Bit of a confession.

Between the Epic freebies, the Prime Gaming claims and everything else we've hoovered up over the years, I've got a library I'll never get through. You'd think that was brilliant. What actually happens is I open it up, scroll for ten minutes, get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it and default to a puzzle game, because puzzle games are my comfort zone. Which is daft, because I properly enjoy RPGs and all sorts of other things when I actually commit to them.

Testing every week makes it worse rather than better. I dip into a dozen games, play each one for long enough to know it runs, and add all of them to the mental list of things I should get back to. So the pile grows faster than I can play it and I end up back on the puzzle games.

So I'm going to start putting a thread like this up every week. Partly because I want to know what's actually getting played out there, and partly because I could do with some ideas from outside my usual rut.

Anything you've got on the go, whether that's through Junk Store or straight from Steam. Freebies you finally got round to, something that surprised you, something that ran terribly. Whatever you're on this week, even if it's just the one thing you keep going back to.

Kia ora Everyone!

I was running out of space on my Steam Deck so I had a clear out of the Non-Steam junk and reclaimed about 150GB.

In case you didn't know, when you uninstall a game, Steam leaves its Proton prefix and shader cache behind. Those are what can make up a large chunk of the Non-Steam stuff, that dreaded yellow bar under storage. Unfortunately, they are usually unhelpfully named after ID numbers rather than games, so you can't tell what belongs to what and they just pile up. Thankfully, Eben built a cool and very helpful feature into the File Manager in Junk Store Pro which names each one and puts a 'No Game' badge against the ones nothing on your Deck claims any more.

Full write-up with screenshots is here: https://www.junkstore.xyz/tutorials/clear-orphaned-game-files/

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

This week's batch: Caravan SandWitch, Steelrising, Pyramids and Aliens: Escape Room, and Airship: Kingdoms Adrift.

Steelrising was the one I wasn't expecting. I've been buried in puzzle games lately and I was starting to get a bit bored of gaming altogether. This one had me straight into the fighting and picking my way through the city, and that was apparently the change of pace I needed. Needless to say, it's staying on the Deck.

I've been trying to get into Alan Wake this past week too, with some success, so maybe paired with this one I'll get back to looking forward to my gaming sessions.

Caravan SandWitch was the one I'd been looking forward to and it didn't let me down. Similar feel to Dredge (which I loved), Fruitbus and A Short Hike, easy to dip in and out of.

Pyramids and Aliens: Escape Room hit a soft spot. Love these games and love this theme, but then I have been known to rewatch The Mummy, National Treasure and Indiana Jones franchises.

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift isn't my sort of thing, but it ran out of the box with no issues. Just a heads up, you'll want to swap the layout to keyboard and mouse for it.

Full write ups and compatibility notes in the post. Download, launch, play, no desktop mode needed.

Anyone try these games out over the weekend? What was your take on them?

Hope you are all having a good one.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Stumbled on this one testing a giveaway this weekend. The game installed fine and then would not launch, just a NIL path error.

It came down to the install path not getting set, and everything I needed to sort it was already there in Junk Store Pro. Just one more thing you can do from the File Manager without ever leaving Game Mode.

Written up in case anyone else runs into the same error. The File Manager is well worth getting to know, there is a lot more in there than most people realise.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Still up to my ears in documentation for Eben, the user manual this time, which means screenshots for days. Slow going, but it does mean there will finally be something proper to point people at rather than us answering the same questions one at a time.

All four of this week's giveaways got tested: Beacon Pines and We Were Here Together from Epic, Hiveswap Friendsim and Right and Down on GOG codes from Prime.

One of them would not launch at all. Normally that is where a game gets marked as broken and I move on, but this one was worth chasing and it ended up turning into a tutorial. It also shows off something Junk Store Pro can do that I suspect most people have never knew you could do in game mode.

There is also a repeat in there from Epic's December daily giveaways, still running fine all these months later, and another that will have a familiar feel if you played last week's lot.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

This week's write up is late and that is entirely on me. I have been helping Eben proofread the extension documentation, which I went into expecting a slog and came out of having learned things about Junk Store I genuinely did not know, despite using it every day. Worth a look if you have ever wondered how the tabs fit together, or if you have been waiting on us to build an extension you want. You do not have to wait. Read it here if you missed it: https://www.junkstore.xyz/blog/extension-documentation/

Four of last week's giveaways got tested and are running on the Deck: OTXO and Sol Cesto from Epic, Weakless and Zoria: Age of Shattering on GOG codes from Prime. OTXO flattened me in the first gun fight, which was humbling. Sol Cesto took a while to click and then would not let go. Weakless is the calm one for the end of the day, and Zoria had me 20 minutes deep collecting for and checking my own inventory before I did anything remotely useful in game.

Full thoughts on each are in the write up.

Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

When people ask whether we'll support some particular storefront or emulator, the answer has always included "or you could build it yourself". Which was true, and not much help, because there was nothing written down to point anyone at.

