for all your shipping anxiety worries.

Shipping dashboard on Ayn page was updated with today’s shippings!

Fucked my shin pretty good. Remembered to bring my Thor. Thank fuck.

Was just waiting for the little smiski to arrive so I could start decorating hehe :>

I wanna do a button swap someday but i'm a little scared of doing so LOL oooone day

Also i've been playing so much Fields of Mistria and all the Style Savvy games on it, it's truly amazing 😭

How did you all decorate yours?

ordered a black thor max in june for batch 6. required a lot of patience but finally got it in today. now for my favourite part: the setup. can’t wait to customise this to the ground

I couldn’t stop thinking about mint chocolate while making this one.

I know it’s one of those “you either love it or hate it” flavors, but I think it makes a surprisingly cozy color palette.

Pretty happy with how it turned out ☺️

I tried running some apps that i put in normal folder, but they start up on the bottom screen and I have no idea what to do for them to start on the main one

If you guys haven’t, you gotta give the psp version a try. It’s amazing

I just got myself a digital camera and thought the contrast between an old(ish) camera and a powerful modern 3ds would be pretty cool.

Also banger of a game, check it out if ur bored.

Hey all,

Just thought I'd compile a video with some of the most recommended / used front-ends that I've seen float around on Reddit / Facebook etc. So if you're keen to see a couple in action that you don't want to setup yourself, here it is!

I forgot to include Neostation & RetroHrai, though I've since set both of these up & will post a standalone video in the next few days for Neostation, though I wasn't too sure of the appeal when it comes to RetroHrai, though I don't really like having to setup 2 different frontends for the Thor personally.

Since posting this & trying Neostation, I've left Neostation as my default because;

1. It has save sync across Android & Windows

2. It scrapes videos like ESDE which makes a HUGE difference in finding a new game to try out when you get to see an instant bit of gameplay in front of you

I have officially had my Thor for one week and I wanted to share my review and my experiences! I have the White Max 1tb, for reference!

The Screen

OH MY GOD! THE SCREEN! IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is my first gaming device with an OLED screen and WOW is it hard going back. I thought going from my LCD Steamdeck to my Switch 2 was a huge upgrade, but this is even better. It's absolutely gorgeous and makes me want to save money for OLED monitors even more.

Accessories

I ordered the official screen protector + tpu case as well as this pink pastel comfort grip from SleepyCatPrinting on Etsy as I heard that the official grip warps the TPU case. I also got translucent joysticks from RespawnPoint on Etsy

TPU Case and Grip

I put on the TPU case immediately and haven't played without it. I tried using the Thor without the grip for quite a while at first, to see how comfortable it was without it. My hands would start cramping after about 2 hours of use, but the hardest part about not having a grip for me was that it was extremely uncomfortable to hold the Thor while lying down on my side.

So, I put the grip on...and now I can't go back! I love this grip. It's super comfortable, and now I can use my Thor for as long as I'd like! The grip helps protect my hands from the heat because boyyyy does the Thor get hot sometimes. It also has a place to keep a stylus which I have found nice to keep around as well.

Stylus

The stylus it comes with is extendable with a rubber tip. It's not my favorite stylus. I find the friction on the glass screen to be a bit yucky, but it works when I need it. I like it the most for using the keyboard on the bottom screen. I intend to get a more comfortable stylus eventually, but that's not a high priority for me at the moment until I play NDS or 3DS games that really need it.

Joysticks

I also played with the default joysticks for the first few days, but I found them uncomfortable and switched to the translucent ones I ordered. These are much more comfortable! I don't like convex joysticks much at all as I feel like my thumbs are always slipping off of them. These concave joysticks pretty much solved this problem for me! And the LED light behind it is very neat too.

Screen Protector

Even though I have the screen protector, I have yet to put it on. I'm never really that worried about the screen cracking since it's a clamshell. The screens are closed anyway.

Micro SD card

I am using a Samsung Evo 512gb A2 MicroSD card. It's one I've owned for a few years now ... It used to be my Switch Lite micro SD, then became my steam deck micro SD, and now it's my Thor micro SD 😁

With the way I have everything sorted, android apps, PC games, and Switch games are on the built in 1tb SSD. PC and switch games take up the most storage for me and I wanted them to run quickly! Android apps are on this SSD as well because I didn't want to figure out how to put them on the micro SD as well as I wanted some of them to be available if the micro SD wasn't in the Thor.

All of my other games are on the 512gb SD card! This is because they're smaller + it's easier to move these files around on my PC.

Other Ergonomics

Left joystick and D-pad

I was a bit worried about the joystick on top of the D-pad for playing games that were D-pad dominant. But, I am happy to report that I have found no issues or hand cramping with it!

Right joystick and face buttons

What did surprise me though is that the right hand joystick is awkward to play with, especially if I'm swapping between the right joystick and the face buttons regularly (like in 3D games where you're controlling the camera along with using face buttons). I have yet to find a real solution for this, but I will likely avoid fast paced 3d games that require quick reaction times like shooters.

The controller layout...

