About
The House of the Dead is the 1997 PC port of Sega's iconic arcade light-gun rail shooter, pitting agents Thomas Rogan and G against hordes of zombies and mutant creatures in a cursed mansion. Players shoot on-rails through branching paths to rescue hostages and defeat Dr. Curien. On PC and Steam Deck, mouse aiming replaces the light gun. A 2022 remake is available on GOG for a modern experience.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- thotd.exe
- Options
- -d3d -d3d_setup
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Pending not enough reports yet
⚙ Setup notes
Add thotd.exe (the game executable for the 1998 Windows port) as a non-Steam game. Use GE-Proton. Pass the launch flags -d3d -d3d_setup to force Direct3D rendering, which the port needs to render correctly on modern hardware. The game uses mouse-based aiming — map the Steam Deck's right trackpad as a mouse pointer for aiming. No native gamepad support; create a Steam Input layout that maps the right trackpad to mouse movement and triggers/face buttons to fire and reload. NOTE: The House of the Dead 1 Remake (2022) is available on GOG and is the recommended modern option.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy of the 1997 PC port. Use the right trackpad as a mouse for aiming — no native gamepad support; build a Steam Input layout. The 2022 House of the Dead 1 Remake on GOG is the recommended modern alternative.
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, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.