Kia ora

We're Annie and Eben, and we make Junk Store. It's a non-Steam gaming hub for the Steam Deck: install and play your Epic, GOG, Amazon and itch games without leaving Game Mode. No Desktop Mode, no extra launchers.

There are two versions:

• Junk Store Pro is the full standalone app with all the stores and features. Free 7-day trial.
• The Decky plugin is free and gets you Epic games to start with.

Not sure which suits you? Here's the side-by-side: https://www.junkstore.xyz/decky-vs-pro/

This is an official community, same as our Reddit and Discord. We'll post dev updates, the weekly game-testing results and general news here.

Questions, setup help, bug reports and screenshots of what you've got running are all welcome.

Links are in the sidebar.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

PS. If you came here looking for thrift store finds, you want [email protected]. Different kind of junk store stuff.

Kia ora Everyone!

We tested all of this week's giveaways on the Steam Deck through Junk Store. Six games total between Epic and Prime Gaming and a proper mixed bag it was: Citizen Sleeper, Robobeat, Between Time: Escape Room, Space Grunts 2, Sugardew Island and Wargame Construction Set III (that last one's a DOS game, so Pro only).

Between Time: Escape Room was the standout for me, turned a quick test into a full play session.

Heads up too, Junk Store Pro v3.1.0.1 just landed on Stable with network game import and file previews in the file manager. Update directly in the app or download from the Portal.

Let us know what you thought of this week's games and any standouts for you. And give the new update a go, tell us how you find it. Full compatibility notes and setup are in the write-up.

Hope you are all having an awesome weekend!

Cheers, Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Just curious what you (Eben + Annie) and anyone else stumbling over this might be playing through Junk Store lately!

I haven't even had my Steam Deck on in some time now, the last one I was paying was BioShock Infinite (not for the first, nor the last time)

Just pure curiosity here!

Kia ora Everyone!

I finally found some time to dig into my own GOG backlog, not just test the giveaways each week.

Five older games this round, and they're all running on the Steam Deck through Junk Store, mostly via the Pro version.

A nice little 90s nostalgia hit with Breath of Fire IV and the old D&D dungeon crawlers.

I hope to continue testing my backlog each week as well as retesting titles to check if anything has shifted.

Check out full post here: https://www.junkstore.xyz/blog/backlog-tested-2026-06-17/

Hope you are all having an amazing week.

Cheers, Annie & Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Another batch of free game giveaways tested on Steam Deck with Junk Store this week.

• The Ouroboros King (Epic) - chess-style battler that kicked my butt, a bit like Pawnbarian
• Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks (Epic) - vehicle combat, one for the multiplayer crowd
• G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra (Prime) - the highlight for me, instant TMNT and Double Dragon vibes, straight back to my NES and Sega days
• Paradise Killer (GOG) - Lovecraft murder mystery that won me over second time around
• Tested on Humans: Escape Room (GOG) - you all know how much I love a good escape room puzzle, couldn't put it down

Couldn't get Sin Slayers: Reign of The 8th (Prime) running this round. Seems to be a known issue, I'll keep looking into it.

All running in Game Mode with Junk Store, no desktop mode needed.

Check out full post here: https://www.junkstore.xyz/blog/games-tested-2026-06-14/

On the dev side, Eben added in-Portal support tickets with log uploads, and a text/PDF viewer in the File Manager.

You cand find those posts here:

• Dev Update: Portal Support Tickets, Log Uploads, and Rock-Solid Through Steam Updates
• Dev Update: View Any File as Text or PDF in the Junk Store File Manager

Cheers,

Annie & Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47245264

Approaching the middle of 2026, I thought it might be interesting to check in with a handful of developers building software for the Steam Deck scene to see how things have gone, are going and might be for the future!

Most of these are good friends of mine, but there is one new face here as well. I asked them a few questions each about what the state of Steam Deck software looks like today.

• RetroDECK
• Decky Loader
• Junk Store
• Lutris
• Heroic Games Launcher
• Unifideck

^ all the projects I checked in with! So if you're curious, this one isn't exactly hard-hitting journalist, it is a nice light check-in with friends as to how the Steam Deck world is for them now!

Hope you enjoy it!

https://gardinerbryant.com/steam-deck-software-in-2026/

Kia ora Everyone

Eben got a bit carried away and has posted a new dev update and this one came out of falling down and then following a rabbit hole, as they tend to.

The File Manager can now open any file as text straight in Game Mode, which sounds small but it's a big deal for troubleshooting. You can read your own logs without ever dropping to desktop, and you can even pop into the Steam item in the sidebar and read Steam's own logs.

To try it, switch to the beta channel, open the File Manager (select+X), left trigger on any file and pick "view as text". Right trigger jumps to the bottom, which is handy for logs.

There's also a basic PDF viewer in there now (left trigger, view as PDF). It's early days and he's not totally sold on it, so feedback welcome on that one.

Now, I better get on to testing this weeks giveaways! There are a few games that I need to 'test' and I'm worried they will turn in to proper gaming sessions if I'm not careful!

As always, hope you are all having an awesome week!

Cheers,

Annie & Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Hey Everyone,

Eben's just posted a new dev update and there's a fair bit in it.

Support Ticketing System

The big one is a proper support ticketing system built right into the Portal, so support isn't scattered across Discord and Reddit any more. If you're on Junk Store Pro you can also upload your logs straight from the File Manager now, which makes it a lot easier for us to see what's gone wrong and get you sorted.

Stability through Steam Updates

We've also been checking every Steam update against Junk Store, and we came through all of them with no breakages. That's the whole point really, you shouldn't have to dread a Steam update.

As Always,

Annie & Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone,

There was a nice mix of games from Epic and Amazon Prime freebies. All were tested and all launched out of the box.

No desktop mode, no extra steps. Just download, launch and play!

Rogue Waters was the standout for me, living on a boat I was never going to say no to that one.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend as well as a great week ahead!

Read the full post here: https://www.junkstore.xyz/blog/games-tested-2026-06-09/

Cheers,

Annie & Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)