“All things considered this is a really fun kit and a great conversation piece for your front room. The build is simple enough to follow with only a few minor frustrations. The 10 inch screen variant instructions were totally baffling and took some YouTube videos to decipher, but otherwise the build was fun and simple. One top tip I have for people complaining about the screen turning off and on... turn the screen brightness down. For some reason the screen is unable to save its settings, something I hope Pimoroni address in future, so you have to remember to turn the brightness down each time you use the system. This could be a really great project to do with your kids, if just for big kids alike”
“The Picade is brilliant. I have always enjoyed playing old arcade game ROMS on my PC, but to do it with a mini-arcade console takes it to another level! Love the feel of those microswitches, keybards just don't compare.
I totally recommend going for the 10-inch display - it's well worth it!
The build was lots of fun and easily do-able in an afternoon. The parts are good quality and the instructions pretty clear, though I would recommend following along with Pimoroni's online videos as well, just to be sure.
Happy building, wiring and gaming!!!”
“Designed to play ROMs in Retropie, but could be a great way to present your homebrew arcade games, too.
I'm trying this now. The picade x hat dispatches (assignable) keyboard events, making inputs easy. (The joystick is also represented by keystrokes, so don't expect analog values). Change settings by editing a simple txt file. Instructions on the picade x hat github repo.
The (honestly really well done) marquee and console graphics can be swapped with your own artwork. Template provided on their github.
Be aware this is some real Maker stuff and assembly is a little fiddly. I've managed to break a pin on the power button, but another great thing about this kit is that all the parts are individually for sale, and cheap.”
“Had great fun building this with my 13 year old daughter. Build quality was great. Instructions were pretty good. It wasn't clear at the start which nuts & bolts to use (several packs looked very similar), but apart from that no major issues. I went for the smaller 8 inch display, and didn't regret it, as the bezel surrounding it looks great. Picade runs great on the Raspberry Pi 4. The hardest part was getting a good button mapping, but all good after some Googling. Recommended.”
“very pleased with item although i had to spend a while fitting the 10 inch display.
also i noticed that the earlier version looked better i.e. extra side buttons, two speakers and a nice hinged back door. otherwise very happy!.”
