your “Home/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files” directory, you will need to delete the old “MapleLegends” folder before pasting the new one. Trying to overwrite the old files can lead to somethings not copying right and break stuff. Just delete the old and paste the new.

How to Find and Set Custom Steam Artwork

Spoiler

While you can play MapleLegends as soon as you finish the installation guide and configure your controls, you may notice that it simply appears as a blank gray box in gaming mode with its name in white text inside the gray box. If you want to make it look pretty and have artwork instead of all the gray boxes you will need to download and set custom artwork for Steam to load and use for each of the places it tries to put art. I won’t type up a full guide on how to do this, but here is a link to a website where you can find artwork to use that is sized already for Steam and also a link to a great YouTube video that goes through the process of setting the artwork:

Artwork Website: https://www.steamgriddb.com/

Video Instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJsoGik7hLo

All of these steps must be completed in Desktop mode on your Steam Deck. However, once done once you never have to do it again even when you update you game files or when updating your Steam Deck itself. You can also re-name MapleLegends in your games list if it isn’t showing up with the name you want in gaming mode.

How to Configure Game Controls

Spoiler

Now that you have the game installed, you might think you are all good to go, but alas, you cannot actually control the game yet. When downloading a game in gaming mode through Steam directly on the Steam Deck, Steam automatically selects a controller layout for you which allows you to control the game. However, since MapleLegends is a non-Steam game there are no default controls and none of your controller buttons will actually do anything when you launch the game. You could always just play with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but I feel that defeats the whole purpose of getting MapleLegends to run on the Steam Deck in the first place. If you wanted to play on a PC with a Mouse and Keyboard just play on a PC with a Mouse and Keyboard. The great thing about the Steam Deck is that it is all-in-one.

There is one catch about playing MapleLegends with only the Steam Deck controller, the built in virtual keyboard will not work for typing. That means you will have to have a custom controller layout for typing in your password or for typing in game. When configuring your controller settings with the Steam Deck you can create multiple layouts for the same game and then map a button to swap between them—this is called Action Swapping. I highly recommend setting up a gaming controller layout and a typing controller layout. For the typing one set up touchpad menus that contain all the letters and you can possibly fit in some backspace keys or a period. You’ll have to find something that works for you here.

I won’t go into specific steps outlining how to configure custom controls on Steam Deck for games, but I will post a link to a guide generally explaining how it works and I will also mention a few suggested controls based on what I use. Ultimately, this is about finding what works for you and it will probably take some time. You can use the Steam Button to configure your controls while the game is running if you want to experiment actively instead of having to close the game each time.

Note: You may need to experiment with setting up custom menus for the touchpads or for your control sticks. Just play around with what all you need and how you want it to look.

Instructions: https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-customize-your-controller-layout-on-the-steam-deck

My Recommendations:

D-Pad: Movement

A Button: Jump

B Button: Loot Item

X Button: Basic Attack

Y Button: NPC Chat

Start Button: Open In-Game Keyboard Layout Configuration

Select Button: Escape

Right Trigger: Main attacking Skill

Left Tripper: Movement Skill

Right Bumper: Left-click

Left Bumper: Right-click

Right Stick: Move Mouse

Left Stick: Radial Menu with Emotes

R4, R5, L4, L5 Buttons: Potions or Other attacking skills.

Left Touchpad: Custom Menu with World Map, Quests, Social Menu, Inventory, Equipment, Stats, Skills, Chair, Mount, Monster Book, Etc.

Right Touchpad: Buffs (Macro three of them using the in-game macro system), Buffing potions, Pet food, Mount Rejuvenators, Etc.

R3: Action swap between gameplay controller layout and typing layout.

How to Use This Guide for Non-Steam Deck Linux Computers

Spoiler

If for whatever reason you found this guide, don’t have a Steam Deck, but do have a Linux computer and want to play MapleLegends then you are still in luck! While I am no Linux expert in the slightest, so long as you can get Lutris running you should be able to follow the steps almost exactly to get the game running on your Linux PC regardless of which Distro you are running.

Obviously, you will want to skip any of the steps that are specific to the Steam Deck, and your GUI or lack thereof will differ depending on your specific Linux Distro, but if you use Linux on the regular then you probably already know more about it than I do (at least at the time of writing this guide. I am considering ditching Windows on my main PC but haven’t made the plunge yet) and should be able to adapt the steps as needed.

If you are somehow new to Lutris but not to Linux then just note you will simply launch the game via Lutris and not bother with Steam.

Old Guide - Archived

Spoiler

Hey everyone! Long time forum lurker, first time forum poster here with a guide!

I decided to type up these instructions because I wasn't satisfied with the existing guides for how to get MapleLegends running on Steam Deck. Technically this install method would work for anyone with Linux trying to install the game, you'd just need to ignore all the Stem Deck specific stuff and launch the game through Lutris and not through Steam.

I do want to thank the multiple other guides on how to get MapleLegends running in Lunix and on SteamDeck and all the helpful comments on those threads because I synthesized this method by combing through all those posts.