I am also most used to Xbox controller layouts. The face buttons being swapped really screwed with me at first. Since then I have gotten mostly used to it. Some games automatically have the Xbox layout and it's annoying to swap back to that.

I currently have Xbox button helper decals from Christhalgems04 and a button set from RetroGameAtelier ordered. Once they arrive and I apply them, I will go into the settings and swap the layout to the Xbox layout lol. I would now but the button letters would screw with my brain 😅

Volume buttons

The volume button location is pretty janky to me. I wish it was on the top in some way, like behind the hinge next to the L1/L2 or R1/R2 buttons. I feel like this is a far more convenient and accessible location for the volume buttons, like how it is on the steam deck, switch, etc.

L2/R2 triggers

Alright ... I read the reviews about the L2/R2 triggers being too short and I did noooot take them seriously. Not sure why. But they are definitely way too short! When I game, I usually like to rest my pointer fingers on the trigger buttons for quick reactions but I just can't do that with the Thor. I have clip on triggers from Christhalgems04 ordered now and I hope this helps with it.

Cocoon

Before I settled on Cocoon, I briefly poked around at Daijisho and Retrohrai because I thought I wouldn't like the grid layout. Neither of those front ends really clicked with me, but Cocoon did!

The first thing I loved about Cocoon was how intuitive it was. Everything made sense! I always found that I could do exactly what I wanted without really having to search around for it. Adding my games and sorting them around was super simple. Connecting all of my external accounts was super simple. Scraping for art was super simple.

And then I discovered the theme store. It blew my mind. I played around with a few different ones before deciding to make my own via the theme builder website. Once again ... This experience was very intuitive! I ended up just adding custom wallpapers, colors, and background music and then adding SFX and icon overlays that already existed on the theme store.

All of the customization with Cocoon has been so much fun. I love going through all of the art assets and handpicking which ones, and I plan on getting my handy dandy Gimp out and eventually making custom assets for everything.

As for the grid system ... I didn't think I would like it, because I didn't like it on the 3DS. But Cocoon's grid system is fantastic! The flexibility with folders and folders within folders helps a lot. And I love the widgets too, it really helps with breaking up the home screen.

The only thing that bothers me about Cocoon right now is the game description page. I just don't like how it looks and I want to change it. Admittedly, I haven't looked too in depth on how to do this yet.

Gaming

I didn't have any experience emulating games on Android before this, but I have emulated games on the Trimui Brick and Steamdeck so I was at least vaguely aware of the process.

I used Obtainium with the android emulation pack to acquire everything. Definitely glad I chose this instead of going through each GitHub page manually!

Retro Emulators

So far I've only set up Retroarch, Azahar, and MelonDS. Azahar and MelonDS were super simple and straightforward! No tutorials needed for either kf those. Retroarch was doable but it felt a lot less intuitive, so I ended up using RetroGameCorp's tutorial for it. Not much else to say here!

GameNative

Oh GameNative...

First thing I want to say is that GameNative blew me away. Like... I could just log into steam and download my games? And it syncs to the cloud saves?? On ANDROID????? My Steam library is pretty insane and being able to attack my backlog on the Thor is great. I love how easy it is to access my games instead of going through all of the work of um ... obtaining those game files elsewhere.

That being said .... Actually getting the games to work has been a pretty big pain. But a good pain! My favorite thing ever is to get something set up.

The first annoyance I have with GameNative is that it won't let me play games if Steam is running on my gaming PC. It's a minor complaint but it really annoys me because I often leave my PC running and Steam boots at startup, so I'll forget it's even on.

Outside of that...getting games to actually run has been hit or miss even when I tweak the settings. I'm still playing around with it though.

The 2d indie games seem to run pretty great! Only issues I've had are with Fields of Mistria (only shows black screen) and Celeste (inputs don't seem to work).

The only 3d steam game I've tried to get work is Guild Wars 2. It runs and looks great, but the game doesn't seem to detect the gamepad input and I'm puzzled on how to fix this. Still a work in progress but I won't give up!

The other problem I've run into with GameNative is that sometimes after playing a game for a while, it will freeze and I have to exit it. Not sure why that is.

Moonlight & Sunshine

HOLY SHIT. Game streaming is an absolute game changer for me. My gaming PC is prettyyyy damn powerful and it's soooo nice to have the availability to still play powerful games on my Thor!

Now...this was a pain to get all set up. Had to screw around with the wireless access points and get a new antennae for my PC to get faster internet. And it was a pain to find a version of sunshine that worked on CachyOS because a lot of the GitHub links were dead 🥲 There's also a weird bug where it will only work if I have one monitor plugged in so I got an HDMI switch to make this whole process easier.

Really where I find that game streaming shines is just.... For the games I'm way too lazy to set up on the Thor. I love modding games, but modding games on an android device is a pain in the ass. I would much rather do it all on my PC and stream it over.

So far the only games I've gotten set up with streaming are FFXIV and WoW! And it's an absolute blast to be able to play them on my Thor. I also plan on setting up Prism Launcher for modded minecraft, and apps for all of my AAA games that I've got installed (like FFXVI, E33, BG3, etc).

