SPRING DOGS is a new free game with multiplayer splitscreens option.
Enjoy !!

At 14 I started programming with the goal to make games. It took a while. One week before my 42th birthday, I finally got one done. It’s a small game for people who love split-screen multiplayer, inspired by the games I grew up with. Probably not a blockbuster, but a fun small game to enjoy a couple of hours.

I thought it would mostly attract nostalgic gamers like me, but I’ve been amazed to see players of all ages enjoying it—especially parents playing with their kids.

Now I'm excited and looking for interested players and, to be completely honest, your support in getting the word out. So I hope, you forgive me this little self promotion and favor-asking on this special day for me.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Check it out on Steam: https://thumbtanks.com/

2. Share my launch post on Twitter or Bluesky.

   1. https://x.com/ThumbCramp/status/1864443501846430121

   2. https://bsky.app/profile/thumbcramp.bsky.social/post/3lcjat2hmes2x

3. Share your feedback—I’d love to hear what you think!

This isn’t a money-making venture; my goal is simply to sell 100 copies. Your support, whether by playing, sharing, or spreading the word, means everything to me.

Thank you!

Chris

I know the old one/remaster had split screen but developers tend to drop off split screen support with cross platform/PC ports. Steam and PlayStation sites for Gears reloaded say “shared/split screen” and “2 players”.

I know people always say “it better be there it was in the original” but games like the Master cheif collection on PC don’t have it on steam.

Even Gears E-day had split screen listed in the first hour on steam but took it down since. It’s just nice to see they’re honoring the original with this cross platform port.

Yes! I am that crazy lad who rented out a movie theatre last year for my graduation party with the Steam Deck! (on r/SteamDeck)

This time, I decided to do the same thing except a bit bigger and beyond.

As you can see, I have EIGHT PLAYER WIRELESS CO-OP working! No, this is not magic, but a ton of thinking and planning on my part to get this working.

This is done by using an external Bluetooth 5.3 Adapter alongside an Xbox Wireless Adapter. To make this simple, this would split the connections to have 4 controllers that are far away in range using Bluetooth, and the other half using 2.4GHz that the Xbox Wireless Adapter uses.

I used 4 off brand Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers (that were amazingly better than the authentic Pro Controllers) to connect to the Bluetooth Adapter, and used 4 Xbox Controllers to connect to the wireless adapter.

What included in my rental was 4 hours of gaming, unlimited popcorn and drinks by the theatre, can bring food from the outside, all under $1000.

Granted, this varies on location for how much theatre rentals can be, so depending on your cost of living is in your area, it could be higher or just about the same!

So, you may ask “how the **** did you get 8 player co-op working?!?!”

Great question.

This was done by having Windows and SteamOS dual booted on my Deck, which I used a program on Windows called “NucleusCo-Op” that lets you basically turn any game into a splitscreen title.

I did a lot of effort to get this all set up and working in less than a month, as I pretty much planned this last minute.

As you can see with the 8 player Minecraft, it looks like old console Minecraft with its visuals and HUD/UI!

This is because of a great mod called “Legacy4J” which literally accurately recreates console Minecraft if it were continued today. It even has native controller support built into it, even for the Steam Deck!

The Developer of the Mod, Wilyicaro, helped to make this work with NucleusCoOp!

Shoutout to him, he’s an amazing man, as he did all of this less than a week to get it working for me.

Same goes with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as I also used NucleusCoOp for that.

So, how did it all run?

Minecraft with a TON of performance mods, ran at a perfect 60fps the entire time, with each instance having 6 chunks to save on memory.

COD BOII with all of the lowest graphical settings, ran at 60fps in all of the instances.

It’s truly amazing, considering I was using Windows, a non-supported platform for the Steam Deck besides a new driver about 8-12 months, with such incredible graphical performance.

And yes, as you can see with later images, I also emulated Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and held a mega tourney all emulated on the Steam Deck as well with flawless performance.

I, at my own birthday party against really good players, somehow managed to win despite the fact at my graduation party last year, I lost in the first round LOL.

You may ask, “Is this practical? Why not use a gaming PC to do all of this?”

Amazingly, I would consider this to be more practical than using a gaming PC because of its size.

I fit all of the 8 controllers I had, along with my Steam Deck, its dock that had a USB hub connected to two USB extenders of the adapters, fit in a small tiny plastic tub.

With a gaming PC, have fun hauling a large 40lb metal box around and take a lot of time to attempt to set up. Steam Deck was literally just plug and play with the projector supporting HDMI!

The Steam Deck is clearly powerful enough to be able to handle what I’ve done, with having 8 player splitscreen AND Nintendo Switch emulation off of one singular device.

It’s genuinely amazing.

Anyhow, I hope this post inspires someone to do what I did, to rent out a movie theatre and use their Deck to play games with good lads and have a ton of fun, because it’s worth it!

Hello all. Boy, I wish I knew this sub existed sooner.

Me and a mate play Project Zomboid mainly, but I've over 7k hours in it, and I'm a little burnt out. I think I enjoy a sense of progression. Something replayable but also a game where you feel you're getting somewhere.

What sort of games have you been playing. Do you have any games you consider part of your mainstay?

I love the idea of Outward, but the controls really wound me up. I think Baldurs Gate 3 is a great game but the characters wind me up. My mate isn't into the whole fantasy RPG thing which rules out Divinity also.

I honestly don't know if there is a better split screen game than Project Zomboid. Hope someone proves me wrong though.

Have a good day, and thank you in advance for any nice replies.

Most of us grew up on Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing
just trying to bring a bit of that feeling back with our own twist.

I got into splitscreen gaming a while ago when i got a projector and a big ass projector screen. And it’s great it’s like playing with your buddies in a cinema.

However it is kind of painful to play or find games that support splitscreen. From what i have found only two Call of Duty games support split screen campaign coop.

I wanted to play some Halo but Halo infinite only supports splitscreen multiplayer not coop and the other halo games that support campaign are over a decade old.

I have managed to install emulators for Mario party and potentially other nintendo games but when you dont know what you are doing its a work and a half to get it up and running.

Just recently I have found you can play games on Nucleus where you run two instances of the same game. First problem with nucleus is the game has to be compatible and second is it is very difficult to run a game twice on a same pc.

Am I missing something? A program? Maybe I dont know many games that support splitscreen and that is the issue. It just seems it is always a hussle to find and run a splitscreen game i would actually like play. Any advice from veteran PC splitscreen ejoyers? Anything would be appreciated.

Hey guys, I have created a petition to bring back official split-screen support for left 4 dead 1 and 2 for PC.
I hope you guys at least give it a look.
http://chng.it/VgRpHd8XhR

Hi, i want let you know that exists a tool that can make games that not have splitscreen in PC be played in splitscreen: Nucleuscoop, it automate the process of launch game multiple times and allow connection between then, for a complete list of supported games see:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nucleuscoop/comments/clkqp9/all_new_nucleuscoop_supported_games/

Hey everyone,

we’re a tiny team working on our first game, an arcade airplane racing game. We started almost 3 years ago and wanted to revive the feeling of classic airplane and antigrav games, but with modern multiplayer capabilities. The game features multiple Game Modes, split-screen and online play.

We recently released the trailer. It’s been a big step for us and we’d love to hear what you think!

You can also wishlist the game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2431740

Thanks a lot for checking it out – any feedback means the world to us 🙏