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🎉  Happy 13th Birthday Raspberry Pi!   🎂   1,000+ deals in store!   🥳

PicoSystem

by Pimoroni

A tiny hackable dev handheld with RP2040 at its heart ❤

PicoSystem is a pocket sized handheld games console, built around Raspberry Pi's RP2040 chip (that's the little fella that's the core of a Raspberry Pi Pico).

We've taken these lucky bits of silicon to the component spa and treated them to the full works: a big chunk of flash memory, a vibrant 240x240 screen and a nice D-pad and buttons picked out by our most particular arcade enthusiasts. There's also a piezo speaker for discreet retro bleeps and chirps and a rechargeable LiPo battery so you can take your homebrew games on the bus.

The finished product looks and feels great - so we couldn't resist going all out on the build quality by adding a custom matt black anodised aluminium case with a handy wrist strap.

We think RP2040 has tons of potential as an experimental gaming platform, and we're really looking forward to seeing what folks create.

Features

  • Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)
  • 16MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
  • 1.54" colour SPI IPS LCD (240 x 240 pixels)
  • D-pad and buttons
  • 525mAh LiPo battery (should be good for at least 6 hours of on-time)
  • Piezo buzzer/speaker
  • On/off power button
  • RGB LED
  • CNC milled aluminium case *swoon*
  • Wrist strap
  • Programmable and rechargeable via USB-C (cable not included)
  • Comes fully assembled.
  • C++/MicroPython API
  • Schematic

Games

Want to try out some pre-built games while you wait for inspiration to strike? Give these a go!

  • Super Square Bros. by Scorpion Games - A bouncy quadrilateral platformer.
  • Dots - Dot popping puzzler. Create chains of two or more and race to get the biggest score.
  • Rocks and Diamonds - Classic game of dodging rocks and grabbing diamonds.
  • Geometry - Smash up space boulders with lasers to make smaller space boulders!
  • Rainbow Ascent - The Dark Souls of procedurally generated vertical jumping puzzles. Good luck.
  • Super Blit Kart by Daft_Freak - A "Mode7"-based racing game.

To get into bootloader mode so you can flash a new .uf2, turn your PicoSystem on whilst holding down the X button - it should then show up as a drive called RPI-RP2 on your computer.

PicoSystem ships flashed with the mighty Super Square Bros. by Scorpion Games - if you like it as much as we do check out their itch.io page and show them some love.

Software

As PicoSystem is RP2040-powered, you've got an array of options for making your own games. Here's a quick rundown!

Our official PicoSystem API is available in C++ and MicroPython flavours. It's designed to be lightweight, easy to use and to stay out of the way while you're developing games. 

Make simple games in CircuitPython using the Stage library (thanks to deshipu!).

It's also possible to use the fully featured 32blit SDK and C/C++ to make games for PicoSystem, thanks to the efforts of the 32blit community. Developing with the 32blit SDK means you can compile your games for multiple platforms (currently Linux, Windows, macOS, 32blit and PicoSystem) - great for if you want to share them on itch.io!

Notes

  • Dimensions: 96.6 x 42.7 x 15.5mm (L x W x H, including buttons)
  • There are broken out debug pins on the PCB for if you want to program PicoSystem with an external debugger but you'll have to remove the case (with the screws on the back) to get at them.
  • If you want to have a look at PicoSystem's insides without having to take yours apart take a look at HackSpace's dissection report.
  • Check out ETA Prime's review for unboxing, teardown and gameplay footage!

About RP2040

Raspberry Pi's RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.

One very exciting feature of RP2040 is the programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals - they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of heavy lifting from the CPU.

