Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends

May 19 - June 30, 2024
Hours: Sundays 1-5pm 
General Admission $8 (Ages 13+), Kids Admission $5 (Ages 5-12), Free Admission for Kids Under 5

Chicago Gamespace is pleased to present Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends, an independent video game currently under development by Cleveland-based Team Nemo, Inc. The game notably features the characters and art nouveau style of American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay (1866 – 1934), whose masterwork was the beloved, long-running weekly cartoon Little Nemo in Slumberland for the New York Herald and New York American in the early 20th century. In this platformer, players must rid the dreamscape of Slumberland from the Nightmare Fiends who have infested it. This playable demonstration of the game will be featured in The Eric Mittereder Gallery, a project room named after a Chicago-based advocate for video games and art. Reproductions of notable works by McCay will also be on view. Admission also grants entry to the Gamespace video game history collection.

Christopher Totten is an artist, game designer, and educator. He currently is assistant professor at Kent State University, runs Team Nemo, Inc, and is a co-founder of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) Arcade. His game credits include Kudzu (2024) and Lissitsky's Revenge (2015) among others. Team Nemo, Inc. also includes the talents of Ben Cole and Adrian Sandoval.

@!#?@!: Art, Design and Sound of Q*bert

September 8 - December 17, 2023
Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm 
Opening Night Party: September 8th 5:30-7:30pm
General Admission $8 (Ages 13+), Kids Admission $5 (Ages 5-12), Free Admission for Kids Under 5

Q*bert endures as one of the most inventive and endearing games from the early history of arcade video games. Created by designer Warren Davis, artist Jeff Lee, composer David Thiel and others for D. Gottlieb & Co. in 1982, the game stars the cute, stout-nosed Q*bert who must hop around a pyramid of cubes while dodging enemies.  Q*bert was notable for its distinctive protagonist, isometric cube playfield, and simple, clever action gameplay in contrast to the dominant shooter, racing and maze games of its time. Known primarily for being a pinball company, Gottlieb found a significant — yet singular — hit in the arcade coin-op field with Q*bert.  

 @!#?@!: Art, Design and Sound of Q*bert is an exhibition featuring the playable arcade game Q*bert, several console iterations of the game, the Parker Bros board game, concept design documents, photographs, and art by Warren Davis and Jeff Lee as well as an array of licensed Qbert ephemera. Additional highlights include a reel highlighting the legacy of the game in other media, and an informational video by David Thiel about Qbert’s Votrax speech synthesizer that generated Q*bert’s incoherent outbursts. The exhibition title takes its name from the original, unpronounceable title of Q*bert, immortalized in a speech bubble in the game and in cabinet art.  Curated by Ethan Johnson and Jonathan Kinkley. Loan courtesy of Logan Arcade.

50th Anniversary of the Magnavox Odyssey

August 7 - October 16, 2022
Public Hours: Sundays 1-5pm, $5, Kids under 12 are free

Chicago Gamespace is pleased to present a special exhibit on the grand occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercially available home video game console. The exhibit is comprised of an original Odyssey and its game components from the Gamespace collection, a brief video interview with Odyssey inventor Ralph H. Baer (1922 -2014) and gameplay documentation, and Baer’s 1966 patent design for a a device to play video games on televisions.

After his initial patent, Baer and colleagues at New Hampshire-based Defense Contractor Sanders Associates, developed a television-connected device that allowed for multiple players and games. This device was referred to as the “Brown Box” for its faux-wood grain appearance. Sanders then licensed the technology to Magnavox and Baer led the development of the Magnavox Odyssey console and it was released in 1972. Its basic components are familiar to many gamers today: central console unit, controllers, game cartridges and power and output cables. Several dozen games were created for the Odyssey including Table Tennis, a concept that was refined by Allan Alcorn into Pong for Atari. Since it was only capable of displaying three white squares and line, Odyssey games featured screen overlays that players would affix to their television sets to enhance their visual gameplay experiences.

Library

Sundays 1-5pm
$5, Free with student ID

Visitors to Chicago Gamespace may also browse a library of video game magazines and books during public hours. It includes concentrations of Nintendo Power, the Official Xbox Magazine, video game history and exhibition catalogues, and rare books. This library is largely comprised of the personal collections of three donors: jonCates, Jonathan Kinkley, and Devinn Winkleman. Acid free gloves are available onsite and required to use the library. Materials must stay onsite and may not be checked out at this time.

Sketch Journals of Jordan Mechner

June 4 - August 22, 2021
FREE Opening Reception: Friday, June 4th 5-8pm (No RSVP req’d)
Public Hours: Sundays 1-5pm (Tickets Required), $5, Kids under 12 are free

FREE Zoom Artist Talk with Jordan Mechner in partnership with Alliance Francaise de Chicago: Thursday August 19, 12pm (Register)

Jordan Mechner is among the most recognizable figures in video game history as the creator of Prince of Persia. In 2016, Mechner moved from the United States to France for a video game project and captured his impressions of the country in a series of largely monochromatic ink and paper drawings. These magnetic studies of quietly beautiful street life, cafés, airports, and live models offer a distinctly fresh view of a place that has been muse to so many throughout art history. This series was the focus of two books by Jordan Mechner: Year 1 in France and Year 2 in France, printed by Tomoe in Montpellier. In Mechner’s hands, travel sketching in Europe is not only a creative well, but a timeless beacon and antidote to contrast with the absorptive and caustic effects of modern digital life. His drawings encompass the signature qualities that have defined Mechner’s excellent works in other media -- pleasing aesthetics, captivating subjects, compelling stories, and parsimonious use of line and form.

American artist Jordan Mechner was born in 1964 and lives and works in Montpellier, France. Mechner is the auteur and creative visionary behind acclaimed and transformative video games in the 1980s and 1990s: Karateka (1984), Prince of Persia (1989), Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993), The Last Express (1997), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003).  Mechner's books include the 2013 New York Times best-selling, Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Templar, The Making of Karateka and Prince of Persia, the Year 1 in France and Year 2 in France sketchbook compilations, and the forthcoming English language adaptation of Persia’s trickster-warrior hero Samak the Ayyar. Film credits include Waiting for Dark (1992), Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story (2003), and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). He holds a degree from Yale University.  Website: jordanmechner.com