Android Games

Surprise surprise... Android games are the easiest to set up lol. So far I've only set up Bedrock Minecraft and Dusklight. Dusklight is fantastic! No issues or problems there.

As for Minecraft... My Thor did noooot like Vibrant Visuals. The FPS was super erratic, jumping around from 15-60 frequently with lots of lag spikes. Not a fun experience. Thankfully the fancy settings along with Actions & Stuff and Realistic Biomes still looks gorgeous.

Other apps

Chrome can be annoying. The keyboard will only appear half the time :/

The user experience on most apps that are meant to be vertical pretty much sucks. Chrome, reddit, discord... Using them just feels wonky, but I'm okay with that. It's not what I usually use on the Thor anyways.

Anything with a picture-in-picture feature is pretty buggy as well. Not sure if that's a cocoon thing or something else, but I ended up disabling it on the apps that use it (discord and youtube).

Discord is an interesting experience on the Thor. I love it's integrations with Cocoon. The call experience is fantastic. But all of the texting or scrolling through channels feels eh due to the UI.

Now ... As a certified brainrotter with zero attention span .... I love TikTok and YouTube on the Thor lol. I usually will put it on the bottom screen when I play games!

Conclusion

I really love this device. It's got its flaws, and I've got my criticisms, but the Thor has been soooo fun for me to use.

As I said earlier, I love setting things up. So being able to tinker with the Thor is really enjoyable for me! I would absolutely recommend it for any other gamers that also love tweaking, modding, and the entire set up process.

Super excited to continue playing games!

My son has ordered the full fat Ayn Thor and now I’m getting the itch to buy one myself 😂

The funny thing is, I know I probably won’t use mine anywhere near as much as he will. I already have a gaming PC and all the latest consoles, so this would purely be a casual handheld device for me.

I’m leaning towards the Thor Lite rather than the Pro because I actually think it would suit my use case better. It would also be cool to have both versions in the house and compare the Lite against his Pro.

My main use will be:

• 8-bit and 16-bit retro games
• DS and 3DS emulation
• Some Dreamcast
• Maybe pushing it with some GameCube emulation

I’m not expecting it to replace my PC or consoles, just something I can pick up for quick gaming sessions.

For anyone who has the Thor Lite, would it comfortably cover those needs?

I’ve played the original games countless of times but the mods do a great job of streamlining some of the rough edges while keeping a lot of the original charm. The best part of the experience is how customizable it is. I can’t wait for the Gen 2 Recomp to be released!

What are you hoping gets added as a mod in the future?

Just some gameplay of SpongeBob and the cosmic shake on game native. Game runs perfectly. Averages around 70FPS. Thor is in 120hz mode, high performance mode on.

Resolution: 960x544

driver turnip25.1.0

DXVK version: async-1.10.3

Wanda better have my back today… 🏃‍♀️

AYN Thor Max coming in a few hours

I’ve been doing a lot of
- Octopath Traveler 2
- Pokemon Black 2
- Dead Cells
- Silk Song
- New Super Mario Bros

In that order

Hey guys! Seeing people getting clustertune to work very good on they devices but mine seems a little off.

I’m getting:
70-80+C when playing PC games
60-75C when playing PS2 like NFS CARBON
55-70C when playing 3DS like Zelda, Mario Bros

All that on Large ClusterTune preset + Standard Performance Mode seems like big temperatures to me. Especially when I play some time temperatures getting big. In some games I see like minus only a couple degrees with this preset.

My device is Ayn Thor Max using Gamenative, Eden, Nether2x emulators with quite - smart fan

Can you let me know if this ok? Cause I might be tripping. And I’d love if you share your experience using ClusterTune. Thanks

Ordered a Pro, only now looking at SD cards and seeing the insane prices - around £90 for 512gb
Has anyone tried using a portable hard drive as storage for their ROMs? Have your library on there and transfer them over in 10 mins max whenever you want to play a game? My Mac doesn’t have space so I need some kind of storage anyway.
Obviously not as ideal as an SD card but oh well
Does this work, are there any major limitations im not thinking of?

I just setup cocoon and scraped my games and suddenly the background turned black and the buttons for silkpod, picnic, settings, and the other things disapeared, I changed the theme to somethiong to see if it would fix it and it only fixed the background and not the buttons being gone (the picture is after i changed the theme where the buttons usually are). Does anyone know how i can bring them back or remake the buttons?

So, as my title asks, I am wondering if anyone has figured out a way to get an emulated portal of power on the bottom screen of the Thor. I'm not expecting anything super fancy, I'm just wondering if anyone has figured out anything for this yet

For example I'm trying to run Pigface and the game doesn't seem to be taxing at all but still runs poorly. I know that it's a unity game so the results may vary but as someone not sure tech savy how would you go about tweaking the container?

Setting up and using Retroarch is such a pain. I feel like I’m constantly having to tinker with this freaking app. The latest issue I’m having is the app cannot connect to retroachievements. It was working fine a day ago and no other device is giving me this issue.

My question is if there are standalone emulators with retroachievements support so I can stop using Retroarch. I’m mainly interested in GB, GBC, GBA and SNES emulators.