What is it?
PortMaster is a way for you to install ports of games that are typically available through Linux based systems. Some examples are Stardew Valley, Undertale, Celeste and Hollow Knight – you could be playing any of these games on ArkOS, and other various custom firmware’s.
Here is a list of all of the supported PortMaster games: https://github.com/christianhaitian/PortMaster/wiki. Reference this list to make sure your game is supported before continuing.
Download the Game’s Linux Files
I’m going to use Stardew Valley as this guide’s example game here, and through Steam. Itch.io works as well, but really anyway to get the game files would work.
Steam Method
On your Windows PC, with Steam running, press WIN+R to open the Run command and then type out: steam://open/console
This will open the Steam command console window.
Now, in that Window, you want to type out the following command: download_depot xxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyyy
Well, normally you would, for most games. The problem is that if you do that, Stardew Valley won’t work as it needs Compatibility Files. So for Stardew Valley, we need to also add the Manifest ID. The command would be: download_depot xxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyyy zzzzzzzzz
xxxxxxxxx needs to be replaced with the App ID of the game you’re looking to download from the Steam DB website. yyyyyyyyy needs to be replaced with the depot_id on that same website, just select the Depots tab on the left. zzzzzzzzz needs to be replaced with the Manifest ID, to the right of the Linux depot_id.
You can see in this example, the App ID is 413150, the depot_id is 413153, and the Manifest ID 8322187383152776702 is which matches the Linux version of Stardew Valley. So the command will be: download_depot 413150 413153 8322187383152776702
Now just wait, you’ll see some text and it will look like nothing is happening, but it is. Be patient and wait for a popup that will tell you where your files were downloaded to, just wait! It might take a few minutes.
When it’s done, you’ll get a line of text just like this that tells you exactly where your files are! In this scenario, they’re at C:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\content\app_413150\depot_413153, but yours might be different so make sure to check yours!
Copy and paste the path into Windows File Explorer, or just navigate there manually and you should see all the files! We’ll come back to these files in a bit, leave the Window open.
PortMaster Files
On your device that has PortMaster installed, so using ArkOS in this example, head to Options, Tools, and open PortMaster.
Go to All Ports and find the port of the game, so in this case, Stardew Valley. You’ll notice that in this case, Stardew Valley isn’t in the list. However, it is in the list of supported games on the Wiki that I linked above (https://github.com/christianhaitian/PortMaster).
So if you run into this scenario with any game, click the game link in the Wiki, so in this case, StardewValley.zip.
Then, click the three dots all the way on the right and click Download.
You should download StardewValley.zip, or whichever game it is. Unzip it, and you’ll be left with a StardewValley.sh file and a stardewvalley folder.
Now, remember all those files that we downloaded from Steam, and the Window I told you to keep open? Copy all of those files and then paste them inside of the stardewvalley, gamedata folder that we just unzipped.
Now, you want to move the StardewValley.sh file and stardewvalley folder into the ports folder on your device, if it’s ArkOS. You can do this remotely with the web-based file browser, or eject your SD card from the device and move it manually using a PC. Your ports folder should look like this (ignore the gamelist files, just make sure the .sh of the game and the folder are in the ports folder).
Restart your device if you used the web-based file browser, or put your SD card back into the device if you did that route. Now, on your device, open PortMaster again and scroll down to Manage Ports. You should see the game there, in our case, Stardew Valley. Select it and then choose Reinstall using A (bottom right says Reinstall). Let the script run.
Now, exit PortMaster, and from the main ArkOS home screen, you should see a PORTS tile and inside will be Stardew Valley. Select it to start playing! START+SELECT are still the hotkeys to exit.
That’s it! Have fun.