About
Diablo is the 1996 action-RPG that defined the genre, sending a lone hero down sixteen randomly generated dungeon levels beneath the town of Tristram to face the Lord of Terror. Built by Blizzard North on an isometric engine with a click-to-kill loot loop, it launched alongside Battle.net, one of the first free online multiplayer services. It earned widespread critical acclaim and multiple Game of the Year awards, and inspired the entire ARPG lineage that followed.
The game is still sold, but this recipe runs it natively via the open-source DevilutionX engine using the player's own data files.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- devilutionx
- Needs files
-
- DIABDAT.MPQ
Runtime
- Runs as
- Native Linux
- Proton
- not needed
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: deckport hosts no game files. Supply DIABDAT.MPQ from your own CD or your GOG / Battle.net purchase (Diablo is still sold) and place it beside the DevilutionX binary.
Engine: the Deck-native way to run it is DevilutionX — an open-source re-implementation of the Diablo engine (also on Flathub), so it runs directly, no Proton.
Hellfire: for the Hellfire expansion also add hellfire.mpq, hfmonk.mpq, hfmusic.mpq, hfvoice.mpq.
Controller: works great on Deck out of the box (full gamepad via SDL2).
Install: easiest install is the Flatpak org.diasurgical.DevilutionX, then drop DIABDAT.MPQ in ~/.var/app/org.diasurgical.DevilutionX/data/diasurgical/devilution. Binary path depends on the install.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.