Steam Deck gets floppy disk game cartridges: new plugin launches titles from retro media

A Reddit user known as u/BlackIceLA has created the Decky Links plugin for the Steam Deck, enabling digital game copies to be launched from physical media, including classic floppy disks. The idea stemmed from an attempt to adapt the Zaparoo program for Valve's handheld console, but its limitations pushed the enthusiast to build a custom solution with the help of the AI assistant Claude.

Zaparoo can start games via NFC tags, QR codes, or USB drives and formally supports SteamOS, yet assigning tags requires a smartphone app, while all mappings are managed by a continuously running service. This makes it difficult to move prepared media between different devices. Decky Links bypasses those issues: the plugin works with both Steam titles and non-Steam games, and each floppy, USB stick, or tag simply stores the URL of the target game.

As an example, the developer cited the link "steam://run/1174180", which launches Red Dead Redemption 2. When the plugin detects such a link on a connected medium, it automatically starts the corresponding game. For the initial demonstration, BlackIceLA printed temporary cover art and attached it to several floppy disks, turning them into lookalike physical cartridges. The user only has to pick a game, insert the floppy into a USB-connected drive, and the title boots up.

Game files themselves remain stored on the Steam Deck's internal drive or microSD card. That comes as no surprise: a standard 3.5-inch floppy disk holds just 1.44 MB of data, while modern games are often more than 100,000 times larger. In daily use, Decky Links offers few practical advantages over launching games straight from the Steam library, but the solution is not without purpose.

Inserting or scanning a linked medium starts the selected game immediately, removing the need to browse through the library. Since the URL is stored directly on the medium, the same set of floppies or tags can be reused across multiple devices. For many gamers, it is also a way to bring back a slice of nostalgia from the era when buying a game meant owning a physical box with a cartridge or disc, rather than just downloading a file.