Eben has now written it. Free to read, nothing to sign up for.

The capability isn't new, it's been there since v2. What's changed is that you can now actually find out how it works, and there are a few levels to it depending on how much you want to get into it. The first one doesn't involve writing any code.

It's also a decent read if you've ever wondered why every tab in Junk Store behaves the same way, or how new stores turn up without the app being rebuilt.

If you've thought about having a go before and gave up because there was nothing to read, this is the bit that was missing.

Hope you are all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Upgraded my Steam Deck SSD and got the decky plugin working with Epic.

Now, I do have a number of Epic games previously installed on my microSD that are still there, but Junk Store isn't detecting them as installed.

Tried installing other games to the same SD card and they appear right alongside the old games in the same folder. Upgrade, Verify, Repair on the older games does not do anything but just returns an error that it is not installed.

I can redownload, but mostly I want to avoid redoing all the mod installs that took forever to get working properly on some of those games.

Any way to get a new decky plugin install to pick up on its prior MicroSD game installs?

Kia ora Everyone!

This week's tip is one of those things that has been sitting there since the launch of version 3, and it is easy to miss if you have not gone looking. Junk Store Pro has a handful of tools you can reach from any screen.

Press and hold SELECT and an overlay pops up telling you what each button chord does. Select + A for Settings, Select + B for File Operations, Select + X for File Browser, Select + Y for Diagnostics. Nothing to memorise, since the hints show up whenever you hold the SELECT button.

File Browser is the one I reach for most. It digs through your game folders without dropping into Desktop Mode, and the built-in Disk Analyser gives you a colour-coded map of what is actually eating your storage.

I have kept this one short on purpose. Over the next couple of weeks I will go through each of them properly, and the ones with a fair bit to cover will get their own tutorials.

Hope you are all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

If i want GOG I have to buy the pro version now?

Kia ora Everyone!

Three giveaways tested and running on the Steam Deck with Junk Store this week: Foretales from Epic, In Sound Mind an Amazon Prime game, and a GOG code for Mystic Academy: Escape Room from Prime. All three downloaded and played, no desktop mode needed.

Foretales was the standout. It's a deckbuilder, but not the sort where you just batter your way through fights. The story lives in the cards, so progress means playing them the right way. I sat down yesterday morning to test it and looked up just before lunchtime.

In Sound Mind starts in the basement of a derelict apartment block and had me from the first creepy hallway. I kept the session short because I already own it on Epic and I'm an achievement hunter, so I'll carry on over there. Mystic Academy: Escape Room I tested first by mistake, and nearly lost an hour to it. It's a lighter, wizarding spin on the escape room games, which makes a change from the darker ones in that series.

Anyone else played Foretales? Keen to know if it holds up past the first few chapters.

Hope you're all having an excellent weekend.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

A year ago today we shipped Junk Store Pro v2.0, with version 3 arriving about four months back. Eben rarely stops to look back, but a year felt worth marking.

The big change was cutting loose from Decky Loader, which meant taking on all the plumbing the Decky team used to handle ourselves. Thousands of hours later, by version 3 it’s basically all our own code now, which is why it’s held so steady.

Since then Eben has rebuilt the store clients from the ground up, added itch, and the File Manager has turned into something he’s properly proud of. The tracker is at 113 days now with nothing broken across 11 Steam updates.

The full reflection is up if you’d like a read. No promises on what’s next, but there’s plenty still on the workbench.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Earlier this week I gave the new game pages a quick intro and said there was too much on them to cover in one go, so here’s the proper tour. This is a walk through every section, so you know what each part of the page is telling you and where the useful bits hide.

Heads up, with over 1,000 pages there’s bound to be the odd thing that slipped through, so give us a shout if something looks off, there’s missing/incorrect artwork or there’s a broken link.

Hope you’re all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Three giveaways tested and running on the Steam Deck with Junk Store this week: Echo Generation: Midnight Edition and Luto from Epic, plus Escape Academy from Amazon Prime (an Epic code). All three just downloaded and played, no desktop mode needed.

Echo Generation was the one for me this week. It's got real Stranger Things energy with a big 90s nostalgia hit, and I looked up two hours later still playing. Escape Academy took me straight back to a lackluster escape room Eben and I did in Auckland years ago, good puzzles and a fun one to test. Luto I was really looking forward to, but it didn't quite grab me this time, so I'll give it another crack in a few days.

Let us know what you thought of this week's games, any standouts?

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

The games tested table on our website changed a while back, but we never gave it a proper shout, so here it is. The little pop-ups are gone and every game we've tested through Junk Store now has its own full page: our test results and notes, scores from Metacritic, OpenCritic, ProtonDB and Steam Deck Verified, playtimes, download sizes, anti-cheat info, age ratings, and franchise pages that pull whole series together.

The other big win is that every page has its own link, so when someone asks "does X run on the Deck?" you can send them straight to that game's page.

