“This is a great kit, I had an absolute great time putting it together. There were a few hiccups mainly with me not paying attention. I put the screen in upside down and may have misplaced a few pieces but I had so much fun putting it together that didn't put me off.
The kit itself is great and is absolutely solid. The buttons and joysticks have a great feel and the screen is very nice too. I have noticed a lot of people elsewhere say that the speakers aren't loud enough for them. Perhaps my hearing is just super strong but I think they are plenty loud enough for the size of the cabinet.
I also need to compliment the pimoroni customer service team on twitter. When I thought I didn't receive my wiring loom they were quick to respond and offer to send out another one. It turns out I had just temporarily misplaced the original but if there really was a missing part I am confident that it would have been resolved quickly.”
“Thank you to you guys for the top rate customer service next day delivery on a broken part. The new picade bord made it to me in time for my brothers birthday you've made a little boy very happy on his 12th birthday I can't commend you guys enough thank you so so much our pac man picade is awesome couldn't have been ready for his birthday if it wasn't for you guys #stayawesome #pimoroni thank you thank you”
“This kit appeared this morning for my birthday and I can not speak highly enough of it. The build quality of the cabinet is very very good — I was impressed with the design throughout. The powder cote looks fantastic and the weight gives it a real quality feel.
Build time for me was a solid three hours, savouring every moment — it was great fun and rekindled some old memories of when I was into electronics kits as a lad. Had a little snafu at the end when all I got was a blue screen was resolved with some googling and a config file change for the HDMI settings.
Ensure you have a tiny flat head (about 3mm?) screwdriver before you start the project as you'll need it for the headers on the picade board.
I'll be tweaking this thing for ages now. Not entirely happy with my placement of the pi3 inside so I'll re position that. I also subbed out a slightly longer,more flexible hdmi cable for the one provided so I had more options for the pi's location.
I'll also be strengthening the back of the handle with some hardwood beading as there is a little flex there which would benefit from reinforcement.
The little 8 inch screen is sharp and bright enough for the moment. I will be on the lookout for a 12 inch, as this thing is crying out for it.
All I need now is a custom joystick knob and some backlit buttons...
Well done Pimoroni!”
“With PiCade, I play crappy old (I joke) classic arcade games for much longer thanks to the amazing arcade style authenticity that is served to you with nothing but utter brilliance :D
Assembling the cabinet is simple and fun. Great for modifications too.
I'm impressed with Pimoroni as a store. There transaction flow is informative, with tracking and updates. The guys are active in the forums if you have any queries. I'll be coming back to see what other gubbins are on offer.
But yeah, PiCade is awesome. Definitely remedies that rose-tinted retro gaming itch ten-fold. Great price too!”
“Its just amazing, really amazing. I cant believe the price on this, its so cheap. I build arcades before and i know how expensive it can be. The quality of the material is also perfect. Better than al the big cabinets i build with before. I bought 2 for myself and will buy some more, there so great. Made a back to the future and ghostbusters cabinet.
Some tips:
If you are going to use your own decals, stick them om the picade cardboard art. You will get no air bubbles and its easy to install.
MAKE THE PICADE WIRELESS AND PORTABLE. Use it outside, in the car, you name it. Buy a 40 bucks 20.000mah 5v powerbank with 2 usb ports. This will last for about 20h of gaming. I also bought two 3 dollar usb power on/off switch, but you can also just plug/unplug the usb. This is only possible with the 8inch screen, the 12inch needs 12v.
And for software. On ebay they sell a 128gb attract mode for only 15 dollar, this is a GREAT hyperspin looking mode fot retropie. Makes it a real arcade.
Dont think, just BUY this picade. You'll be very sorry if they ever stop.”
“Oh man, she didn't. She did ! My wife bought this awesome picade kit for me. Best Christmas present ever. A joy to build for anyone who can watch a video and work a screw driver, I took my time over several nights trying to make the build last, was not disappointed in the quality of each part. Put together it's a thing of beauty, a joy to behold. Teamed up with retropi this is going to be misspending my youth all over again.”
“I have been using retropie for a while now but playing old games on a massive monitor with an xbox controller does not feel the same.
This machine changes all of that. The games look great on the smaller screen and are much more fun to play with arcade buttons.
I was a little concerned about only the small screen being available at first but on reflection I think the 8" screen if perfect for the games I have been playing.
The build was straight forward and any issues I had were quickly dealt with by the support team. It took me a few hours in total and the YouTube video build for the most part was a great guide.
When the cabinet was built all I had to do was link up my pi and turn it on. You need to make sure the hdmi hot plug setting is on for the screen to work and force audio through the 3.5 mm jack is your audio setting in retropie.
Without this you will have no sound.
I think this is great value for money and a flexible kit if you want to extend if further. I have already ordered some extra arcade bits to mod it.
If you like retro gaming and playing around with the raspberry pi then this is a no brainer.”
“I snapped up this when it was on sale in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale as a Christmas present for my 10yo son. It's been a massive hit, and I would gladly have paid full price for it. He put it together himself, under my supervision, following the video instructions. We had a bit of a hiccup on first attempt, when we tried to boot it and the screen just came up grey. Booting with an alternate display worked fine, and a quick internet search revealed that the cause was the ribbon cable not being seated properly. Once that was sorted, it works like a charm. I think he actually had at least as much fun building it as he is playing with it.”