59 customer reviews

7 months ago
It's a very nice little gaming console with a decent display and an aluminium case that looks and feels quite sturdy and durable. You can find some games for it on the internet - but the real fun could be writing those by yourself. When I tried I found a reason that makes me write this four-star-only rating. To access the debug pins of the built-in RP2040 you have to open and remove the case. It would have been much nicer if there was one removable panel with those pins behind...
by Thomas about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
7 months ago
The case looks awesome. "SPI IPS LCD" is in all likeliness a ST7789 TFT chipset and I already own a few of these and I love them so this was part of my plan to buy more of them. If memory serves they can readily do 16-bit color (5:6:5 RGB) and 18-bit (6:6:6 RGB)--that's 262,144 colors!--and are stunningly detailed at 240x240. I'm already a Pico-8 Lua developer so I'm used to 128x128 so that's 3.5x more pixels! Limor Fried raved back in 2021 about the PicoSystem's buttons which had me sold immediately before I even know what an ST7789 was so it feels like I've been trying to buy one of these for years. I already own a Pimoroni PicoVision so I'll be comparing the two as I dig deeper into the ST7789 and the RP2040's capabilities so I can compare it to the PicoVision's Pico-as-a-GPU configuration. Looking forward to pushing the two to their absolute limits.
by Hansen about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
7 months ago
Well built, feels very premium. There's a decent little community making games for it, and it can run things like an NES emulator without too much issue. I am not currently a skilled enough C++ developer to make anything worth playing for it, but I did manage some basics reasonably quickly.
by Ed about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
9 months ago
I'm really impressed by what this tiny thing is able to do! I was able to write a simple game in a matter of hours... You can even upload a NES emulator on it.
by Benoît about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Excellent build quality. The small screen is very readable and it just works. Drag and drop a game into it
by Ian about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
A very solid build. Almost indestructible and I expect children will love it, which is why I shall be using in school as on of my many 'distractions' as an intro to coding generally. the stock game is good, I am hoping that changing and installing a new game is as easy as the other PIMORINI gadgest I also show off. Usually with lots of 'Oohhs and 'aahs! Game on!
by Philip about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Amazingly tough, well-thought-out, implemented and assembled device. Fun, capable, rich enough in resources to program games, CPU is plenty adequate for gaming, even battery is plenty strong for the miniscule power requirements it has. Go take a look at "PicoWorld3D" for an example of just what the system is capable of doing (not involved with game, just a fan). Very impressive!!
by John about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
An awesome system based on RP2040. Build quality is very solid and the device has a very nice weight to it. Battery life is also very good. Comes with a nice platformer pre-installed. I haven't made anything with it yet but look forward to adapting my Pico Display games to this one.
by Mircea about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
I am very happy and also surprised, I received all the material in eight days from the order, congratulations! Everything arrived in perfect condition and Pimoroni products are always of excellent quality. Thank you!
by Giuseppe about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Small, cute and very nice hardware. Especially aluminium body is great.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Great device but haven't got it working on my linux mint install yet.
by Daniel about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
It's weight makes it have poor ergonomics compared to something like the arduboy. There are very little games for it as well. The faceplate is slightly lifted up on mine (something I think I can fix). As a dev board it's great (my intended use). However, I would have been happy with a price cut and just the PCB in that case.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Love my picosystem!! right now I play games on it made by other people like celeste but I plan on making my own games or porting games made with Lua. My system had a small problem the faceplate wasn't well-cut but I used a nail filer to file the excess faceplate. The community within 32blit discord is awesome they help me out when I couldn't understand why something didn't work because of my lack of c++ coding knowledge. It would sell like crazy had it been widely available on amazon worldwide. I wish more people knew about it. The only reason I learned about it was when I was trying to debug my raspberry pi pico code and found this cute tiny console that I had to get. Best gaming/dev device ever to work on your dev skills. If I do end up making a nice game on it, ill buy one, add my game and gift it to a friend. Could be a very cool personal gift if I made a sprite that looked like a friend and made a game with him in it.
by Omi about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Excellent build. Crisp hi-res screen, satisfying weight, clicky buttons, real nice. No volume control or even an off switch for the speaker. No SD slot, so you can only upload games via USB and they can only store data in the flash. All in all, a very nice platform for tinkering with games.
by Andrew about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very clicky buttons, bright screen and looks good in motion. The build feels very solid.
by Matthew about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
IT'S SO CUTE! I got my order today - started it up and there was plenty of battery to play a couple of games of "Square Bros.," the game it shipped with - I'm really bad at it so more practice is in order! Despite the tinyness of this game system, the screen is bright and the sound is plentifully loud to have fun. I can't wait to learn more about how to program games for this device - I'm a total beginner but there is already plenty of how-to out there so I look forward to learning!
by Jackie about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Amazing device but I would like to have volume ON/OFF button. For game handheld, it is also very excellent because no screen tearing issue found on this device, which has TE pin connect to RP2040, excellent design !
by Steward about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Well worthy of your time for hacking. What gives this little guy a more premium feeling is the black anodized aluminium cover, which is also soft enough if you want to do some light modding to it. My unit has arrived with a bit of a fault as it had a recessed screen, but this was an easy fix. I just had to disassemble the PCB sandwich to free the top edge of the LCD module frame, which got caught during assembly. I like the use of PCBs because it gives this small device a lot of extra rigidity. The screen ribbon cable is not routed as cleanly as, for example, on the Pico Explorer Base, there is too much slack, but hey, it works.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The device feels solid and well made. The buttons and D-Pad have good action and work well. The screen is bright and sharp but very small, I can play games on it but I have difficulty reading text in high res mode, it's probably better for younger eyes. I had problems with the Python setup designed for the PicoSystem but I can use the circuit python modified for it. I'm currently using the C++ SDK on a Raspberry Pi 4 to create a game. This is easy to use. I'm a C programmer and I'm trying to get into C++ but you don't need to use any of the OO stuff to call the API. You could just write everything in C even though you are using a C++ compiler. The API is easy to use and it includes everything you need to write games on the device.
by Peter about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
This has inspired my kids to code with me in python. We've just start to get stuck in, getting some graphics going and different game engine types (tile games, board games etc).
by Daniel about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very comfortable in hand. Seem sturdy enough to lend it to my small children. I am in the process of porting one of my web game to it. Very easy to program for it, or, if that's not your thing, to load the few available games on it.
by Julien about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Amazing little gizmo. Really well made and feels solid. Need to learn about writing my own games and such for it but the hardware and possibilities are fantastic
by Fiona about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
It’s a nice little handheld with a good sdk though I wish the debug pins were more accessible
by Henry about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Simply amazing! The quality of this product is off the charts! The rest is up me, getting my programming skills to a level where I can make a game worthy of the system.
by Luke about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant! This is a lovely little device with a quality aluminium case, nice bright display and quality pad and buttons. I’ve used both MicroPython and C++ (which was much easier to setup than I had expected). The SDK is in source, so you can see how things are implemented, as well as very usable for starting projects. Raspberry Pi foundation have great resources too; I never thought that I would be able to learn PIO to drive the screen! Everything seems understandable and learnable. No OS hiding all the glorious details! It really has made me as excited about programming as when I had a BBC micro as a child.
by Ben about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The picosystem arrived promptly which was great the device itself is quite new but from the games available so far I was impressed. The build quality of the device is where it excels great quality metal premium finish a great job. New games are trickling slowly but some great stuff is being worked on I have my hopes high for this one thanks once again to the team behind it :)
by Palwinder about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Pros: - The build quality is great. The metal chassis, buttons etc. all feel amazing. - If you're familiar with working with other Pi devices or microcontrollers you should be able to just jump right in. Cons: - MicroPython library is still under work and not much documentation. - The screen isn't flush with the case so you're going to get dirt, dust etc inside eventually.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Feels quite premium and buttons and all seem responsive.
by Anonymous about PicoSystem via REVIEWS.io

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