Chris Melissinos
Christopher Robert Melissinos | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Java developer, video game industry professional |
| Known for | Chief Evangelist and Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems; curator of The Art of Video Games exhibition; founder of PastPixels |
Christopher Robert Melissinos is a Java developer who held the positions of Sun Microsystems' Chief Evangelist and Chief Gaming Officer. During his tenure at Sun, he established the Game Technologies Group and played a key role in advancing open source Java gaming tools such as Project Darkstar, along with Java integrations for OpenGL, OpenAL, and Jinput.
In 2009, he served as host for JavaOne.
The Art of Video Games Exhibition
Debuting on March 16, 2012, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "The Art of Video Games" exhibition ran until September 30, 2012. It ranked among the museum’s most popular shows, drawing upwards of 23,000 attendees during its initial weekend and exceeding 680,000 visitors over its six-month duration.
The exhibition examined how art and mainstream culture have shaped video games, highlighting their societal significance across four decades. Melissinos curated the event and convened an advisory panel composed of industry professionals, developers, and journalists to shape its content.
An online public poll selected the final 80 games from a pool of 240 nominees, reflecting Melissinos’ "Three Voices of Video Games" concept. Conducted between February and April 2011, the vote attracted more than 3.7 million ballots from 119,000 participants spanning 175 countries.
Acknowledged as a premier art exhibition in 2012, The Art of Video Games subsequently toured various locations throughout the United States until 2016.
Industry Awards
On March 25, 2013, Chris Melissinos was honored with the Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. This accolade celebrates individuals who have contributed significantly to the gaming sector by promoting community engagement or championing video games as an artistic medium. The award was presented by Mark DeLoura, Senior Adviser for Digital Media at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Past Pixels
Founded in 2009 by Melissinos, PastPixels is an organization committed to preserving video games and associated artifacts for future generations. Leveraging his extensive collection efforts dating back to the 1970s and over fifteen years within the gaming industry, PastPixels undertakes preservation projects including the acclaimed "The Art of Video Games" exhibition hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
External links
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- Year of birth missing (living people)
- Living people
- George Mason University alumni
- Sun Microsystems people
- American people of Greek descent
- American people in the video game industry
- Greek people in the video game industry
- Game Developers Conference Ambassador Award recipients