About
Unreal is a 1998 first-person shooter and the debut title built on the original Unreal Engine, developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes. Players are a prisoner who crash-lands on the alien world Na Pali and must escape, with the game praised at release for its detailed environments, lighting, and advanced graphics.
The Unreal Gold edition bundles the base game with its expansion Return to Na Pali. The title launched the long-running Unreal franchise and the Unreal Engine that powers countless later games, but the Unreal series was pulled from Steam in December 2022.
Screenshots
Official store screenshots from Steam — deckport links them, never rehosts. Hover to pause; click to preview.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- System/Unreal.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Gold runs perfectly after tweaks
⚙ Setup notes
DRM: No intrusive DRM. Delisted Steam game (appid 13250, removed from sale 2022-12-14 alongside the rest of the Unreal series; GOG followed on 2022-12-23). Owners keep access in their library.
Proton: Runs well under Proton on Deck — ProtonDB tier gold, community confirms single- and multiplayer working. Force a Steam Play compatibility tool in the game's Properties > Compatibility; GE-Proton is the safest, but stock proton_experimental also works.
Launch: Launch System/Unreal.exe (this is the Unreal / Return to Na Pali launcher; there is no UnrealGold.exe).
Fix: Strongly recommended: install the OldUnreal 227 community patch, which adds modern renderers and many fixes; under Proton select the OpenGL or Direct3D 9 renderer (the default Direct3D/Glide path can show a black screen on AMD).
Controller: The 1998 engine is keyboard+mouse first with no native gamepad menus, but a Steam Input gamepad-as-KBM layout drives it fine on Deck (right pad = aim/mouse, face buttons mapped to fire/jump/use).
Install: deckport only configures the prefix; it never bundles or links the game files.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Delisted from Steam 2022-12-14 (whole Unreal series; GOG followed 2022-12-23). In late 2024 OldUnreal received Epic's permission to distribute an official free installer for Unreal Gold, so an existing library copy or that authorized free release is fine.
Status: Community reports confirm it runs on Deck via Proton (gold), but this specific recipe has not been Deck-verified yet — left at needs-test.
Display: If you hit a black screen on AMD, install the OldUnreal 227 patch and switch the renderer to OpenGL or Direct3D 9.
Controller: No native controller support; uses a Steam Input keyboard/mouse layout on Deck.
Multiplayer: Multiplayer master server is gone, but LAN/direct-IP and singleplayer (incl. Return to Na Pali) work.
Install: deckport links nothing.
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.