Turning a Steam Machine and Steam Deck into a modern luxury Wii U: here's how
Enthusiasts on the Steam Machine subreddit are discussing how to combine Valve's mini PC with the Steam Deck handheld into a modern take on the Wii U. The idea may sound unusual, but it makes practical sense for emulating games from Nintendo's console: many Wii U titles show the main gameplay on the TV while maps, inventories, and other secondary information appear on the GamePad's touchscreen. On a regular PC, emulating such games usually means displaying both screens side by side on a single monitor or constantly switching between them. A second monitor can stand in for the GamePad display, but it hardly recreates the authentic experience.
The solution proposed by Reddit users is built around the Cemu emulator. The Steam Machine acts as the console itself, rendering the game on the TV, while the Steam Deck serves as the controller and shows the content that would originally have appeared on the GamePad. Getting everything set up, however, is far from straightforward.
Cemu can output both screens separately, but the virtual GamePad display must be streamed from the Steam Machine to the Steam Deck. One option is pairing Moonlight on the Steam Deck with Sunshine on the Steam Machine. Moonlight receives the video stream while also sending the handheld's button and stick inputs back to the host. Sunshine then exposes those inputs on the Steam Machine as a virtual controller, which Cemu recognizes as if it were a connected Wii U GamePad.
On top of that, there is another hurdle: Cemu requires a second display to output the gameplay and the GamePad view separately. Under SteamOS, there is currently no reliable way to create such a virtual secondary monitor. Some users therefore recommend using so-called dummy plugs. These are inserted into one of the Steam Machine's video outputs and trick the system into thinking an additional monitor is connected, allowing Cemu to display the GamePad view there. Alternatively, Windows could be installed on the Steam Machine, which might simplify the setup but adds extra configuration hassle.
The Wii U itself is widely regarded as one of Nintendo's biggest commercial failures. Yet the dual-screen concept it introduced may not have been a mistake—just ahead of its time. The project under discussion essentially revives that idea on modern Valve hardware, turning the Steam Machine and Steam Deck into a "luxury" Wii U for emulation enthusiasts.
