Christmas and nostalgia go hand in hand, and this year I'm overdosing on both with my Raspberry Pi. One thing I remember fondly from my childhood was playing Christmas games and demos on my Amiga, so I decided now was the perfect time to relive the classics.
Christmas games were once a big event.
While seasonal themes appear in modern games, they often take the form of a seasonal event, such as a holiday-themed card. Games like Animal Crossing And Stardew Valley include some form of festive activity and other games such as Spider-Man Miles Morales And Batman Arkham City occur during the holidays, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
This probably says more about how video games have evolved as an industry than it does about the holiday spirit of game developers. Although seasonal films and music are released year after year, they are short-lived affairs. Video games usually take weeks or months to create and years to complete. This makes them somewhat unprofitable for short season tie-ins.
But the holiday games I remember fondly were much simpler than today's hundred-hour games. Many of them were simply re-skins of existing releases with a little snow here and a Santa hat there. While there are some full-fledged holiday games out there, the ones I remember (and own) the most are the free holiday-themed editions that appeared on demo discs along with magazines like Amiga Power, Amiga Format, and The One Amiga.
Video game magazines are another nostalgia pit that I crash often, but in a time before the modern internet (and even after it, when connections were unimaginably slow), they were vital for introducing new games. At Christmas, cover discs often included holiday updates of the year's big release with exclusive levels.
Considering I was about 7 years old when I got my Amiga 1200 in the early 90s, to say revisiting some of them was a trip would be an understatement. Since my partner has never played these games, this seems like the perfect excuse to “share” the wonder. At least that's what I tell myself.
Raspberry Pi 500+ – the perfect Amiga emulator
This year I bought a Raspberry Pi 500+ which to a large extent The Raspberry Pi 5B is packaged with a mechanical keyboard, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD loaded and ready to go. I have already talked about how it feels like the perfect modern throwback to my beloved A1200.so this is a suitable use for 500+.
A simple ARM system-on-chip is more than powerful enough to emulate the A1200 and other computers of the era (including Windows 3.1). It's also incredibly easy to do thanks to Amieberry project. This is an Amiga emulator for Linux and macOS that works flawlessly and even looks like real Amiga software.
All you have to do is provide the Kickstart ROM (BIOS files) and floppy images and you're good to go. There is also support for HDDs, CDs, and excellent support for emulated peripherals such as joysticks and gamepads. This is basically woman in the Linux environment, which is the gold standard for Amiga emulation.
Just keep in mind that copyright laws even apply to older games. This It's illegal to download games you don't ownalthough it's admittedly a gray area when these are demo versions that were originally given away for free.
Some games I'll play
The first game I downloaded is probably the best Christmas game: Christmas Lemmings (also known as Holiday Lemmings). DMA Design released two four-level holiday demos in 1991 and 1992, followed by two full releases in 1993 and 1994. It's the same addictive strategy puzzle game as always, with lots of snow and holiday music.
James Pond II: Codename Robocode is a full-fledged continuation of the original platformer, in which you have to infiltrate Santa's grotto at the North Pole and save Christmas. Santa's Christmas capers is a simple side-scrolling platformer with bright colors and sound design typical of games released for the Amiga in 1992.
Another personal favorite is the 1994s. Cannon Soccer: Amiga Christmas SpecialA holiday crossover that combines the beloved game with a top-down view from Sensible Software. Cannon fodder with his equally revered Smart footballwhere you fight with football players on the field. The second game also received a holiday tie-in known as Not-so-holiday food 2a series of four incredibly difficult levels where enemies wear Santa hats.
Other important points include Christmas theme park displaywhich was nothing more than a winter reskin, and Christmas off-road racing demoreleased in 1994. Fire and Ice Christmas Edition this is another demo released in 1992, with a challenging Christmas level released on the Amiga Power disc cover.
You can find these and many other titles on the website Amiga Christmas TreeWith Retro32 also produces a package of games. Finally, there is more Santastickmodern game that received boxed releasein 2025.
Looking for more modern releases? Check our favorite holiday games. I would also like to point out that one of the the best games of all time take place in December.
- Storage
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Raspberry Pi 256GB SSD
- Memory
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16 GB SD card
This Raspberry Pi model is built into a mechanical keyboard, giving you everything you need in one peripheral.