Lastly, the main reason I think my method is the best method is for a couple reasons:
1) You do not have to mess with SteamOS at all.
2) You do not need to mess with Konsole at all.
3) It is easy to follow for non Linux users who have a Steam Deck.
4) It is easy to update the game files.
5) It lets you play in Gaming Mode with the built in controller.

Without further ado, here it we go!

*Note: Anything in "Quotation Marks" is for instruction purposes only, do not type the quotation marks at all*

1) Download and Install Lutris from Discover

2) Download the current Wineskin version of MapleLegends

3) Download ws2_32.dll and ws2help.dll from these links:

https://www.mediafire.com/?bvt20olayvfbgw7

https://www.mediafire.com/?7c9tee7fhvebopc

4) Open Lutris and click the "+" button in the top left and select "Add locally installed game'

5) On the "Game info" tab, name it MapleLegends and select "Wine" as the runner

6) On the "Game options" tab, set the "Prefix architecture" to "32-bit" and set "Wine prefix" to "~/Games/MapleLegends"

7) On the "Runner options" tab, disable "Enable DXVK", disable "Enable VKD3D", enable "Windowed (virtual desktop), and set the "Virtual Desktop Resolution" to "1024x768

8) On the "System options" tab, enable "Disable Lutris Runtime

9) Save your setting changes.

10) Left-click once on the MapleLegends Game shortcut in Lutris to select it, then click the "Up Arrow" at the bottom of the screen next to the Wine icon. In the pop up menu select "Wine Control Panel", It will take a second to install Wine in the new location. Once the control panel is open close the virtual desktop window to close the control panel.

11) Click the "Up Arrow" at the bottom of the screen next to the Wine icon. In the pop up menu select "Wine Configuration". On the "Applications" tab change "Windows version" to "Windows 98". Click "Apply" then click "OK" to close the virtual desktop.

12) Click the "Up Arrow" at the bottom of the screen next to the Wine icon. In the pop up menu select "Winetricks", a new window should open. Then follow these steps: Install an application > click cancel > Install a Windows DLL or component > check "vcrun6sp6" > click OK and let it install > click OK to close that window. You will be returned to the first window, click cancel and it should close out completely.

13) Open Dolphin and navigate to "Home/Games/MapleLegends/drive_c/windows/system32" and past the two .dll files you downloaded earlier here. When prompted, select "overwrite'.

14) In Dolphin, navigate to "Home/Games/MapleLegends" and create a new folder called "Game Files".

15) In Dolphin, navigate to your downloads and right click the MapLegends.pkg file and extract autodetecting subfolders. In this new folder locate the payload file and extract it the same way. Then locate the decrypted payload file and rename it to "Payload.xar" and extract this one last time.

16) In the newly extracted decrypted payload you should be able to locate the "MapleLegends" folder that includes all the game files, dlls, and exes. Cut and paste this entire folder inside the "Home/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files" folder.

17) Navigate to this copied folder and open the "Legends.ini" file. Set "HDClient" to equal "1". Save the file and close it.

18) In Lutris, right click the MapleLegends game shortcut and select "Configure" in the pop up menu. Go to the "Game options" tab and in the "Executable" section type "~/Games/MapleLegends/Game Files/MapleLegends/MapleLegends.exe". Then click "Save" to close the window.

19) Right click the MapleLegends game shortcut and select "Create Steam Shortcut".

20) Close Lutris and switch back to Gaming Mode. MapleLegends should be there and launch when selected.

Additional things to note:

1) To update the game client simply repeat steps 2, 15, and 16 to replace the old game files with newly downloaded ones.

2) You can set custom artwork in Steam for the game, but I won't go over than here. Googling "Steam Deck set custom artwork" should find you everything you need.

3) You will NEED to customize your controls to be able to play the game. The on screen keyboard will not type so you cannot use it to log in. I recommend creating a custom controller layout that lets you action swap between a "playing the game" layout and a "typing" layout. In the "typing" layout I recommend using custom track-pad menus to function as a keyboard which will allow you to type in game and log in. You'll just have to experiment with what controls work for you as sharing mine would take a long time to explain.

Enjoy! MapleLegends on Steam Deck!

Update Log

Spoiler

Original Post and Guide Version 1: October 19, 2022

Pictures Added: November 14, 2022

Guide Version 2: November 23, 2022

Enjoy playing MapleLegends on your Steam Deck and feel free to spread the word of this guide to anyone else you know who is interested!

 

Hey! I actually really appreciated your guide, I know I didn't link anyone else (to be fair I typed all this up on my phone and am not a regular forum user), but your guide as well as several linux guides both old and new were all really helpful in me putting this together.

It is funny you mention my number 3 because I am exactly the hapless windows user I typed this guide up for. I have ZERO linux experience, but bought a Steam Deck and was like "Yeah, I can make Legends run on that" and decided to just mess with it until I brute forced it into functioning a way I was happy with. See, I'm actually terrified of messing with the OS and bricking things. Maybe when I was younger and had more time I wouldn't fear a need to reinstall SteamOS, but nowadays I just want to play games without as much tinkering, lol.

