“Love the way everything is sorted in the plastic boxes it's a great touch. All parts were well cut and everything went together beautifully.
I added a few mods to mine. 12in screen from a 1999 Dell laptop was teamed with an LCD-HDMI converter from China (the Pimoroni one wasn't compatible but I already knew that).
Then added a 2.1mm socket to the cabinet for the external 12v PSU, a step down 12v-5v converter to power the Pi, and fed 12v to the screen. Also a panel mount USB socket so I can plug in a games controller or keyboard without opening it up.
Next step is a button connected to the GPIO to shut it down before power off and maybe some lighting.”
“A quality product. Picade features a solid case with a professional finish. Good use of materials and an attractive presentation round things off nicely.
Being new to the world of kit electronics I was able to assemble the unit without too many problems. The video is (mostly) clear, with freeze-framing and replay being occasionally necessary. Trust the diagrams over the video where they differ!
RetroPie runs fine (I use the Mame2003 set), and I recommend using a keyboard to remap the 'tab' (actually `) config to the Escape key, allowing Esc/Ret to be used in-game for per-game remapping. Most MAME games work great but its often the vector graphics ones that fail to start (hoping that things will be fixed in future releases). So no Star Wars or Lunar Lander yet although Tempest is OK. Also Tron and Juno First are currently raster fails.
Ideal keyboard mapping:
Top:
- Y [L-Ctrl]
- X [L-Alt]
- L [Space]
Bottom
- B [L-Shift]
- A ['z']
- R ['x']
Front:
- Select ['c']
- Start ['s']
Right:
- Esc
- Ret”
“This kit is the only way to play the old classics of my childhood (Scramble, Frogger, Donkey Kong, just to name a few ...) and get that unique arcade feeling. I had a retropie up and running, but playing on a big TV using a gamepad is just not the way to do it. Enter the Picade. Simply unpacking the robust joystick is a trip to the past in itself. The quality of the kit, the fast delivery and the good instructions alone are worth five stars.
But standing in front of the assembled Picade and playing these old games again (while being fully aware that each try did cost me 1 Deutsche Mark of my pocket money in my childhood) is just unbelievable and no amount of stars can measure this nostalgic feeling.
I wanted to reward myself for getting a new job and had to choose between the Picade or a new next gen gaming console. I chose the Picade and it was the right choice for me. Thanks Pimoroni for this amazing piece of hardware.”
“Easy to build.
Even for a beginner like me.
You need a really small flathead screwdriver and a normal size crosshead.
That's it!
The box came with 2 handy toolboxes i can use again in the future SO NICE!
Oh and i got a very cool cotton bag with my order and stickers inc a tiny badge. (go team NINJA)
The only thing that could be better is that you guys separate the different m4 screws.
And for total pi noobs like me.
Better guidance how to get the screen working.
And fixing the audio hiss.
I managed to get it all working flawless in about 5 hours.”
“The kit arrived within a few days of ordering, everything was present, i used the Pi3 and Retropie on a 64g Pny sd card, i added a small 3 way mains extension (velcro'd to the bottom of the case inside) so i could power the screen separately and only have one cable coming out of the box, once constructed everything worked very well but I had some bad mains hum through the speakers. I got a shielded 0.5m audio cable which when fitted corrected the problem with the audio.
I originally mounted everything as recommended with the screws but have since replaced all of the board attachment with velcro tape, i got a case and fan for the Pi3 which now runs at 1.3gHz and never gets above 52C.
Wonderful bit of kit thanks pimoroni.
Happy Birthday to me.”
“The order was placed on a Thursday evening and it arrived first thing Monday morning. I am across the pond so I honestly did not expect to see my Picade for a couple of weeks.
Builders should make sure to have a good thumbwheel ratchet as well as a metric socket set to make it easier to hold the nuts in place inside the fixing blocks in those hard to reach places.
If your audio sounds distorted your voltage is too low. You may be using a power cable that is too long or that has been manufactured with an insufficient wire gauge to carry 2A at 5V.
Once assembled, you will be the proud owner of a great little arcade system.”
“I bought my picade with some hesitation as it's the kind of thing where you look at the price versus the contents / perceived quality from an online shop and question whether spending upwards of ВЈ200 is the best use of your hard earned plunder..
It is.
This kit, to date is one of, if not, the best home build kit out there.. Not just in arcade units, but of anything I've yet experienced. Everything's catered for to get you up and running with an arcade system short of a computer and its power supply. Let's face it, you probably have one of those lying around. If not, you probably wouldn't know about this website.
I chose a pi3 and the suggested OS / distro. It's plenty fast enough for the classics but tops out around dreamcast era. Those with more of a preference to modern gaming would be better suited using an intel nuc or similar inside.
I have made modifications to mine, namely buttons and lighting based mods but these are easy to do. It would be great if pimoroni could stock the upgrade buttons or options so make a single delivery a bit easier. Perhaps a bare picade cabinet would be a nice idea then a range of buttons etc could be chosen.. I guess if you don't know what you want at time of purchase then it's more confusing.
I have more info on the mods in the picade forum so check it out if you're interested.”
“During my youth, 30 years ago, he was in Czech only chance to play on the slot machine video game when he came strolling entertainment, 1hra still 2KДЌ for 3 or 5 lives. Personally, I had little money in these machines. Today I am at home Picado and this incredible gem is still used in family squabbles and we argue who is on Red. As soon as finances allow us to immediately order a second piece. What this allows Picado can not be described, one must experience in order to achieve a sense of time when nomadic looked fun and counted the crown in a moneybox, that I was 12 years old. Today we enjoy the fun and does not cost us anything and we have to choose from more than a few games as in my youth. Who does not Picado home is not lived.”
