“Let me count the ways I love this awesome kit:
1. No soldering required
2. Easy to follow online instructions
3. Solid and sturdy build all around
4. Beautiful screen
5. Literally oozes retrogaming nostalgia
Like a good homecooked meal, it's really nothing short of a complete joy to make and then enjoy!
Some suggestions to the folks at Pimoroni though:
1. Add a spinner and/or trackball control, even if only as an option pack. Some of the best golden age arcade games used those do-dads.
2. Have builders mount the RPi to a 'tray piece' which then attaches to the cabinet with a single screw, thus facilitating easy removal of without disassmbly of the RPI stack.
As always, thanks Pimoroni for just being you! ;-)”
“It is a great kit and you see the strong dedication put into the build in so many useful details. For me there is nothing missing and I‘m super happy that I made the decision to import it. All the best to the team and I wish you great success going on with such great stuff.”
“I’ve just completed the assembly of my Picade Max and it’s a great piece of kit. I have an original Picade with the 10” screen and it was great too, but a larger 2 player bartop is a lovely upgrade.
The build took me around 3.5 hours and it was pretty straight forward once I’d worked out which the 12mm and 18mm m3 screws were!
The only tricky part was fitting the Perspex for the screen cover and the marquee. Fitting the first piece was OK, but adding the second made the first fall out then adding the first again made the second fall out! I found wrapping an electric band around the top part of the case between the screen and the marquee made things considerably easier.
Once it was all complete, booting up to Batocera and mapping the controllers was simple as it could be and the volume control is a huge upgrade compared to my old Picade.
I’ve transferred the plasma buttons from old Picade into this and I’ve got a Galactic Unicorn ready to go, but getting that to display the marquee graphics is currently above my ability. A future update project for me.”
“The Picade Max Beta is an absolute must have for Raspberry Pi and Mini PC retro gamers.
The build was really fun, with very few hiccups (due to it being a beta model), and genuinely well designed unit. Materials and build quality is great, the cabinet is very strong and sturdy. The proprietary Pimoroni Picade Max boards that drive all the functions and features are quality made pieces of hardware, and the brand new 5:4 ratio IPS display is just the cherry on top. Admittedly, the price may seem steep, but for the work that has gone into the design, the materials used, the finished quality and out of the box tailored experience with the Raspberry Pi5 is nowhere else to be seen on the market…So, the team at Pimoroni have really nailed this. We asked, they delivered.”
“It's been a while since I dabbled with any PI stuff or even a Picade. So, when I saw the max edition, I had high hopes that it was an improvement on the original variant from many years ago.
I followed the setup guide verbatim (along with the build tips) and it took approximately 5hrs while sat watching TV. I sorted all of the screws and panels into piles to ensure nothing was missing before starting, which definitely helped with identifying some of the screws (which can look rather similar) and allowed for the correct panel selection during the build.
The quality of the Max components is high and the mounting and wiring is really well thought out making the process really straight forward.
It's surprisingly big once fully assembled, but it really does look and sound great.
What surprised me the most, was the fact that I didn't need to flash any firmware, didn't need to run any code, didn't need to ask for help.
I followed the guide, installed Batocera v39 on a 256gb Micro SD using Etcher, inserted it into the PI5, powered it on and waited for Batocera to complete its setup. Rebooted to make sure it wasn't a fluke and then I set about filling the SD card with Arcade, Amiga/CD32, Daphne and PSX content via Ethernet from my PC.
Volume dial, mute, controls, screen... Everything worked 1st time. I was blown away and have been sat tinkering with Emulators and Games ever since.
Note/
I've since replaced the suggested 4 x screws that hold the screen in place with ones a few mm shorter, as the provided caused screen bleed when screwed fully, I also had the Power Hat replaced via a support email, due to a fault on the power pass though which developed 24hrs after build completion.”