I definitely agree that the lack of virtual keyboard support is probably the biggest downside to my approach, but the action swapping to a typing layout isn't too big of a hunderence as was more a compromise I decided on to avoid messing with as much OS level stuff as your guide did.

As for the overlay quirk you mentioned, I haven't personally had any issues with changing the controller layout while having the game running or had any issues with pulling up any of the overlay's other functionality.

I definitely agree with you though that the more people messing with it the better! The Steam Deck is a really nifty little system and I want to to succeed so that more people can get into PC gaming for a low cost and barrier of entry (and less fear of bricking their PCs through user error... As tech support for my friends and family I am very sick of this, haha!)

Lastly, I 100% agree with you that a flatpack version lf ML would be ideal or some system similar to Windia that seems to have native Linux support. I am by no means a programmer and have, as mentioned above, absolutely ZERO linux experience, but the fact that both you and I were able to find ways of getting this silly mushroom game running on the Deck tells me that someone much smarter than me should definitely be able to come up with a solution for native Linux support!

 

I never owned a PSP modded or otherwise. You can always try though! As long as it can run Linux and you can install Lutris I don't see why it wouldn't aside from hardware limitations.

However, I am by no means familiar with Linux. I just got ML working on my Deck with Lutris, lol.

 

Does a pop-up box with the Wine installer show up with a message that it is installing in the new location? If so does it freeze when it finishes and you try closing it? If not does it freeze as soon as you try to open the panel?

 

Is your wine prefix location set right? If it isn't set right it can have some issues.

You can also try and generate the wine install with dxvk and vkd3d enabled then turn them off again after that. I have found them being off can occasionally cause some off Lutris behavior. You can also try with virtual windows off and then turn them back on at the end.

Edit: I just tried a test run on my Deck and didn't have any issues following my steps here. Is your Lutris up to date?

 

Didn't know about the Vita, but I anticipated that with the PSP. I always say people can go ham if they want though, hahaha!

 

Glad it is working for you! As we see more and more Steam Decks in the wild I am hopeful this guide can continue to be useful.

You reminded me... I may have forgotten to check if I have it set to fullscreen or windowed in my config, lol. I honestly might update it with some pictures or something at some point, to be honest I work two jobs and am just way busier than I was when I was younger and definitely would have put more effort into the guide in the past, lol.

So long as you can follow it and it works then that is that matters!

 

I still haven't checked.... Lol. I think it is set to windowed though, and you are right that everything is hidden in game mode anyways.

I definitely didn't consider anything near as crazy as custom graphics and touch zones on the screen, hahaha!

I do have my touch pads set up as panels of buttons though and you can name them and set icons to have them display as. I have things like world map, quests, friends list, items, equipment, stats, skills, chair, mount, monster book etc. all mapped to the left touch pad with unique icons for each of them.

My right touch pad has my buffs (macrod to one key using the in-game skill macro system) and some uncommon potions (speed and acc since I am a warrior lol) as well as pet food and mount revitalizer.

I can always add more to the menus if I need, but I find that covers most everything I could want and takes care of a massive amount of keybinds that would be hard to accomodate if not for the deck's touchpads.

 

Hmmm, aside from making sure your Lutris is up-to-date, and making sure there aren't any typos in your "Wine prefix" string then try this approach:

Delete any lutris set-up you were doing for MapleLegends and start completely clean.

Next try following steps 4, 5, 6, and 9. Skip steps 7 and 8 completely at this point.

Then try step 10 to generate the local wine prefix in your "~/Games/MapleLegends" directory.

If all goes well it shouldn't freeze and should install the wineprefix in that directory with no issues.

Then go back to and complete steps 7, 8, 9.

Skip step 10.

Follow the remaining steps to completion.



If that still has issues, try manually creating the "MapleLegends" folder inside your "~/Games" directory. This will force Lutris to identify it as a preexisting directory and not attempt to create the directory itself. This could possibly fix the hanging should the steps above not work.

Let me know if you have any luck!

 

The reason the files aren't in the games folder I think is because you set your "Wine prefix" directory to somewhere in your documents. Honestly, so long as that directory has the correct files it should work fine, but for organization purposes I definitely recommend making sure it is pointing to the correct place. The "~/Games/Maplelegends" is actually shorthand for the home directory on your Deck. When in Dolphin look on the left-sidebar and you should see the "Home" button. That will take you to your home directory and inside there is your Games directory.

As for finding where to put the .dll files, it all depends on where the "Wine prefix" string is pointing as that is where Lutris will generate the wine prefix. It seems like yours ended up in your documents while my guide puts it in games.

You can try to repoint it and reorganize if you want, but if you don't plan on messing with your deck in desktop mode aside from MapleLegends it probably won't be an issue.

I hope this helps and makes sense, hahaha!