The new Picade has been completely redesigned, from the inside out. There’s new artwork, a new display and display driver board, dedicated power button, an all-new Picade X HAT, easier wiring, easier access to the interior of the cabinet, beautiful new packaging, a bunch of extra goodies (stickers and an enamel Picade pin), and a gorgeous Picade poster and assembly instructions.
The ultimate desktop retro arcade machine! Picade is a Raspberry Pi-powered mini arcade that you build yourself, with authentic arcade controls, a high resolution 4:3 display that’s ideal for retro gaming, and a punchy speaker to hear those 8-bit game soundtracks at their best!
Picade comes in kit form, and it’ll take around two to three hours to build. The cabinet is made from powder-coated MDF, giving it a quality look and feel similar to a full-size arcade. All you’ll need to add is a Raspberry Pi, power supply, and micro-SD card.
The cabinet is more compact, so it fits more neatly on your desk, but has a higher resolution 8" display (1024x768). The display is driven by a new Pimoroni-designed and manufactured driver board, with keypad controls. It’s an IPS panel, so it looks great from any viewing angle!
The all-new Picade X HAT is packed full of useful features. We’ve moved from more fiddly screw terminals to simple DuPont connectors that just push in, and the speaker terminals are the same easy push-fit connectors that we use on pHAT BEAT.
There’s dedicated power management on-board Picade X HAT; just plug your micro-USB power supply into the HAT and it’ll power your Pi through its pins. The power button connected to the HAT means that once your Pi is safely shutdown, the power will be cut completely to the Pi. A simple press of the power button will boot your Picade up again.
The new buttons in Picade are lower profile, and the new joystick has a single connector rather than the eight spade connectors on our previous Picade joystick.
A gorgeous new neon-look Picade logo on the marquee, and rainbow stripes on the console and screen-surround, evoke classic consoles, as do the assembly instructions and poster.
To celebrate, we are giving away a new Picade to one lucky winner.
We want you to come up with a retro game concept that you think would suit the new Picade.
We want from you:
- an A4 promotional poster
- around 100 words describing your game concept
- any concept art/sketches that help describe it
- a title and strapline
The email address for submissions is: competition@pimoroni.com
What you could win:
- one new Picade (PIM305)
- one Raspberry Pi 3B+
- one power supply
- a framed print of your game concept as a poster
Our pick of the entries will be featured on the Pimoroni blog.
Any original artwork cannot be returned, so don't send us anything by post!
The closing date is 8pm Sunday 12th August (BST).