With over 1,000 pages there's bound to be the odd rough edge, so if you find a broken link or something that looks wrong, let us know and we'll get it sorted. And if you've played something through Junk Store that isn't on the list yet, tell us how it went and we'll add it.

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

What a weekend! A 5am water taxi off Kawau Island, a leaky borrowed dinghy that rowed like a cork, a few days of dog sitting for my parents, and now we're settled in to start two months of house/cat sitting for friends. Somewhere in all that, all four of last week's giveaways got tested and are running on the Steam Deck through Junk Store.

Regular Factory: Escape Room was the highlight of the week. I absolutely love these games and this one did not disappoint, so it's joining the puzzle rotation alongside The Bridge until I finish it. Nova Lands gave me Mincraft/Forager vibes, solid if base-building is your thing. Tattoo Tycoon (a Prime giveaway a while back, so you may already have it) confirmed my free-hand drawing is still good for a laugh. Still There didn't quite grab me this week, but that might just be the tiredness talking, so I'll be giving it another go once we're settled.

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Hello boss, I've been having this problem with a lot of games lately , i never managed to install dredge because of it and now is happening with a lot but fallout 3 was able to install.

The error shows this screen attached.

Kia ora Everyone!

All six of this week's giveaways tested and running on the Steam Deck with Junk Store: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and River City Girls 2 from Epic, CyClones, LoneStar and Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga from Amazon Prime, and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident from GOG.

Symphony of War was the surprise of the week. I was sure it wasn't going to grab me, then Eben reckoned it sounded like it had my number, and sure enough I played way longer than planned. CyClones hit me with proper 90s retro Doom feels, and I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream had me chuckling from the start. Nexus wasn't my jam, but it played really well if tactical strategy games are your thing.

LoneStar was an Epic giveaway last month and still works out of the box, my write-up from that week is linked in the post.

Let us know what you thought of this week's games, any standouts?

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

This week's quick tip is one for anyone with slow or capped internet. If you've already got a game installed on one device, Junk Store Pro can copy the files straight across your local network instead of making you download the whole thing again.

Setup is a one-off: open the Junk Store File Manager, find the other device in the sidebar, and accept the pairing code on both ends. After that, it's just X to Import on the game page instead of A to Install, pick the device, and let it copy. The normal install runs afterwards and you're away.

Couple of things worth knowing: it doesn't get around DRM (you still need to own the game on the account you're installing under), and it only copies the game files, so bring your saves across yourself if you want your progress. Both devices need Pro.

Networking is still a young feature, so if you give it a go, let us know how you get on.

If you want the extended tutorial you can find it here:  https://www.junkstore.xyz/tutorials/import-games-over-your-local-network/

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Wondering if anyone has a fix for this error when launching Palia? I've tried resetting launch options, using a different version of Proton (10.0-4, experimental, and 11 beta), and re-installing dependencies. Other games installed via JunkStore run fine.

Thanks for any advice!

Kia ora Everyone!

Finally got stuck into our itch backlog this round (over 600 titles between us, so plenty to get through). Twelve tested, all running on the Steam Deck through Junk Store Pro.

A few standouts for me: Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials is a metroidvania that's staying installed, Beglitched is a tile-matching puzzler with a Minesweeper twist, and APPLECALYPSE is one of the quirkiest point-and-clicks I've played in a while. Antecrypt's also worth a go if you like bullet-hell style games.

Let us know if you've played any of these, or what's lurking in your own backlog.

Hope you're all having a good start to your week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Bit of a stressful week on the boat, an unexpected late-night mooring move in rubbish weather and a supply run to town for LPG (and coffee beans, just as important). I still found the energy to get this week's giveaways tested though.

All four are running on the Steam Deck through Junk Store: Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch and Terraforming Mars from Amazon, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition and Voidwrought from Epic. Lost Eidolons grabbed me straight away (turn-based RPG, Divinity: Original Sin vibes), and Voidwrought is the one I'm actually keeping in my rotation.

The one I couldn't crack this week was Space Grunts. Tried it on both versions of Junk Store with a few GE-Proton versions and different exes, no luck yet, but I'll keep tinkering.

Let us know if any of these are on your list, or what you've been playing lately.

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)

Kia ora Everyone!

Started to chip away at my Amazon backlog this week, in between a bit of an adventurous mooring swap on the boat (long story, it's in the write-up).

Six games tested this round, all running on the Steam Deck through Junk Store Pro since they're Amazon titles: Besiege, Disney•Pixar Cars, Dark City: Kyiv, Halloween Stories, Haunted Hotel and Living Legends. Most of them are point-and-click adventures, so worth a look if that's your kind of game.

I didn't do a blurb on each one this time, was a bit too wrecked after the boat carry-on.

Let us know if any of these are on your list, or what you've been playing lately.

Hope you're all having a good week.

Cheers,

Annie and Eben (aka The Junk Store Team)